S O U R C E S No.3 The Royal Commission on Historical Manuscripts

THE NATIONAL REGISTER OF ARCHIVES was set up in 1945 as part of the
Historical Manuscripts Commission. It acts as a central collecting
point for information, mainly unpublished, about the nature, contents
and availability of manuscript material of every type and date of
value for the study of history. Although limited in principle to
England and Wales, the Register includes much information about
records in Scotland and Northern Ireland. For these records,
however, enquiry should also be made to the separate National Register
of‘ Archives (Scotland), PO Box 36, BM General Register House,
Edinburgh EH1 SYY, or to the Public Record Office of Northern Ireland,
66, Balmoral Avenue, Belfast BT9 61\Y. The Register also contains a
certain amount of information about records relating to Britain that
are held in repositories overseas.

By the terms of the Commission's warrant, records designated as
Public Records, that is to say records-of the central government

and courts of law are specifically excluded from itsscope. All
other records fall within the field of its enquiries. The records
with which the Register is mainly concerned include papers of
individuals of note, families and estates,local authorities ,religious
institutions and bodies, business and industrial undertakings,
golitical and other organisations and associations.

The Register consists of a numbered series of reports with related
indexes. Since they are all subject to continuous expansion and
revision they are organised and intended for use by personal
consultation on the Commission's premises. A Search Room is open to
students Monday to Friday 9.30 a.m. — 5.00 p.m., except on accepted
public holidays. No written introduction or reader's ticket is
required. An appointment is normally unnecessary. Limited and
specific enquiries can be answered by post.

THE MANORIAL DOCUMENTS REGISTER has been maintained by the Commission
since 1958. The conduct of the manor's business produced two groups
of documents; the administrative, which includes surveys, rentals,
terriers, maps and plans, and accounts, and the judicial, arising
from the business of the manor court, such as court rolls, court

fcooks, formularies and lists of freemen and officials.

At present, this Register consists of 1) the original lists of
manorial documents supplied by lords, stewards or record repositories,
arranged alphabetically by manors within counties, and stating where
they are held, and 2) an alphabetical index of parishes showing the
manors within each parish. No actual manorial documents are held in
the custody of the Commission. The Manorial Documents Register is
open to inspection at the Commission's Offices from 9.30 a.m. -

5.00 p.m. Monday to Friday.

Separate leaflets on "The Commission's history and activities", its
"Publications", and "The National Register of Archives" are
available on request from:-

Royal Commission on Historical Manuscripts,
Quality House, Quality Court,
Chancery Lane, London, WC2A 1HP.

Telephone enquiries O1-214.2-1 198

Nearest Underground Station - Chancery Lane on the Central Line.


22

I N F O R M A T I O N

KENT COUNTY COUNCIL
Archives Office,

County Hall,

Maidstone, ME14 WXH
Tel: Maidstone 67411
Ext. 3363 and 3312

KENT EDUCATION COMMITTEE

County Library,
Springfield, Maidstone
Tel: Maidstone 671 M’!

DIVISIONAL LIBRARIES and
MAJOR BRANCH COLLECTIONS

ASHFORD
CANTERBURY

DAREFORD
DOVER

GILLINGHAM
GRAVESHAM

MAIDSTONE

MEDWAY

SEVENOAKS
SHEPWAY

SWALE

THANET

TONBRIDGE-
MALLING

TUNBRIDGE
WELLS

Ashford

Canterbury
Herne Bay

Dartford
Dover

Deal
Gillingham
Gravesend
Maidstone

Chathan
Rochester

Sevenoaks

Folkestone
Hythe

Sittingbourne

Faversham
Sheerness

Margate
Ramsgate

Tonbridge

Tunbridge
Wells

THE ROYAL COMMISSION ON
HISTORICAL MANUSCRIPTS

Quality House, Quality Court,
Chancery Lane,London WC2 1HP

Tel: O1-242-1198

S O U R C E S

CANTERBURY CATHEDRAL LIBRARY

AND ARCHIVES
Canterbury, CT’! 2EG
Tel: Canterbury 63510

HYTH ARCHIVES REPOSITORY
Council Offices,

Stade Street, Hythe

Tel: Hythe 66152

Visits by appointment

EASTGATE HOUSE MUSEUM
High Street,Rochester
Tel: Medway 44176

THE HOUSE OF LORDS RECORD OFFICE

House of Lords

Westminster, London, Sw1A OPW

Tel: o1—219—3o74 (Direct Line)
o1—219—3ooo (Switchboard)

LAMBETH PALACE LIBRARY
Lambeth Palace Road
London. SE1 7JU

Tel: O1-928-6222

THE MUNIMENT ROOM AND LIBRARY
Westminster Abbey
London, SW1P BPA
Tel: O1-222-4233

THE PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE
Chancery Lane, London WCZA 1LR
Tel:O1-405-0741

also at Kew, Richmond, Surrey

RECORD KEEPERS DEPTo PRINCIPAL
REGISTRY Of the FAMILY DIVISION
Somerset House
Strand, London, WC2R 1LP
Tel: O1—405—7641
Ext. 3559

THE BRITISH LIBRARY
DEPARTENT OF MANUSCRIPTS
Great Russell Street
Bloomsbury,London WC1B 3DG
Tel: O1-636-1544


21

TENTERDEN AND DISTRICT Local History Society - contdi.

29 Nov. '78 Local Industries L.R.A. Grove, B.A.
31 Jan. '79 Smugglers and Coastguards. Wowebb
28 Feb. Tenterden Miscellany. Mrs. C.H.Sykes

TONBRIDGE Historical Society. Adult Education Centre, Avebury Avenue
at 7.45 p.m. unless otherwise stated. Visitors welcome 40p-under 18 20p

5 Oct. '78 The North American Indian. C.Brookeman, B.A.
4 Nov. 3 p.m. - Two~Session meeting with tea.
Magna Carta, 1215: Kings, Barons and
Churchmen in the Middle Ages A.McLean, M.A.
7 Dec. After '68: confrontation and consensus
in Italian politics. M.Caesar, B.A.
18 Jan. '79 The History and Development of the J.R.Hare, M.V.O.,
Royal Parks. N=D»H=
22 Feb. The Stafford Dukes of Buckingham and
Lords of Tonbridge. P.F.J.Tobin, M.A.

WYE Historical Society. New Lecture Theatre, Wye College at 8 p.m.
Visitors welcome.
11 Oct. '78 The Origins and Early Development of

the Kentish Hop Industry. Dr. D. Baker
15 Nov. Hadrian's Wall. Rev. H.F.Wickings
6 Dec. Archives and the Archivist. Miss A.Oakley
10 Jan. '79 A.G.M.
7 Feb. Members Evening.
7 Mar. An Engineer's Thoughts on the Building
of the Roman Shore Forts. J.D.Latham
_______ __o-____---_

where history comes to life:
FLEUR DE LIS HERITAGE CENTRE

Preston Street, Faversham

* first Heritage Centre in the South
audio-visual, bygones, photographs old and new
housed in historic 16th-century inn

close to station, buses and car park

* open all the year 9.30 - 1 and 2 - 5

(not Thursday p.m. or Sunday)
* well-stocked Kentish bookshop
run voluntarily by the Favershan Society
* admission only 30p (Students and OAPs 15p)
*

any profits spent on conservation area

* over 400 other listed buildings in the town

* and a friendly shopping centre - pedestrianisedl

(A.Model of its kind‘ (British Tourist Authority)
‘Very good, very professional’ (Sunday Times)


THE PILCHERS AT TOWNSEND FARM.
A Nineteenth century farming family of south-east Kent.
A.L.Macfie

Townsend Farm lies at the end of the high street of St.Margaret's—
at—Cliffe, a small Kentish village situated on the downs mid-way
between Dover and Deal, about half a mile from the sea. There in the
late eighteenth and ninteenth centuries lived the Pilchers, yeoman
farmers, farming nearly five hundred acres of arable and pasture.
Their origins remain obscure; and they disappear almost as
surreptitiously as they came. Yet in their time they became one of
the most substantial and respected families in the neighbourhood.
Their surviving records, few and inadequate though they are, enable
us to catch a glimpse of their lives and to learn something of
farming in south—east Kent in their time.

The Pilchers first appear in the records of St. Margaret's in the
early eighteenth century. In 1722 a John Pilcher of St. Margaret's,
married Elizabeth Clement at St. George's, Canterbury; and in 1727

a William Pilcher, also of St. Margaret's, married Edith Chitty,
daughter of John Chitty, Blacksmith, who in 1715 puchased Palmer's
Court, one of the principal manors of the parish. They came no doubt
from one of the neighbouring parishes, where the name Pilcher often
appears: from Swingfield, perhaps, where a John Pilcher resided in
1700, or from Eastry, where a William Pilcher, yeoman, resided in
1705.

In or about 1780, another John Pilcher leased Townsend Farm already
one of the principal farms in the parish, from Elizabeth, daughter of
John Icken, town clerk of Canterbury, and wife of Daniel Newman,
barrister—at-law. He evidently prospered, for during the following
years he bought a number of small pieces of land, and in 1818
Townsend itself, together with Old Bottom, a neighbouring Farm of
about ninety acres. In 1795 he married Betsy Wood, daughter of
Kingsford Wood, yeoman of St. Margaret's, and sister of Thomas
Kingsford Wood, also of St. Margaret's, who later returned the
compliment by marrying his sister. They had eight children, three
sons, William, James and Jesse, and five daughters, Mary, Elizabeth,
Sarah-Anne, Maria and Jane.

Townsend Farm was then comprised of about three hundred and sixty
acres, made up for the most part of fragmented strips and parcels of
land lying to the east of the village in what must have been in
earlier times one of the great open fields. The farmhouse, a
traditional steep—roofed Georgian cottage, considerably modernised
and extended, no doubt by John Pilcher himself, stood, as it stands
today, at right angles to the High Street, at the junction with
Westcliffe Road. Attached to the house, at the street end, stood a
well house, containing a donkey wheel, 12' 8" in diameter, used to
raise water from a well. The farm buildings which were extensive,
included a bailiff's house, three cottages, a Dutch Barn, one of the
finest in Kent, and a granary.

On his death in 1826, John Pilcher left Townsend, together with Old
Bottom and his other properties to his sons, William and James, as
tenants in common, subject to payments chargeable on the estate of
£90 per annum to his wife, Betsy, for life, £80 to his third son,
Jesse and his children, if any, £12 to each of his five daughters,
and £300 each to be shared between their children on their deaths.
William and James however, finding this arrangement unsatisfactory,
in 1834 divided the estate and the annuities chargeable on it
equally between them, William taking Townsend and James Old Bottom.


EDITORIAL

For many years the Public Record Office in Chancery Lane has been
suffering from lack of space to store the millions of documents which
are deposited in its care. Indeed the first building was reputed to
be full very soon after it was built in the nineteenth century on the
site of the former Rolls Estate. Since then additional storage space
has had to be found in a number of buildings in London and elsewhere.

The new Public Record Office at Kew was designed specifically for
archives in order to provide a secure and controlled environment for
the records and a rapid service for readers. More than two thirds of
the records are now deposited in this new building which was opened
by the Lord Chancellor in 1977. A great many of the records used for
research by historians remain at Chancery Lane, for example the
Exchequer records and those of the Prerogative Court of Canterbury.

As a guide to the records which are now at Kew, the back page of this
issue has been devoted .0 the list published by the Public Record

Office. In the next issve it is hoped to list those records which can
still be seen at Chancerw

Visitors to Kew can reach the new building by train to Kew Gardens
Station by the District Line and also the Broad Street - Richmond Line.
From Waterloo on the Southern Region the nearest station is Kew Bridge.
The PRO Kew is quite near the river on the south side, between Ruskin
Avenue and the river tow—path. The nearest bus stops are the No.908

at Kew Gardens Station, or Nos. 27 and 65 at the junction of the Kew
Road and Mortlake Road.

Parochial Registers and Records Measures 1978. From January 1979 all
parish registers and records over 100 years old come under strict
regulations regarding their storage and preservation.» It is recommended
that.all such records should be deposited in Diocesan Record Offices,
which in Kent are likely to be the County Archive Office at Maidstone
and the Canterbury Diocesan Office. There will be periodic

inspections by the Bishop‘s nominee who will list the records with a
description and a report on the contents. There will be four copies

_of the list, to be held by the Bishop, the Diocesan Record Office,

the Incumbent or Priest—in—charge and the Parochial Church Council.

Should the Incumbent wish to retain the custody of the records of his
church that come within these measures, he may do so with the Bishop's
permission, but subject to regular inspection and strict rules. These
include a stipulation that the container in which such records are
kept must reach an- agreed standard and be reasonably safe from theft,
damp, rust and vermin. It should be kept in a well ventilated dry
environment with a reasonably unvariable temperature throughout the
twenty—four hour cycle. It is recommended that the container be
opened at least once a week and remain open enough time to air the
contents. No candles, grease, oil, wafers, wine, ink, or any article
made of cloth are to be kept in the same container.

This is a very important measure, to be welcomed by all who are aware
of the heritage value of these records.

_______ __Q_________


SOURCES No.7 THE PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE

In 23rd November 197? a new building was opened at Kew in Surrey, to
house many of the public records previously kept at Chancery Lane.

A list of these records appears on this page, but it is suggested that
for detailed information enquiries should be addressed to the P.R.O.,

Chancery Lane, London wcz 1LR (Tel:

ow-405-c741).

Records at Kew

Admiralty (mm)
Agriculture, Fisheries and Food,
Ministry of (MAF)

Air Ministry (AIR)

Aviation, Ministry of (AVIA)
British Railways Board (AN)
Cabinet Office (CAB)

Captured Enemy Documents (GFM)
Civil Service Commission(CSC)
Civil Service Department (BA)
Civil Service.Pay Research

Unit (CSPR)-

Colonial office (co)

Commonwealth Relations Office (DO)
Countryside Commission (COU)

Crown Agents for Oversea Govern-

-ments and Administration (CAOG)

Customs and Excise, Board of (GUST)
Defence, Ministry of (DEFE)
Development Commission (D)

Lord Chancellor‘s Office (LOO)
Meteorological Office (BJ)

Met. Police Force (MEPO)
Monuments, Anc. and Hist. in Wales

and Monmouthshire,Ry.Comm.on (MONW)
Monuments, Hist.(England), Ry.
Commission on (AE)

Munitions, Mine. of (MUN)

Nat. Assistance Board (AST)

Nat. Coal Board (COAL)

National Debt Office (NDO)

Nat. Incomes Commission (NICO)
Nat. Insurance Audit Dept. (NIA)
National Savings,Dept.for (NSC)
Nat. Service, Ministry of (NATS)
Ordnance Survey Dept. (os)
Overseas Development, Mine. of(OD)
Parliamentary Boundam'Comms. (AF)
Paymaster General's Office (PG)
Pens. and Nat. Ins., Mine of (PIN)

Education and Sciences, Dept. of(ED)Pensions Appeal Tribunal (BF)

Environment, Dept. of the (AT)
Exchequer and Audit Dept. (A0)
Export Crs. Guarantee Dept. (ECG)
Foreign office (F0)

Forestry Commission (F)

Forfeited Estates, Comm's of (FEC)
Friendly Socs. Registry of (F8)

‘General Register Office (RG)

ex. Census Returns, Non-Parochial
Regs. and Records
Govnt. Actuary's Dept. (ACT)
Health and Soc. Sec. Dept of (BN)
Health, Ministry of (MH)
Hist. Mans. Commission (HMC)
Home Office (HO) ex Census Returns
(H0 107)
Housing and L.Govnt.,Mins.of (HLG)
Information, Cent. Office of (INF)
Inland Rev. Office (IR) ex.Estate
Duty Registers IR 26 and 27
Irish Sailors’ and Soldiers’ Land
Trust (AP)
Iron and Steel Board (BE)
Labour, Ministry of (LAB)
Land Registry (LAR)
Lands Tribunal (LT)
Law Commission (BC)
local Govnt. Boundary Commission
for England (AX)
Location of Offices Bureau (AH)

Power, Ministry of (POWE)
Prime Minister's Office (PRE)
Prison Commission (PCOM)
Pub. Bldgs and Works, Min.of (WORK)
Public Record Office (PRO) except

certain PRO 30 Classes
Public Trustee Office (PT)
Pub. Works Loan Board (PWLB)
Reconstruction, Min. of (RECO)
Research Institutes (AY)
Royal Mint (MINT)
Scien. and Indust.Research (DSIR)
Stationery Office (STAT)
Supply, Mine. of (SUPP)
Tithe Redemption Comm. (TITH)
Trade Board of (BT)
Transport, Mine. of (MT)
Treasury (T)
Un. King. Atomic Energy Auth.(AB)
University Grants Committee (GC)
Wallace Collection (AR)
War Office (wo)
welsh Office (BD)

Abbr. Comm. = Commission
Mins. = Ministry
Crs. = Credits
Anc. = Ancient
Hist. = Historic

Mans. = Manuscripts
Un.King. = United Kingdom