Blogs, scholarship and learning something new everyday

It was my old friend Joe Callaghan who on one of our senior citizen away day adventures told me that he likes to learn something new each day.
It is an idea I like, although sadly it has never stretched to working out the correct cycles on the washing machine. But on this I travel in hope.

And I was reminded of this when I revisited the blog site, Friends of Chorlton Meadows, http://friendsofchorltonmeadows.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/History Over the last few weeks David Bishop has been writing about our own 19th century botanists. Now I had been drawn to them when he introduced me to Richard Buxton who has appeared in the blog, http://chorltonhistory.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/Richard%20Buxton Buxton was one of those remarkable working class people who despite living in poverty and being self taught went on to compile a comprehensive book on the botany of the countryside around Manchester. Nor was he alone and David’s posts are a good introduction to these men who tramped the fields and lanes of south Manchester 180 years ago.

In turn this led me to reflect on how local historians make a real contribution to our knowledge of the past. By and large we are not professionals and do not make a living from the trade. For most of us it is an interest, but as fellow local historian Ian Meadowcroft often remarks what we turn up can be the bedrock of scholarship.

All of which takes me back not only to my book which tells the story of mid 19th century rural Chorlton but to the work of people like David and the botanists. Both of us have been beavering away at discovering and passing on knowledge of the past much of which has been either forgotten or neglected.

And dear reader it leads me on to tell you about the minutes of the Poor Law and Ratepayers meetings which were held regularly in the old school house on the green during the 19th century. I came across the minute book which covers the years 1838 through to the late 50s a few years back.

Here were descriptions of discussions on the rate to set for the year, of nominations and elections for the various official posts in the township as well as some of the scandals that rocked our village in the mid century. Along the way there were the familiar names of farmers and others who made the system of local government work.

It is a wonderful insight into how a rural community ran its affairs and as such tells us so much about our people and their lives. But I have to also confess that setting that aside there was the sheer excitement of holding the book After all I suppose apart from Edward Smith who wrote the minutes I was one of perhaps just a handful of people to sit and touch and turn those pages. Pretty neat I reckon.

And that is what most of us try to do. We crawl over the forgotten bits bring them out for a breath of fresh air and post them for others to see and in the process learn something new, add to the scholarship and pass it on by blog or web site.

Pictures;from the Lloyd collection, and Courtesy of Manchester Libraries, Information and Archives, Manchester City Council