Other objects of the month

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Two long-case clocks made by one family in Amersham

The grandmother clock on the right was made by James Rogers of Amersham, born around 1729.  This 30 hour clock was probably made in Amersham around 1760 -1770 when many clocks still only had an hour hand.  The case is made of oak and the dial of brass that has been silvered.

The clock was a very generous gift in 2010 from the family of Andrew Macdonald, who used to run an antique shop in Whielden Street.  The Friends of the Museum kindly paid for its restoration.

Joseph Rogers, born 1760, probably the son of James, is believed to be the maker of the grandfather clock. A more advanced design about 30 years later, it has a minute hand. The painted dial was probably mass-produced by Wilson of Birmingham and then signed by our local clockmaker. The case is much taller and grander and has a “pagoda” style top.

Joseph’s older sister Ann is buried in St Mary’s churchyard under an unusual cast-iron tombstone.

The clock was purchased in 2009 by the Friends of the Museum. Both clocks have been skilfully restored  by Geoff Mansfield.

This is another example of a clock made by James Rogers which is privately owned.  It has a very ornate and elegant face with both a second hand and a date.  (Photograph by kind permission of the owner, John Nash)

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Amersham Martyrs “lightbox”

This multi-plane painting on glass was created by the artist Simon Dray.  It shows the death of one of the Amersham Martyrs in the 1500s.   The Amersham Martyrs were Lollards. Lollards believed that people should be allowed to read the Bible in English instead of Latin. They denounced the wealth of the Church and wanted freedom to worship in their own way. Lollards were tried as heretics in the religious courts. Seven people were found guilty in Amersham over 10 years and were burnt at the stake.

In the light box you can see some buildings that are still standing in Amersham. In the middle you can see Church House or School House, which was the home of the Fraternity of St. Katherine during the early 1500s. It later became the first site of Dr. Challoner’s Grammar School. There are a number of wall paintings in this building, the largest shows Hercules. Some doodles from the 1600s have also been found on the wall of the attic. The building has now been divided into several shops and restaurants.

This year is the 500th anniversary of the death of the first Amersham Martyr. To commemorate this the Amersham Martyrs Community Play took place at the end of March. To find out more about the play or the story of the Amersham Martyrs click here.

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What’s in a map?

 

Quite a lot in reality; apart from odd place names and obscure signs there can be a great deal of history and almost a life story of the person, always a man in those times, who surveyed, engraved or published that map.

In Amersham Museum there is a large framed map, of which only the title and a small part is shown here. It was created by W. Faden, Geogr. to His Majesty and to H.R.H. the Prince of Wales 1800. William Faden (1750 – 1836) took over the business of Thomas Jefferys in the late C18th, himself a noted engraver and map publisher, a man known for developing “hachuring”, a system of fine shading that indicated relief qualitatively not quantitatively. If you scan quickly over Faden’s map you can easily see the assorted lumps and bumps that indicate the hills all over this north western sector of the London region, most of them are part of our Chiltern Hills. Our map is only the north western sector of the whole map. The other three quarters cover the rest of the London region. According to the title in the cartouche in the corner the purpose of the map was to show, in orange, “The extent of the PENNY POST”. The years have faded the orange but from Greenford in the south to Totteridge and Southgate there is a faint dot dash line which shows that Penny Post only extended about eight miles from Westminster.

The cartouche also gives the scale “One inch to one mile” which will no doubt bring back memories for many people as it was the standard scale from the early C19th until the 1960s for all the popular Ordnance Survey maps. This is important information as William Faden engraved and published the first OS county map for Kent at that scale. Kent was chosen as the first map because the government thought that the French might invade at any moment. Faden was chosen because he had demonstrated with his 300 or more published maps and atlases that he was a highly skilled engraver. Not only did he use the picturesque hachuring but he could engrave names of places, geographical features and people in a vast variety of fonts and sizes. Locally we can find W. Drake Esq. of Shardeloes, Lord G.H. Cavendish at Latimer and Skottowe Esq. for Lowndes all in minute but clear letters. From there there are named heaths, rivers, canals, estates and towns all labelled in their distinctive clear and sharp fonts. But remember that there was no typesetting then. W. Faden Esq. was an engraver and each letter and feature was cut into a soft sheet of copper by a hand held scribing tool called a burin. This is certainly very skilled work but also remember the amazing complication that everything was engraved as a mirror image ready for the ink to be pressed into the grooves and then transferred to paper to make a map like this. Look at the map again and we realise why William Faden was and is regarded as one of the great craftsmen in the history of map making.

The Penny Post map is also an intriguing social document recording the beginning of the huge expansion of London. Those towns and villages that we use or pass through almost daily were then deep in the countryside:  Hampstead isolated on its hilltop, Edgware and Stanmore no more than villages on or near to the Great North Road, Watford a small town along both sides of a main road but no more than that.

This map is certainly worth more than a second look!  Click to return to the index at the top

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Have you heard of Amersham Toys and Hugmee bears?

As far back as 1908, a German toymaker, Joseph Eisenmann started a new branch to make toys at Bellingdon Road, Chesham, initially making dolls but later adding a range of Teddies to their range.   The factory was inherited in 1919 on Joseph’s death by his son-in-law, Leon Rees, who then moved the factory to Waterside in Chesham, going into partnership with Harry Stone.  It was here in 1923 that they started making the very popular Hugmee bears, which remained in production until 1967.

After a break in toy-making during the war, the Chesham factory moved from Waterside to the Amersham works on Moor Road in Chesham.  At the time our pastry set was produced, the factory was staffed almost entirely by single young ladies.

In our display we also have a doll’s house, one of the many wooden items they produced, such as doll’s house furniture, blackboards and easels, and a range of sports goods.   At one time the factory employed 120 people and despatched some 600 tennis rackets each week.     They also produced a range of wheeled toys, such as dolls’ pushchairs, pedal cars, wheelbarrows and stuffed animals on wheels.

It was, however, for the ‘Hugmee’ bears that the company was most famous.   When a new factory was opened in Tottenham, a ‘Silky Teddy’ was brought out, and then a ‘Chubby’ bear complete with voice box, and a fawn plush ‘Cubby’ bear.  Later the design of bears evolved, with longer shaved muzzles, and a variety of coloured fur – blue and pink.   Later bears were provided with a growling noise, or squeakers or bellows-style music boxes.   We should love to meet any Hugmee bears in your possession!

In the British Industries Fair in 1947, the company was listed as manufacturers of  ”Chiltern” Toys, “Hugmee” Teddy Bears and Plush Animals. “Panurge Pets” and animals on Wheels, Sheepskin Toys and Cuddly Dolls and in 1960, the company featured in Good Housekeeping.

When Leon Rees died in 1963 the factory was taken over by another group, which in 1967 became a subsidiary of Chad Valley.

It is interesting to note that there were several toymakers long before this, including Chesham Wooden Toy Works and the Happy Day Toy Company in Severalls Avenue (off the Berkhamsted Road) .

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A local hero

 

This Sulphur Crested Cockatoo was a local hero.  In December 1935, the Crown Hotel was nearly destroyed in a dangerous fire.  The bird squawked loudly and alerted the staff and guests to the danger so that they were all able to escape.  The only casualties were two cats, including the Persian cat which was the cockatoo’s companion.  When the cockatoo died in the following year, said to be at an age of 118 years, a local taxidermist preserved him and for many years he was on display in the Crown Hotel bar.

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Henry Tenter – Tudor cloth merchant

 

The small figure of Henry Tenter sits in the room at the top of the stairs, next to some examples of Tudor clothing for children to try on. He was designed as a welcoming personality for children to learn about Tudor clothing and to make friends with. One small girl took him into the garden and had her photo taken and another, in a friendly gesture, tried to feed Henry grapes.

Henry’s name comes from “Tenter hooks” an important part of a cloth merchant’s trade. Tenter hooks were hooks mounted on vertical poles and as the washed and possibly dyed cloth was drying it was stretched onto the hooks to prevent the cloth from shrinking; hence the saying for a stressful situation “being on tenterhooks”. The field on the hill behind the cemetery on the north side of Amersham Old Town is called “tenter field “in old documents. Maps of Elizabethan London show many such tenter fields, one large one is now the site of Liverpool Street station.

Henry Tenter’s clothes were researched using three main books: The Tudor Tailor by N. Mikaila and J. Malcolm-Davies, Elizabeth’s London by Liza Picard and In search of Shakespeare by M. Wood. The main problem was that most pictures and comments dealt with court dress and not the clothing of “common people”. The climate of the time was cooler than the present day so many layers were worn and, of course, fashion played a large part in any design, if you could afford it. Henry’s linen shirt and ruff are made from an old linen tablecloth. His velvet doublet and breeches are some upholstery material. His woollen hose are knitted wool and to be fashionable needed to be tight fitting to show off the shape of his legs. A very prosperous man would have worn silk hose to display his legs better. The scrip or purse at his waist was made from a pair of kid gloves and his dark brown hair was originally the cuffs of a winter coat. His felt hat is possibly too down market for his status and it will be changed for a worsted cap, possibly with a feather in it as a further sign of his prosperity.

The Tudors had a variety of signs in their clothing styles to show wealth and rank. If your shirt had a collar and cuffs attached permanently you were definitely a worker; upper class people wore detachable ones.  The sleeves of your doublet were tacked on after you were dressed as the fitting tended to be very tight and so difficult to put on.

Do go and introduce yourself to Henry and then try on the Tudor style clothes in the corner box. All these were developed for Amersham’s famous “Martyrs Play”, this year commemorating the 500th anniversary of the burning of Henry Tylesworth for reading the Bible in English – a terrible death for his devotion to his beliefs.

Henry Tenter was made by Shirley Sherlock, Volunteer Steward at the Museum

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The Little House at the end of the garden

 

It was a dark, cold and windy night in the late 1800s. In front of a fire on the hearth in the old Tudor Hall House, which later became 49 High Street in Amersham, sat the family. An old, bushy eye-browed man was telling tales of ghosts, mysterious noises and evil landowners to his grandchildren as the storm whistled through the cracks around the doors and windows. As he finished there was silence from the children until the smallest whispered: “I need to go to the little house and I’m scared.”

Did the story happen? Maybe not, but a similar scene must have happened in most houses along the High Street, certainly in Victorian times and into the 20th century and definitely back to Tudor times at least. Amazingly in the late 16th century a flushing toilet had been invented but there was no sewerage system to link it to. So what is the story of the privy at the end of the garden of number 49?

When No. 49 became the home of Amersham Museum, some 25 years ago, the brick and tiled privy at the end of the garden was in a very poor state. The seat was worm-ridden and the rest of the space was dirty and full of rubbish. The privy was cleared out and the rotten wood was burned and for the next few years it was used as a garden shed, as was its semi-detached neighbour at the end of the garden of No.51. When it was discussed by the Museum team it was generally assumed to be a two holer with the second hole, smaller and lower, presumably for a child. Privies with more than one hole were not uncommon. Six-holers are known and the Roman legions on Hadrian’s Wall had multiple seated facilities.

After many years of neglect a privy resuscitation plan was devised. The building was cleared and it was established that it must have been a single hole provision – there was not enough room for anyone else. Another idea was also corrected. It had been assumed that the privy emptied into the River Misbourne which flows immediately behind the back wall but this wall shows no sign of any vent. There is no irregularity in the brick work and, as most Amersham people know, the river is not reliable. Sometimes the bed is dry for months at a time so it would be useless as a disposal system. Walking along the river behind the High Street houses, many have bridges and the remains of similar privies. There must have been a system of “Night soil men” who crossed the river and emptied the buckets under each hole at regular intervals. This manure, mixed with wood ash by the householders, was passed onto farmers and large scale gardeners as fertiliser, a system still used in rural parts of Asia. Some house-holders would have composted the waste for use in their own gardens.

Once the privy building was clear and an old photo was found (see Buckinghamshire Privies by M Andrew, 1998) reconstruction was started in the winter 2009-2010. Suitable old timber planks and red floor tiles were found in a reclamation centre near Stokenchurch. A skilled carpenter and his mate rebuilt the seating and a bucket was installed plus another bucket with ash and a shovel for covering the waste. An old style rag rug, based on a genuine potato sack, was pegged and placed on the floor. And on a nail in the wall a torn up copy of a pre-war Daily Telegraph was hung on a piece of string. Across the doorway an information board provides a brief history of privies and a huge selection of euphemisms for what we call the privy – some are rude, some scatological and some distinctly political. And for the formal opening the well known historian, Lady Lucinda Lambton cut the ribbon to reveal the new and varnished seat, the rug, the scouring powder and scrubbing brush and essential fly paper hanging from the roof.

Do come and see a Victorian privy in all its glory. You will not have to walk the 50 metre length of the garden in all weathers – we do have a fully functional modern provision.

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London Transport Underground Station sign

This takes pride of place on the wall next to the Transport display. This sign was discovered, as can be seen from the following picture, hanging on the interior wall of a barn in Wiltshire.

The story of how the sign came to be there goes back to 1990 when London Regional Transport, and its operating companies, reverted to the original name of London Transport. At that time the well-established roundel was redesigned with some relatively small modifications and used as a unifying symbol throughout the company. With the new signage in place the old signs were sold to a dealer who used a facility in Wiltshire to store the half acre of pallets containing the old signage. Some of the more desirable and iconic signs were subsequently sold at auction but at a time of recession, and with no online auction sites, a large quantity were left.

In 1992 the signs were about to be scrapped when a farmer acquired some of them to decorate the inside walls of his newly erected barn, and there they hung for many years until one of our volunteers visited the farm and spotted the AMERSHAM sign high up on the wall. The owners of the barn readily agreed to a request for it to be permanently displayed at the Museum.

This sign differs from the current Amersham station sign only in the size of letters on the cross member of the roundel. The typeface was designed by Edward Johnston in 1913 at the request of Frank Pick of the Underground Electric Railways Company of London. The font family was originally called Underground but later became known as Johnston. This typeface is an important part of the instantly recognisable and much loved symbol for public transport in London.

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Two Windsor chairs

In the Museum we have two Windsor chairs bought in memory of Jean Archer, who was Amersham’s first Lady Mayor. She lived in the town all her life, gave very amusing talks about local history and wrote many books about the history of the town and about local people. She was also responsible for re-starting the Town Band and helped to found both the Amersham Society and the Museum.

Both chairs have arms which we thought would be helpful for those visiting the museum who may need to sit down sometimes – one is upstairs in the second room and one downstairs near the hearth.

This one was donated by Amersham Town Council and is a high hoop and spindle back chair made locally of elm and beech in the mid 19th century.

Another chair was bought with donations made at Jean Archer’s funeral by individuals and local organisations with which she was associated.  It is of a North East Midlands design, also mid 19th century.  It is made of beech, ash and elm and has been bleached.  It has a low hoop and spindle back and ring-turned legs, united by a “crinoline stretcher”.

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Amersham Bus Garage model

 

Amersham Museum is proud to have added to the display a scale model of the Amersham Bus Garage, in particular because it was made by a local man, Mark Adlington.   (If you have been to the London Transport museum, you will have seen the magnificent model of the London Transport Headquarters at 55 Broadway, also made by Mark.) 

Older residents will remember the garage which stood at the foot of Gore Hill, part of which remains as B & M. Motors today.  However, in its heyday the garage was an extensive building, with space for 54 buses and extensive offices and staff facilities at one side.   Much effort went into preserving it (and it is believed that Prince Charles was keen to see it remain) but when the new Tesco site was planned, the bus garage made way for the petrol station.

The Amersham & District Omnibus and Carriage Company was formed in 1919, running two buses between Chesham and High Wycombe from the yard of the Griffin Hotel.   After expansion into other local routes, a garage was built on the Broadway in old Amersham and in the 1930s the company was taken over by London Transport.

This model has been recently acquired by Amersham Museum from the London Transport Museum, to whom it was left by relatives of the late Mark Adlington.  Mark had an amazing talent for creating exact replicas without using any form of measuring to scale. His patience and ability to construct the smallest of detail were quite remarkable.  For a time he worked as a bus conductor and then driver at Amersham Garage, and later bought his own bus, a red RF, which he used to run for Open Days and to transport disabled people on days out. He was interested in London Transport buses and trains from an early age and by the time of his death had a large collection of memorabilia.  He is remembered by family and friends as a true gentleman, who took delight in the perfection in the models he made for others to enjoy.

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