While the blitz decimated the commercial heartland of the Southampton book trades in 1940, subsequent urban renewal erased the traces of many of our fine bookmen and women. In particular, the homes of many of our bookworkers, collectors, and readers have vanished. Take The Chine on Northland Road, for instance, lovingly documented by descendant John Hurrell Crook. Fred and Mary Brown opened the grounds and main floor of their substantial house to WW1 troops training on the Common. Calling it ‘Soldiers’ Rest,’ rank and file military personnel could come in for tea and coffee, indulge in various recreations, have their photograph taken and turned into a postcard, write letters, and borrow books from the library: all marks of social and cultural normality in a world upended by politics and war. All that remains of these readers in the Southampton City Archives is a single notebook leaf recording several books and borrowers. A haunting glimpse of soldiers who may never have made it home. ‘Hailstede’ was the Archer’s Road home of Henry March Gilbert before he moved to Winchester in 1896 to continue his bookselling trade. As historian Roger Ottewill notes, “In addition to Henry and Mary, the household consisted of four daughters, a governess, two apprentice booksellers who were designated ‘boarders’ and a general domestic servant. Clearly, they were relatively well off.” Enumerated in the 1911 census, the house drops off the map thereafter and no photographic evidence survives. Tantalisingly, ‘Hailstede’ evokes the name of the place Gilbert was born in 1846: Halstead in Essex. 34 Winn Road is well known to Titanic aficionados, being the site of Captain Edward John Smith’s home, ‘Woodhead,’ sadly hit in one of the WWII German bombing raids and eventually demolished to make way for a block of undistinguished flats. Despite Woodhead’s genteel Edwardian comforts, few know what was contained in Smith’s personal library, nor indeed, whether there was a catalogue of books in the first and second class libraries on board his final ship. Intriguingly though, in the Cawte and Cox bookbinding ledgers there are a number of entries for one Capt Smith dating from 1909 to 1910. With repeat orders, this client was reputable enough to warrant credit (CR) being noted beside his name.
The titles are exclusively reference works ranging from the History of England to London Past and Present, and from Engineering Wonders of the World to the Childrens’ New Encyclopedia. All the orders are at the pricey end of the bookbinding spectrum: cased (leather); half purple calf neat cloth sides; 1/2 morocco cloth sides (brown) gilt roll up side. Did Smith train up his officers and reward them with books as prizes? Or did his philanthropy extend to local schools and other charitable institutions where knowledge was the passport to success and civic responsibility? Like our mysterious Capt Kent, did he also have a morocco-bound Holy Bible that provided comfort in his last hours? References John Hurrell Crook, ‘THANK YOU MRS BROWN! The ‘Soldiers’ Rest’ in Southampton during the Great War. 1914-1918. The ‘Chine Helpers’ in War and Peace,’ Southampton Local History Forum Journal, no 18, Autumn 2011, p33-67. Roger Ottewill, ‘Henry March Gilbert 1846-1931: ‘Staunch Liberal and Nonconformist,’ Journal of the Southampton Local History Forum, No. 22 (Spring 2014), 11-18. https://southamptonlocalhistorycentre.files.wordpress.com/2014/11/lhf-journal-22-spring-2014.pdf https://www.dailyecho.co.uk/heritage/titanic/trail/locations/9462821.Winn_Road__Southampton/
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorSydney Shep, Reader in Book History & The Printer, Wai-te-ata Press, Victoria University of Wellington, NZ ArchivesCategories |