French tourists welcome

Did you enjoy this year’s Paris Olympics? A recently catalogued item has a connection to both France and the Games in the shape of a charming advertising brochure for Skindle's Hotel, Maidenhead Bridge, [actually just over the river in Taplow, Buckinghamshire] (D/EX2993). You can find out more about this in our September 2024 highlight.

Cars to holidays

We are delighted to announce the arrival of a fascinating collection of records and ephemera from the local firm Gowrings, 1915-2002 (D/EX2739). The business was established in 1922 when two engineer brothers took over an existing garage called Skurrays in Reading. Their father, a Wiltshire clergyman, had been an early car enthusiast and a customer of Skurrays as early as 1915, and he became chairman of his sons’ new business.

After the Gowrings took it over it became an exclusive Ford dealership. Customers included iconic local business such as H & G Simonds , Huntley & Palmer, and Suttons’ Seeds, and they even received the seal of royal approval with royal warrants from first King George VI, and then Queen Elizabeth II. They dealt in both new and used vehicles, and provided servicing and accessories across various sites in Reading and beyond. In 1963 they started manufacturing specialised mobility vehicles. They expanded not only within Berkshire but across the south of England, and had an overseas subsidiary in the Netherlands.

The firm also diversified into other commercial areas such as the manufacture of mobile TV recording equipment and outside broadcast vans, and the provision of motor insurance. In the 1970s they also moved into leisure with the purchase of a country house hotel in Wales and caravan sites - one by the River Thames in Windsor. In the 1980s, they took over a number of Burger King franchises. By 1994, these areas had become more lucrative than the motor industry, and the dealerships were sold off, although vehicle repair centers remained part of the group. The records include a characterful selection of advertisements for various products over the years.

Coats of arms: fake or real?

An attractive and unusual item is the application of Charles Bexley Vansittart to assume the armorial bearings of the Vansittart family of Shottesbrooke, from which he claimed descent, in the late 19th century (D/EX473). He claimed to be the son of the Revd Charles Vansittart and his wife Frances Rosalie, but in fact no child of this name is recorded in the divorce suit brought by Mrs Vansittart in 1856. One of their children was Cyril Bexley Vansittart (1851-1887), who spent his adult life in Rome; but there is no evidence that he or any of his other attested siblings ever used the name Charles Bexley Vansittart, so is it possible that this was a fraudulent application?

We have received papers relating to Louise Cecilia Bazalgette Lucas Lucas (later Stratton) and her research into the history of the Lucas families of Wokingham and elsewhere, 1886-2022 (D/EX2925). Louise compiled a wonderful album of coats of arms of various Lucas families in the 1880s, and hoped to find a link to the family which founded Lucas Hospital in Wokingham, the Master of which she married in 1892, but was unable to do so.

We have also acquired the grant of arms to Sir William Thomas Cox (1881-1937), a retired Lieutenant Colonel and property developer who had recently been knighted, in its original presentation box (D/EX2612). The three red cockerels were presumably a pun on his name. 

Hid in a nutshell: farmers and their money

We have purchased important farming accounts and memoranda of the Mallam family of Harwell, 1758-1844 (D/EZ209). At present these are too fragile to be handled, but they contain a wealth of information on local weather conditions.

Papers of the King family of Hurst, 1799-1931 (D/EX1897) include a fascinating draft of letters from Oliver King relating to an attempt to secure the release from the Navy of one Charles Round of Reading, c.1814-1815. Mr King struggled financially due to poor harvests, and wrote, ‘I believe Hurst farmers' money will be like our Philosophy more easily hid in a nut shel [sic]’ – i.e. very small indeed!

A small collection relates to the Bone family who farmed at Remenham, 1940-1975 (D/EX2602). This includes a letter from a neighbour in the 1950s referring to a caravan site on their land, and describing the holidaymakers as ‘very charming people who have studied the beauty and peacefulness of the countryside and added a little to the social life of the village’. We have also acquired valuations of live and dead farming stock, etc, at Hall Place Farm, Tilehurst, 1923-1924 (D/EX2953).

You can find out more about these records by searching our online catalogue. Simply enter the collection references given above in the Catalogue Reference field.