Students at work and play

The University of Reading keeps its own archives at the Museum of English Rural Life, so we were delighted to get a rare glimpse into life there in the form of some wonderfully evocative photographs of life at St Patrick’s Hall, a men’s hall of residence at the university, 1977-1979 (D/EX2798). The pictures show student bedrooms, political activities, dining (not to mention an amusing shot of students looking dolefully at a notice banning all future celebrations after a particularly rowdy session), and fun outdoors in both the summer sun and the winter snow. Not many show the young men actually studying, but we are sure they did in the odd spare moment. 

A mine owner at Maiden Erlegh loses his money

The RBA has purchased a collection of papers of the Hargreaves family, relating principally to Maiden Erlegh mansion and estate in the 19th century (D/EZ221). John Hargreaves, a mine owner from Lancashire, had rented the house from 1864, and in 1879 he purchased the estate and enlarged it. After his death in 1896, the estate was put up for sale, but the mansion itself was not sold until 1903, when it was purchased by Solomon Joel, who had been its tenant since 1900. A few items relate to Hargreaves’ mining interests, including a case for opinion of legal counsel relating to The Old Wheal Neptune Mining Company, in which a certain Josiah Harris had 'induced Mr J Hargreaves to take shares'.  

It appears that Hargreaves had attended an inspection of a lead mine in Derbyshire belonging to a company in which he held shares. The Company Secretary had invited Mr Harris, who had represented himself as a mining engineer with 'great experience in Lead Mining' to attend the inspection, after which he presented the prospectus of The Old Wheal Neptune Mining Company, which held rights to a mine in Cornwall. Hargreaves subsequently applied for shares in this exciting investment opportunity, only to find that Harris and his nominees were on the Board of Directors despite not owning any shares, he had appointed a man described by Hargreaves as a ‘creature of Mr Harris's' as the Company Secretary 'and made him irremovable', the leases of the mine were in Harris's name personally (and some had not been secured at all), and that subleases had been granted by him to the company (using shareholders' money) at an inflated rate. The company was now, unsurprisingly likely to be wound up, and the investment lost. No wonder Hargreaves wanted legal advice! Apparently straying into this collection are also draft leases of the papermill on the River Loddon, Arborfield, 1856-1861. 

Brickmaking and bubbles: the Muriel Clark collection

The last of the Reading Borough Deposited Collections has now been catalogued, and it is the large miscellaneous collection gathered by Muriel Clark, née Maplesden (R/D203). She was a librarian at Reading Central Library before her marriage in 1956, and some of the papers appear to have strayed from the official Reading Borough archives and other collections. Others are deeds and drafts prepared by her Caversham solicitor husband.  

Some of the highlights are papers relating to the enclosure of Whitley in the 1820s; the printed case of appellants in a case concerning an allegedly fraudulent (or 'bubble') company selling shares in the gold and silver mines of Jamaica, 1746/7; a plan of the old Blue Coat School premises at the corner of London Road and Silver Street, as proposed to be converted into a boys' school for the parish of Reading St Giles, c.1890s-1907; the deeds of Coley Hill Kiln, described as 3 acres of land used for digging sand, chalk and clay, and brickmaking, with two brick kilns, a cottage, sheds and other buildings, 1861-1875; minutes of the Watlington House General or Executive Committee, 1929; illustrated souvenir programme for the opening of Caversham Public Library, 1907; and a plan showing the locations of domestic air raid shelters in Church Street and Prospect Street, Caversham in 1941.  

Charities

We have completed cataloguing of the records of the Waltham St Lawrence Charities, 1559-2009 (D/QX7), some of which were previously catalogued as D/QX40. These charities have been administered together with a joint body of trustees since 1864, although remaining separate. They comprise the Newberry & Bell Charity for the poor, founded by Ralph Newberry in 1608, and including the Bell Inn as part of the endowment, Richard How's Charity, founded in 1652 for education and apprenticeship, and Elizabeth Knight's Charity for poor widows, founded in 1681. A medical charity and Dispensary were added in 1889-90 by gifts from Lord Braybrooke and W Lansdowne Beale. In 1981 the charities were reorganised as the Foot, Knight & Newberry Relief In Need Charity; the Wandesford & How Educational Charity; and the Beale and Braybrooke Relief in Sickness Charity. The earliest records are deeds for properties forming endowments of the charities. There has also been an addition to the records of Harwell Parochial Charities, 1894-2019 (D/QX41). 

You can find out more about all these records by searching the RBA online catalogue. Enter the collection reference given above in the Catalogue Reference field.