to Celebrate the 30th Anniversary of the Emsworth Maritime & Historical Trust
I had never been to Emsworth when Arthur and I moved from London and bought the near-derelict mill at Westbourne in 1957. Childhood trips to the seaside had been limited to Portsmouth to see the ships (of course) and to Selsey for a swim and a crab tea.
Our idea was lo tum our Mill into a modem home and to preserve the meadows and lhe wildlife around the river and the pond. My involvement as a builder’s male and tea boy became more limited a year later when I had a new’ baby and a pram to push. We both needed our afternoon walk and we had two favourites.
The first was up Monk’s Hill and through Stansted woods to the Finchdean Road. Good for seeing deer and wildflowers but lacking human interest.
Our favourite was down through Westbourne Square, past the church and then we followed the brook to Lumley Mill and the Hermitage. A trot past the mill and through the Square brought us down to the Quay Mill, the harbour, and the millpond. Excitement mounted as we turned the corner and there they were – the ghostly remains of a beautiful oyster smack and the gross, bulky “Ark”. What a contrast; the first built for sea with the most beautiful lines. How I would have loved to sail on her. But, of course, her real value was that she was a working ship. Not a rich man’s toy, but workboat built for speed and safety with shallow beamy hull to earn’ her over the Chichester bar with her crew of eleven. The ugly bulk of the Ark puzzled me and I had to go to the library to find out more about this ungainly “ship”. But JD Foster was no fool; he built his ships well, and the Ark was never built for sea. but intended as an unloading platform and store. Eventually she was little used, even as a scallop store. Now she is gone, and that ingenious failure is only a memory.
The history of a small bustling town relying on the sea and hard work to provide a livelihood was all around us as we strolled with the pram in the late 1950s. It was there in the buildings, particularly the mills with their systems of sluices and ponds, and in the people themselves. I was impressed both by their friendliness and by the fact that there was a recognisable Emsworth face. As I came to know’ the fishermen I realised by their names and their physiognomy they were a clan. The shopkeepers, the boat builders, the rope and marquee makers came from a close-knit generation of men and women who created Emsworth.
Emsworth doesn’t have a separate entry in the Domesday Boor, unlike Havant, Warblington and Westbourne. Even in 1850 it had a population of only fifteen hundred souls, and the first church, St Peter’s, was built in the Square in 1789. As David Rudkin says in one of his invaluable books, “‘by the twentieth century you could buy anything in Emsworth from a 90-ton schooner to imported French cheese”. I can verify that tucked in my pram from almost every’ foray were freshly ground coffee from Pinks and sweet Emsworth cockles. Today people come from miles around for the summer food fair in the Square.
There was so much for me to learn about this gem of a town and so many wonderful buildings to record and preserve. However, my interest had to be put on a backburner as the discovery of Fishbourne Roman Palace and the task of turning the excavations there into a modem display and a centre for education took over my life completely. So, when David Rudkin came knocking on our door in the early 1970s both Arthur and I were “built to receive”. Echo had now disappeared, burnt like a witch on the mud in the sixties, but her sister ship, the so-called Echo2, was still there in the harbour. Could she be preserved? Well of course she could. The only problem was a lack not of technology but of MONEY. A group of enthusiasts came together, led by David Rudkin but supported by Jack Barren and Bill Majer among many others. Although their endeavours to preserve Echo 2 failed, Emsworth Maritime and Historical Trust was born from their enthusiasm.
This year we celebrate the 30th anniversary of its foundation and the early minutes are on display in the Museum above the Fire Station.
The Trust has provided almost everything that was lacking when I pushed a pram around the Mill Pond nearly 46 years ago. It is all there today. The hulks may be gone but their story and the history of the people who built Emsworth is there for all to enjoy and understand. There is so much more than a few storyboards in Emsworth Museum; there are fascinating objects that illustrate and enliven our understanding of the past. An enormous collection of reference books, early photographs, plans, and drawings is backed up by oral history tapes, and an ongoing job is to keep the photographic record of still and video images of Emsworth as it changes, up to date. One of the latest exhibits relates to the life of the great sailor, Sir Peter Blake, surely an inspiration for any young people who love the sea and adventure.
History is all around us, we are part of it, it is an essential part of us, and today’s rubbish is tomorrow’s history.
The most remarkable thing about the whole operation is that it is entirely voluntary. There is not a single member who receives a wage or a salary. Professional advice is readily available when required from the curator of Havant Museum and others, but the drive and enthusiasm of the pioneers who created Emsworth Maritime and Historical Trust 30 years ago is still there today and we can look to the future with confidence. Growing use by schools and other groups shows that we are on the right track. More space is desperately needed, but if you ever want to see a quart put into a pint pot without losing the cream then go to Emsworth Museum. I am immensely proud to be the current President of Emsworth Maritime and Historical Trust and I look forward to the next decade, confident that the past of Emsworth is in safe hands.
Margaret Rule
President of Emsworth Maritime and Historical Trust
On the occasion of the Trust ’s 25′h anniversary, J M as invited to say a few words about its founder, David Rudkin, from the personal perspective of a son. Now, for the 30th anniversary, the Editor has asked me to prepare an adapted text of what I said, with further slight adjustments to suit the present occasion.
The museum as we see it now is manifestly a flourishing enterprise, multifarious, ambitious and of significance in the local community; but it had its beginnings in something very rough and simple – way back in the mid-1970s the quest for somewhere to house a few pieces of wood. But these were no ordinary pieces of wood. They were all that it had been possible to save of a craft that never sailed, and had come to be known as Echo II, for she had been designed as a sister to the Echo herself, queen of the Emsworth oyster fleet. Where “queen” Echo’s fate was to be destroyed by fire in the early 1960s. the fate of her sister. Echo II had been, if anything, more pitiful. Launched around 1903. she was never completed beyond the rigging stage, and lay rotting away for some seventy years, tied up to the so-called ARK. the oyster storage tank, in the Emsworth fairway. Today, thirty years on, the Museum houses what few fragments of Echo II survive, and that it does so. by common consent is thanks mainly to my father – though he was helped by many individuals of good will. For instance, our Secretary remembers keeping for years a section of mast in her back garden. And I remember bits and pieces of the timbers around my father’s house in Westbourne. It is not for me to claim that my father was an inspirational man, but I may fairly describe him as a persistent man. It is reasonable to say that he nagged this Museum into existence. So, this is an appropriate occasion on which to write a few words about him.
As we stand already five years into the 21st century, it shocks me somewhat to reflect that it’s almost a century’ itself since my father was born. The records give his place and year of birth as Bosham. 1907. He came from a different world. And it’s a melancholy reflection too that in the nature of things there are now among us fewer and fewer who knew him. Did I know him? Do sons know their fathers? It’s a common human experience that we don’t come to know our parents until very late: often, we’ve left it too late. I was fortunate; though I do have to be honest and acknowledge that, when I was a younger man, mine was not a good relationship with my father. I felt a great difference between us, a distance. But, in his later years, I did begin to come to know’ him as a man.
You would expect him. as a non-Conformist Pastor, to be pastorally skilled – and he was good with people, equally genuine with people of high station and humble. And there was a jocular character to him; he had the clergyman’s line in appalling jokes – where in the Bible is the game of cricket played? Acts II xiv, where “Peter stood up with the eleven and was bold”. And I remember, when I was a very little boy. he drew for me what he said was a picture of the Children of Israel crossing the Red Sea. It was simply an empty rectangle on the paper, nothing in the frame at all. I said, “Where are the Children of Israel?’’ He said, “Oh, they’ve passed over.” “Where are the Egyptians?” “They’ve not come yet.” Where’s the Red Sea?” “That has parted.” But those were the more public man. Privately, in him I came to discern – it might surprise some of you to learn this of him – but privately I saw in him a man of rather melancholy temper. It’s not for nothing that the authors who spoke most to him, and to whose words he again and again returned, were Charles Dickens and Thomas Hardy – both of them writers with a dark vision of the world. When I came to visit him down here, and it was summer, if a day promised well, we’d set off early, westward down the M27 for Dorset and the Hardy country, to visit the landscapes of Tess of the d’Urbervilles, The Mayor of Casterbridge, Under the Greenwood Tree. And these were landscapes that, as a boy, I had learned from him. He knew that country well, and in my childhood, he would show me the settings of scenes from Hardy as though they had historically happened: here was where Angel Clare laid Tess in a stone coffin on their wedding night, here was the street where the citizens of
Casterbridge paraded in mockery an obscene effigy of their mayor……. I took from all this very early a sense of landscape as being – not a place where things happen but a force that shapes the things that happen, things of joy, of tragedy, of great human significance. I think this went towards the shaping of myself as a writer too. Yet. when I describe my father as melancholy, I do not mean that he was a depressive or gloomy man. I think rather of that melancholy that comes from a questing temper, a constant searching within. He was forever learning: his mind was always growing. This is remarkable when you consider where he began. For he began as a Revivalist Fundamentalist pastor, somewhat in the Ian Paisley tradition but without the rancour. All questions were to be simply answered with a quotation of Biblical text. “John three sixteen is my knowledge and the Bible is my college.” I’m s-a-v-e-d, I’m s-a- v-e-d, I know I am, I’m sure I am, I’m s-a-v-e-d.” And – no theatre, no cinema. To the end of his days, he called the cinema the “picture palace”, which made it sound quite Babylonish. These were abodes of Satan, absolutely forbidden. And this was the man that, as a child, I first knew for my father: an intolerant, it has to be said, repressive, narrowing force. And so, he remained – until he was almost forty.
Then, there occurred in him some crisis. I never discovered quite what it was or what occasioned it. In truth, I never quite dared ask. But I think it was that Hardyesque streak in him, a discontent with our mythologies, an insistence on seeing through them, to what experience itself has truly to teach us. It’s been my observation that most of us, by the time we’re twenty-five, have arrived at our decisions on religion and politics and morality; from then onward, we more or less remain that way. My father began at forty. And the first sign by which I knew that something was changing was when I saw him teaching himself New Testament Greek on a Regent’s Hall correspondence course. This must have been around my ninth or tenth birthday, because on one of those birthdays the present he gave me was to teach me the Greek alphabet. That may seem a strange, rather Victorian present to give one’s young son, but it was a good present, and it was to prove a fruitful one: when later I went to University at Oxford, it would be on a scholarship in Latin and Greek. So there again, he started something. In himself, meanwhile, this period of change in my father was to prove the beginning of a lifelong spiritual journey. Soon, it would take him into a more liberal and scholarly non-Conformist movement, then to a degree of Bachelor of Divinity, and – at its geographical extreme – to a three-year ministry at a Church of the Disciples of Christ near Fort Worth, Texas.
Thus, from the time of that crisis on, his intellectual inner landscapes began to broaden, and thereafter they never ceased to. As a theologian, for instance, so far from the simplistic proof-text merchant as which he had begun – though some articles of faith remained not negotiable – he came to adopt positions that, so far from being merely liberal, were quite controversial. In his view, for instance, on the historical origins of the Christian Church, he would certainly be numbered among the controversialists. And he came to change his view of the theatre too, and to see the drama as something that could – not always did – but could ask serious questions of existence. He came even to entertain seriously the cinema too. Which was as well for my relationship with him, for it was in theatre and cinema that my own career was beginning. He took my plays and film work as seriously as he would take any sermon. He once said, “David, lad, I always wanted you to be a preacher. And you are.” And out of the blue he might suddenly ask me about some line or other one of my characters says: he had been thinking about it: had I intended some hidden meaning? He was always on the lookout for the parable. He began to find enrichment in symphonic music too – particularly Mahler and Beethoven – and when he visited us in the Midlands, I always arranged to take him to a concert in the old Birmingham Town Hall, then later in the new Symphony Hall. I am happy, though sad, too, that the last music he heard with me in performance was a work he particularly valued, Beethoven’s mighty Ninth Symphony, with its inspirational choral finale the “Ode to Joy”.
After his first wife died, Cathy’s mother and mine, he retired. He had on his return from Texas, for some twenty years or so been a Free Church minister, then a schoolmaster in Birmingham, and on his retirement, he came back down here, to the landscape of his own beginnings. Here he was to enjoy some years of happiness with his second wife, until she too was tragically taken. But. if I say he retired, I can mean that only in a formal sense. In fact, for him a new career – careers indeed – began. First, there were his endeavours to save Echo II, of which, as I have said, only a few fragments were he able to preserve. But those few pieces of her timber began more than this Museum. He had first set out in professional life as a qualified carpenter. He became an accomplished model-maker, as you can see from his model of the original Echo in the main room of the Museum. And he was always a skilled draughtsman, and water-colourist too. But. in his seventies, he found himself mastering yet another skill, that of a writer. For, side by side with his efforts to save Echo II, he was researching and writing a book on other aspects of Old Emsworth that were then beginning to disappear, under new’ road-schemes and building developments. This book, The Hermitage, and the Slipper, published in 1974. was to prove the first of a sequence of seven such books that he would write, the “Emsworth Series”, on one or other aspect of local geography or history. The Hermitage and the Slipper would later fall for a long time out of print, and I decided, for the twenty-fifth anniversary of its original publication to re-edit it and arrange for its re-printing by St Richard’s Press. (Subsequently, I have done so.)
And, as though that were not enough occupation for him – the research, collection and collation of drawings, photographs, maps, and the anecdotal material for these seven books, the writing of them and seeing them through publication and into sale – to the very last his horizons were expanding. One of my more touching possessions is his Hebrew primer. In his last years, he began teaching himself the language of the Old Testament too. The page he had reached in it is bookmarked still with a leaf of exercise paper, on which he had been practising various forms of Hebrew script in the last days of his life.
There’s an old Latin quotation: Si monumentum requiris, circumspice. If you’re looking for the memorial, look around you. In Emsworth itself we see his visible legacy: the Museum, and in bookshop windows the sequence of his Emsworth Series, now an invaluable source for those researching into local social history. To end on a forward-looking note, I have with St Richard’s Press begun the process of preparing a second edition of the last of these still needing to be brought back into print – Emsworth: Echoes of the Past – which I intend to have ready and available in time for the opening of the Museum. Easter 2005. the Trust’s thirtieth anniversary year.
David Rudkin,
Warwickshire, November 2004
The founder David Rudkin’s voice can he heard on two tapes in the Museum ’s collection. One was made with his friend, Jack Barrett, a founder-member of the Museum, and broadcast on local radio. It describes a bitter winter in Emsworth. around 1918 to 1920. The other is the recording made of the formal opening of the Emsworth Museum on 29th July 1988. The books of the Emsworth Series are on sale at the Museum and other retail outlets in the town and surrounding villages.
Editor’s note on next article: This article by Bruce Doxat-Pratt is based on a history of the Trust which he wrote for the 25″ anniversary dinner in 2000, using original Committee minutes. He wishes to include it in this special edition of the Echo.
Sheila and Roy Morgan, Honorary Archivists, have compiled a continuing Pictorial Record of the Trust from 1974 Onwards. It is on display in the Museum.
On April 1st 1975, the inaugural meeting of the Emsworth Maritime Trust was held in the office of Admiral Gick (who was involved from the start) at the Emsworth Yacht Harbour. David Rudkin was elected Chairman and Arthur Rule elected Vice- Chairman. Others present were Monica Warrick (elected Secretary), Bill Majer (appointed Public Relations Officer). Michael Kennen and Paddy Keen (representing the Emsworth Ratepayers’ Association.
Now, some weeks earlier (on 21sl February) David Rudkin had held an informal meeting of some like-minded friends to discuss the formation of an Emsworth Maritime Trust with the objective of resurrecting the haulk which became known as ECHO II and, possibly, establishing a maritime museum on board. Captain Mackay and Mr Hanson (of the Chichester Harbour Conservancy) were asked to enquire into the legal ownership of ECHO 11. which was to have been a sister ship to the original ECHO (locally built and famous as the largest sailing-fishing vessel ever to sail out of an English port).
The ECHO was laid down in 1898 by J D Foster and launched into the Dolphin Cut in 1901 as a steam/sail ketch and was eventually destroyed by fire in the early 1960s. It is thought that ECHO II was on the ways in 1901 and maybe launched in 1903, but then towed out into the fairway, with no further fitting out. She lay alongside the oyster storage tank known as the ARK for the next seventy years or so, slowly degenerating.
As is well documented, the disastrous demise of the Emsworth oyster industry m 1902 was attributed to the death of the Dean of Winchester and the food-poisoning of sixty-seven of his guests at a banquet after eating Emsworth oysters. A revival of the industry was attempted in the 1920s, but the oyster fishing fleet was denuded by then.
What, then, inspired David Rudkin to try to resurrect ECHO II? He had a vision which could be traced to his early years when, as a young lad living in Thorney Road, he could see the ECHO from the bedroom window lying at her berth at Hendy’s Quay, and he fell for her beauty.
In his book, “ECHO, The Queen of the Emsworth Oyster Fleet”, he describes how “…in the summer of 1913 our kindly district nurse took my sister, brother and I to visit the immense shipbuilding and timber yards of J D Foster. …Later in life I climbed her “legs” many a time. …and nosed around her deck.”
The logo of the Trust is, of course, of the original ECHO. And David Rudkin’s model of her in the Museum shows her beautiful and unique lines, “giving her the elegance of a yacht”.
At the inaugural meeting it was agreed that:
- A Treasurer and Legal Adviser should be sought.
- A Fund-raising Sub-committee, under Mr Langley was formed.
- A Technical Sub-committee was established with Messrs Bowker, Macgregor. Graves, Denham, Plumb and George.
At the next meeting (on 5th May), attended by the Chairman. Vice-Chairman. Secretan7, Admiral Gick. Captain Mackay, Messrs Reger, Kennett, Franklin, George, Armstrong, Langley, and Warrick. John Saunders was introduced as Treasurer. John Glanville was to be invited to be the legal adviser. Mr Graves, (who had carried out a thorough survey of ECHO II) submitted plans for initial methods of preservation, and as a matter of urgency Captain Mackay agreed that the Conservancy would put up legs, using bound withies, round the haulk.
At the next meeting (on 2nd June) it was decided that the Trust meetings would be held monthly in Admiral Gick’s office, attended by the Chairman. Vice-Chairman. Secretary, Treasurer and at least one member from each Sub-committee. Importantly. John Glanville had agreed to act as the Trust’s legal adviser.
Ownership of ECHO II had not yet been established, and it was felt unlikely that anyone would claim this because of the cost involved.
Chichester Harbour Conservancy was asked to put up a notice prohibiting the mooring of yachts to ECHO II for scrubbing off. etc. It was decided that ECHO II should be moved, if possible.
Throughout that first year (1975). the Trust covered a lot of ground in their regular meetings, including:
- John Glanville confirmed that there was nothing unlawful in using ‘Trust” in the title. The Treasurer reported a balance in hand of £218.94 (by October) and opened an account with Lloyds Bank. At the end of the year, the bank balance was, however, only £43.80 since professional contractors were now being employed with a consequent drain on the funds.
- Various plans had been proposed and proceeded with concerning the support of ECHO 11. such as obtaining professional advice and help from local boatbuilders/ shipwrights, acquiring telegraph poles (preferably free!) from the Telephone Manager (Chichester) for props, wood (oak) for repairing foredeck beams, etc.
- Financial support was sought from various sources. A donation of £100 was received from the Harbour Conservancy.
- An insurance agent was sought. The importance of the need for insurance (particularly for personal injury risks) w-as paramount.
- A Financial Sub-committee was formed.
The Emsworth Maritime Trust was fully established by the end of the year, and a draft Trust Deed and Constitution were being prepared.
More importantly, the hull of ECHO II was being salvaged in situ, with expert help from all quarters. The objective of the Trust was beginning to take shape.
Work on shoring up ECHO II progressed through 1976, but by November the Chairman reported that the ARK appeared to be breaking up and two of the supporting poles for ECHO II had been dislodged. The ARK was now a potential danger. Fishermen who had been using ECHO II for years were now forbidden to do so and told to remove their tackle.
A great deal of effort was put into fund-raising and publicity. Terry Warrick agreed to organise a Maritime Exhibition at the Trentham Gallery in August 1977.
Following the A G M in 1977 there was an important Ordinary General Meeting at which the Harbour Manager cave 1978 as the deadline for ECHO II to be fully salvaged, even possibly moving to a permanent site ashore. Otherwise, the Conservancy would have to remove her and break her up.
A provisional figure of £5000 was needed to preserve ECHO II. Financially the cost was crippling., with the Trust taking over responsibility for all time.
At an Extraordinary General Meeting in December 1977. the Chairman detailed the events leading up to the final and reluctant decision by the Conservancy to proceed with the removal of the ARK and ECHO II. The meeting then considered whether another possible objective of the Trust could be to store and preserve maritime objects of local historical interest, with photographs, documents, etc. and to store these in a permanent area.
So, the Trust prepared to amend the Constitution in the light of recent events and aim to establish a local museum to display maritime artefacts. In the meantime, local short-term exhibitions would be held in a suitable venue (e.g., the Day Centre in South Street), and plans were made for the 1978 August Bank Holiday weekend. Posters and handbills were printed by David Rudkin, who had his own printing facilities in his garage! Press were alerted. Fund-raising and publicity were all-important.
Pieces of ECHO II (and NON PAREIL – another ketch from the Emsworth oyster fleet, built in 1894. whose remains were still evident in Emsworth in 1975) were stored in David’s and other members’ gardens and garages.
Arrangements to hold the first Trust dinner went ahead for February 1979.
At the fourth A G M in March 1979. the Chairman reported on the success of the first exhibition and the first dinner. He emphasised that the objective of the Trust was now the establishment of a Maritime Museum in Emsworth. Amendments to the Constitution were approved. John Glanville was to finalise a Trust Deed, and the Trustees, he. Captain Mackav and Bill Majer. all agreed to act.
Possible premises for a museum were investigated. A lot of this groundwork was done by Harold Groom, who was also interested in establishing a local museum to display artefacts gathered from various houses and properties to which, in his professional capacity as a Chartered Surveyor, he had access. Havant Borough had no suitable Council properties to offer at this time nor in the foreseeable future. Their only suggestion was that we might have a room as part of the Havant Museum. Membership of the Trust was now thirty-six.
The fifth A G M in 1960 was held in the Emsworth Sailing Club. The provision of a museum to exhibit the already accumulated artefacts was a prime objective.
It was agreed that the Trust should be registered as a Charity.
The three nominated Trustees were duly elected, and the Trust Deed was discussed, approved, and placed in Lloyds Bank for safe keeping.
The Treasurer reported a balance of £67.36 in the current account and £346.39 in the deposit account.
Throughout 1981. strenuous efforts were made to lobby Borough and County Councils and private individuals for a suitable space for a museum, but to no avail.
At the A G M in March 1982, it was decided to change the title to the Emsworth Maritime and Historical Trust, a proposal by Harold Groom which, after lengthy discussion, was carried unanimously. The draft Constitution would be amended accordingly, also the Trust Deed. It is important to remember that, in the words of the Minutes of the meeting, “in view of the commitment to establish a museum, the title ought to make clear that the activities are not only directed to matters of a maritime nature, but that provision ought to be made to cover matters of general historic interest and give a broader base for research and record”.
At this meeting, the Emsworth Town Centre Plan included a Maritime Museum, but there was no designation of premises. There was the possibility of the use of buildings at the rear of the Fire Station, and even the feasibility of space being available in the projected new Emsworth Library (1985 – 1986).
1982 was Maritime England Year, and several projects were suggested, including the acquisition and preservation of an old inshore fishing boat in Bedhampton.
Monica Warrick resigned as Secretary after six years and was succeeded by Stan Morgan, whose sudden death in September resulted in Dorothy Bone being elected Secretary (and she’s still going strong in 2005!).
By the A G M in April 1983, the location of the increasing number of artefacts and their insurance was becoming difficult, as items were in various homes and premises, including some smaller items in the bank vault. The search continued unabated for a suitable space for a museum.
Newsletters were now a regular quarterly feature. Publicity and fund-raising were on-going, including the occasional exhibition of some of the artefacts.
Between 1984 and the fulfilment of the dream of a Maritime and Historical Museum in Emsworth, with its grand opening by Lord Bessborough on 29th July 1988. there were many milestones on the historical road, and the following are some of the important ones.
During 1984. Roy Morgan was co-opted in the position of Archivist and, at the AGM in 1985, he and Sheila were elected as official Archivists to the Trust. Application was made to the Charin’ Commission for requirements to apply for charity status. In September, a presentation was made to Tim Stephens, the hundredth new’ member. A new Social Sub-committee was formed to deal with outings, talks, annual dinner, etc. A special meeting was held to discuss a draft Constitution. Our three Emsworth Councillors (Tessa Daines, Ernest Chadwick, and Dick Maycock) continued to lobby Havant Borough Council for the possible use of the room above the Fire Station as a Museum.
In 1985, the annual dinner celebrated the tenth anniversary of the Trust. Lord Bessborough was approached to become the first President of the Trust, and he accepted in December. The Constitution was still being amended and scrutinised by a newly formed Constitution Sub-committee led by David Rudkin, with John Saunders, Jack Barrett, and Dorothy Bone. Strahan Soames was preparing a special newsletter called the “Emsworth Echo”. An official request was sent to Havant Borough Council for the loan of the room above the Fire Station to be used as a Museum (the Trust having carried out a feasibility study earlier).
1986 February The Minutes of a meeting of the Havant Borough Council revealed that the lease of this room for a museum was likely to be approved. Chichester Harbour Conservancy offered a working party to help decorate and set up the Museum; they also donated £500 towards the expenses involved. We would in turn provide publicity for them in the Museum. The first edition of the Emsworth Echo was well received, and Strahan Soames was already preparing the second Echo. The Fund-raising Sub-committee was re-formed.
April – A meeting was convened with Havant Borough Council about leasing the room above the Fire Station to the Trust for use as a museum and the conditions involved, including a proposed rent of £50 per annum. The Emsworth Councillors (including Tessa Daines, now the mayor) were of course there. (I wonder if at that time Tessa had a premonition that one day, she would be the Administrator of the Museum!) Fund-raising now became a vital activity, and a Museum Fund Deposit Account was opened. Appeals were made through sponsorship of local firms, and by asking members to make covenants or donations to cover the first year’s expenses. Twenty-one members offered financial support and twelve volunteers agreed to staff the Museum. The Constitution, now completed, was passed to the Charity Commissioners for evaluation with an application form to obtain registered charity status. Once this was obtained, the Trust could apply for grants.
July – An important general meeting of the Trust was held, at which members voted by a majority of 54-3 to authorise the Committee to accept the offer by Havant Borough Council of the use of the Public Hall in North Street as a Maritime and Historical Museum, subject to satisfactory conditions of the lease and other relevant matters. The Chairman reponed that the Charity Commissioners had ratified the draft Constitution, which the members then accepted as the final version. Matters like availability of exhibit cases, sponsorship by local firms, cleaning, decorating, furnishing, and manning of the premises were all set in motion. This crescendo of activity’ continued through 1986/7.
August – Havant Borough Council was asked for a formal offer of the proposed premises and a draft lease. Contact was made by John Saunders with the Royal Marines Museum, Eastney, for display cabinets no longer required by them. Increased subscription rates for membership would be proposed at the next AGM, including a Life Membership rate. Earlier, a new appeal had been made to any member who was prepared to donate £100 towards the launch of the Museum. They would be nominated Museum Founder Members, and their names would be displayed on a scroll of honour in the Museum.
November – The Charity Commissioners accepted the Trust, with its revised Constitution, as a registered charity’. Applications would now be made for grants from various bodies. The Museum Management Sub-committee was re-formed. A fresh appeal was made for more Museum Founder Members, up until the actual date of opening. To this day the honours board is hung on the landing outside the Main Room. Their generous faith in the Museum becoming a reality7 enabled the Trust to continue preparations for the opening.
1987 – A massive drive for new membership was carried out by sending 1000 letters, followed shortly by another 4000 to addresses in the local area. This huge task was master minded by Kenneth Mason with the help of his team and the facilities of his printing firm. It resulted in two hundred and twenty-three new members joining the Trust, making a total membership of three hundred and eighty-three by September. Some were willing to help with cleaning, decorating and other jobs essential to opening the Museum; act as stewards: help with fund-raising and clerical work; and some offered artefacts for display, as gifts or loans. At the AGM in March, the Chairman announced that “The Trust will in the coming year be able to claim with pride the distinction of founding the Emsworth Museum”.
June – The Museum Management Sub-committee finalised the job description for a Museum Administrator and Mrs Johnnie Rutherford accepted the position.
By December Tessa Daines had been appointed by Havant Borough Council to be their nominated representative on both the Trust General Committee and the Museum Management Sub-committee.
The Treasurer reponed that the Museum Fund Account now stood at £7345 as a result of intensive appeals and fund-raising activities. A donation of £1000 had been received from IBM. who also offered surplus display cabinets, office furniture and even to design and produce an information brochure. Lord Bessborough agreed to accept the cheque from IBM at a special presentation in the Museum. Generous donations were received from other local businesses.
Through 1987 a tremendous amount of work was carried out on the premises by a small team of volunteers to prepare for the opening in 1988. Publicity through the media was stepped up. including articles from the Emsworth Echo in the Portsmouth Evening News. A three-year lease was confirmed and signed by the Trustees and Havant Borough Council, to take effect from 1st October 1987.
1988 – At the AGM in March plans for the grand opening of the Museum in July were announced. Preparatory work was still to be done. A security system and telephone had been installed, and the Hampshire Fire Service had advised on fire protection. Insurance cover for the contents of the premises, public liability, etc. was arranged and a rate rebate negotiated. Directional signs to the Museum and advertising material (including an admission charge of 20p) were all activated. Later, having already become a member of AMSSEE (Area Museum Services for South East England) we applied for membership of the Association of Independent Museums (AIM). The Fund-raising Sub-committee held a very successful auction, making a clear profit of £1161.
At last, the Emsworth Muse um became a reality and was ceremonially opened by Lord Bessborough on 29th July 1988.
From here on, the history of the Trust is really bound up with the history and growth of the Museum, and that will require another special Echo (perhaps in 2008. in celebration of the first twenty years of the Museum!).
After just one year, the Museum was the outright winner of the 1989 Hampshire Village Ventures Competition for the best voluntary effort in any Hampshire village. #
Since then, the Museum has grown in importance and stature, not only in the local community, but it has become well-known nationally and internationally as an authority on and repository of significant memorabilia of one of Emsworth’s most famous residents, P G Wodehouse. So, the fulfilment of David Rudkin’s vision resulted in our local award-winning Museum, which is a constant memorial to him.
I make no apology for dwelling at some length and in some detail on the first few’ years of the Trust, because it is so worth remembering the dedication and single- mindedness of David Rudkin and his supporters through the difficulties and setbacks that they overcame to establish a maritime and historical museum – initially on Echo II but then perforce ashore. I had the fortunate experience of working closely with David as a member of his Fund-raising Sub-committee (which he continued to chair after he retired as Trust Chairman) and, after I look over as Chairman, he continued to serve on this Sub-committee – an exceptional man.
Bruce Doxat-Pratt Trustee
I first became involved with Emsworth Maritime and Historical Trust in August 1982 when the second exhibition was being planned in the South Street Centre. On the Quay one day my husband John was discussing the arrangements with Michael Kennen, who said that they were looking for someone to produce labels for the exhibits – this was of course well before we all used word processors and computers. John said that I would help and so I duly wrote by hand many of the descriptions of the artefacts. Some visitors to the exhibition might remember that I caused a little amusement because I incorrectly referred to an item as coming from Fowey Island – my knowledge of Emsworth was not very good at that time. John loved Emsworth Harbour and anyone who came to sail (whether he or she came from Emsworth or from farther afield) was directed by him up the road to see the exhibition.
A few days after the exhibition ended the Secretary of the Trust (Stan Morgan) died suddenly. I was asked if I could take on the job and eventually accepted. I became the third Secretary (Prior to Stan Morgan’s term of less than a year Monica Warrick carried out the job for six years) and I have been doing it ever since.
The volume and variation of tasks have changed enormously over the years; there were only fort}7-five members in 1982 and the Honorary Secretary was Minute Secretary, Membership Secretary and also organised social events and talks, and dealt with some of the correspondence. It was much easier to run events with just a few members to cater for. We were able to organise such things as a waterbus trip around the harbour with a commentary by David Rudkin, followed by a cheese and wine party at Michael and Christine Kennett’s home, also a guided walk ending with a buffet and wine at Strahan and Ann Soames’ home.
Membership numbers slowly but steadily increased, and David Rudkin and Michael Kennett continued to investigate the possibility of finding premises in Emsworth that would be suitable to house a museum. Artefacts were frequently offered by residents and their families and were stored in the homes of Committee Members so that the need for premises became more and more pressing. For many years we had a six-foot length of the mast believed to be from Echo I in our garden. The timber had been so well preserved in the mud near the Yacht Harbour that when Noel Pycroft used his power cutting equipment to remove a section the wood looked as if the tree had only just been felled. The mast consisted of an inverted pine tree, branches removed, with four oak segments wrapped around to give the mast its flexibility.
David Rudkin’s dream of a Museum for Emsworth gradually moved nearer to becoming a reality, but first funds were required. Lord Bessborough, our President at the time, approached the heads of several large businesses and many fund-raising events were organised – including a street collection and a public auction.
At this time, it was also decided that a push should be made to recruit more Members, and Kenneth Mason (a local publisher) and his staff wrote to as many local residential addresses as they were able to. This increased the Membership numbers greatly and I decided that I needed help with the many tasks required to maintain a large Membership list, send out subscription renewals and arrange for the printing and delivery of the quarterly newsletters as well as all the other tasks. Fortunately, John Pledge kindly took over this aspect of the job and made the work much easier, at least for a while.
Over the years the Trust has endeavoured to be a part of village life, and in 1991 I helped Michael Kennet! to purchase and pack parcels of sweets that we sent to six local men who were serving in the Gulf War. Prompted by word of this action other local people began to offer items and eventually more than forty parcels were sent out to the war zone. A report in The News at the time said that one of the soldiers commented, “the sweets were a warm and touching treat” and “it was nice to know we are not forgotten”.
These are just a few’ memories, mainly of my first ten years as Secretary.
Now there is more and more paperwork: Museum Registration and Charity Commission forms: questionnaires from Tourist Information Offices. Universities, etc. requiring statistics: Museum Association updates. Also, the Trust website attracts people looking for family history’, and requests for information are received from all parts of the British Isles as well as from overseas.
Dorothy Bone
Trust Secretary
As a born and bred Emsworthian I have always been interested in the village and its people, attending its schools and churches, and joining the local groups and organisations. In the days when the Trust was taking shape 1 had the honour of serving Emsworth as a local borough councillor and later in the historic position of Mayor.
One day in the 1980s 1 visited an exhibition, staged in South Street by the Trust, and judged the enthusiasm of the Trust officers and members worthy of support. I knew from previous contacts that their main aim was to find a permanent home to set up a museum to house the artefacts in the exhibition.
Around this time several important events had taken place. St James Church School had moved to new premises in Bellevue Lane and their former building in Church Path was now run by the Community Association. The Borough Council was also undertaking a survey into the use and finances of all its halls and public buildings.
During my examination of these papers. it became apparent that the few users of the North Street building could be transferred to the nearby community building to the benefit of all parties. The vacated building might then be offered lo the Trust, a historic building to house history. Following many meetings and with the helpful support of my two fellow councillors a lease was agreed, and the Emsworth Museum came into being.
1 have continued my association with the Trust as a committee member and for the last thirteen years as the Administrator where my local knowledge of Emsworth has proved very useful. My initial feeling that a museum would be good for Emsworth was more than justified when the total number of visitors entering through the Blue Door since it first opened exceeded thirty thousand in 2004. Long may they continue to come!
Tessa Daines
Museum Administrator
In the period 1970 – 1990 Chichester underwent much re-development, mainly inside the old walls. Because of the special historical importance of the city even’ cleared site had to be investigated archaeologically. Local volunteers worked on this every weekend. In a place like Chichester there are many layers of history, right back to the Roman period and earlier, so it was necessary to carry out documentary research to establish who and what occupied each layer on the way down. The archaeological finds are pottery, coins, building materials and bones; the documents allocate names, trades, and buildings.
Chichester has a wealth of property sources. Much of the City had been owned from the 13th century by the Dean and Chapter of the Cathedral, the Vicars’ Choral of the same, St Mary’s Hospital and the City Council. Records and boundary shapes remained sequentially through to recent times. Fortunately, these records are conveniently deposited and stored in West Sussex Record Office in Chichester. There are also private deeds, tax records and maps to study in the same Office.
In 1980, with retirement looming, we decided to research Emsworth in the same way. At about the same time the Maritime and Historical Trust was gestating. Were they considering a hist or)7 of land and buildings? If so. we would be duplicating work. It turned out they were not. So, it was mutually agreed in March 1984 that we would proceed with our proposed research as Trust Archivists and that all documents and photographs offered to the Trust would be available to us for research.
We soon found Emsworth sources to be vastly different. Chichester property had been mainly leasehold with continuous records for seven hundred years. Emsworth had not existed in similar form for anything like as long, nor had there been much archaeological work. Much of the land had been agricultural and owned by the Manors of Warblington and Emsworth. Our main sources then have been manorial court books and rentals, tax records (e.g., Hearth Tax), censuses 1841-1901, local authority minutes, the 1838 Tithe Map and Schedule, Ordnance Survey maps, and, where possible, individual property deeds. Large institutions – the banks, breweries, Co-op. some churches, the Hospital and Havant Council were helpful. The Record Offices – Hampshire at Winchester, Portsmouth City and West Sussex at Chichester – had much material. Otherwise, it is the generosity of individuals we depend on for our information. Residents of Queen, Tower and King Streets have been very helpful; the traders of High Street not so much. Individuals have helped in introductions – Dr Barnard, George and Emily Cassedy, Pam Clayton, John Glanville, Barry Mapley, Tim Stephens, Strahan Soames, Mr and Mrs Vaughan and John Vickers. Stephen Holloway, who is descended from a very influential 18lh/19lh century family, has been very generous in sharing with us his family research.
The earlier and separate research of Ken Lambert, David Rudkin, John Reger and Tony Yoward are invaluable in our work.
So, what have we got so far? We can focus on a complete record of every owner, occupier, and site usage in 1838. We can link this to the 1841 census. A tax record of 1820 sometimes ties in. There are 19th and 20th century Trade and other Directories which give some names and occupations. Parish Registers provide information on baptisms, marriages, and burials. Ordnance Survey maps for 1866, 1898 and 1932 reveal the development of the community. However, before 1820 it is very thin.
Many deeds do not go back before this date. The Manor Court records are difficult to pin down as to location – streets had no names or numbers and everyone knew (then) where everyone lived. The Hearth Tax record (c. 1680) in Chichester was in walking order of streets; in Emsworth it is not. i.e., just a list of names and number of hearths.
Results thus vary. We have a card index which ideally will cover every property- one day and doubtless will eventually be put on computer. For King. Queen, Tower and West and South Streets we are fairly complete. For High Street and The Square, we have quite a good build-up based on Trade Directories and censuses, but not deeds. North Street is quite different. Development was patchy and it was mainly farming before the railway and St James’s Church came. Havant, Bath. New Brighton and Horndean Roads consisted mainly of a few isolated houses in the 19lh century’.
We intend to have a series of maps with overlays to show’ the development over various periods. We still have to concentrate on various plots of land and industrial and commercial sites.
What is the material used for?
We already provide much of the written material for display in the Museum, e.g., fishing family trees, maritime families in South Street, Wodehouse name locations and maps of important historical sites in Emsworth, location of post offices, brickmakers, church and health sites and Brook Meadow’ history.
We help with queries received by our ever-busy Secretary’; we respond when members ask for information on their houses and family histories. We also help with queries from people outside Emsworth.
Also, we have used the material to provide four Emsworth Papers for sale in the Museum: P G Wodehouse, Inns and Alehouses. Religion and The Square. We hope to add to these in the future.
So, the purpose of the research is to bring material on people, sites, and trades together so that it can concentrate attention on the subject in question.
Sheila and Roy Morgan Honorary Archivists
In the (mainly!) enjoyable task of collating this special edition of the Echo, I have had the great pleasure of talking personally to several people, important to the Trust, who have not yet had the chance to speak through its pages.
The first to talk to me was John Glanville. our eminent legal adviser and Senior Trustee. He was approached by David Rudkin (whom he remembers stomping up and down the River Ems in Wellington boots), because he was so well-known in many areas of Emsworth life. He was always in the background and. luckily for the Trust, often in the foreground of its affairs.
Next came John Saunders, Treasurer from 1974 to 1989, a long and eventful period. As a local Bank Manager, introduced to the Trust by Bill Majer, he immediately became immersed in its development. He reports that Committee meetings, many held in David Rudkin’s house in the early days, were serious work, and jokes were not encouraged! Many hours were spent in refining the Constitution, which was so good that the Charity Commission made only one minor amendment.
He remembers that when the decision was taken to make the opening of a museum the final objective, the Head of Hampshire Museum Service was persuaded to attend a committee meeting. He was both condescending and discouraging, implying that Havant Museum could adequately look after any Emsworth artefacts. John reports that when this man left the meeting, “you could have heard a pin drop”. His undoubted antagonism to a Museum in Emsworth made the Committee all the more determined. That was long ago: the two Museums are now on very good terms!
Monica Warrick. Secretary for six years until 1982. says she was thrown in at the deep end by her husband, Terry. He came home from the first meeting on 1SI April 1975 having promised the Committee his wife as Secretary She remembers some agonising moments, losing 50/50 tickets in the depths of David Rudkin’s settee, and attempting to record long and convoluted discussions, which was sometimes “like walking through treacle backwards”. She has retained her affection for the Trust through many years, including the time when she and Angela Macmorland cleaned the Museum in the early days.
Harold Groom, Chartered Surveyor and Land Agent, was very modest in conversation about his background influence in the early days of the Trust. He was a strong and vocal advocate in the founding of the Museum; from previous experience he had been saddened by the loss to posterity of the treasures of several East Anglian Estates when they were broken up. and this shaped his philosophy and concern about similar losses in Emsworth. He proposed that the objectives of the Echo Trust be changed and that a Museum Committee be formed. He drew up the original Draft Constitution and advised David Rudkin on the elements of founding a museum.
Two people 1 would have loved to talk to w ere two previous Chairmen of the Trust, Michael Kennett, and Strahan Soames. Sadly, they have both died. Michael was a devoted and determined figure in the early days of the Trust, and a leading light with David Rudkin in achieving the high goals they set themselves.
Strahan, Michael and many others produced the Emsworth Town Trail which has guided many a traveller seeking local knowledge. Strahan’s devotion and commitment to Emsworth and its Museum was outstanding, and one of his many legacies was the founding and editing of the Echo.
Bruce Doxat-Pratt wrote a fine obituary about him in the Newsletter of February 2001. He reminds us of Strahan’s comment about Emsworth in the Hampshire Magazine: “…. here I can be happy. Wherever I have lived or gone, the dream of the place has persisted; and the swans still glide in tentatively over the mudflats and still land in pairs, clumsily.”
Pam Clayton Editor
It would seem that, as children are our future, they should appear first on our list of priorities. It is important that we maintain good contact by exchanging visits with local schools so that children continue to look at and learn some of the history of Emsworth. and understand how the community’ has developed.
With the increasing growth of technology, we should continue to absorb some of the more pertinent developments into our organisation for recording exhibits and try to embrace modern methods of displaying information, having first determined the feasibility’ thereof.
Seeking publicity for the Trust will always be an important task and the need for close liaison with the media will be ongoing. Advertising on the World Wide Web will continue, as responsibility for updating information on the Trust website transfers from Alan Beer. Eddie Lewis’s godson, to a local resident. The former is to be thanked for his valuable contribution to the work of the Trust.
The promotion of sales, which has been excellent over the past few years, is under new management and new items, for example golf balls, are appearing already on the sales table. These have a particular emphasis on advertising the museum, even when lost, which doubtless they will be.
As a new season of talks and exhibitions gets under way, planning is already taking place for next year. The General Committee may wish to examine the possibility’ of exhibition hire in the future and likewise the hire of a speaker once in a while.
The Recorders continue to expand their fascinating libraries of audio and video tapes and are exploring new methods of recording.
Group Outings have become an important feature in the life of the Trust, and one would wish to see these events continue to provide enjoyment for all members.
Now for Recruitment. We have a thriving museum, with an imaginative and industrious Administrator, an incomparable Secretary, two outstanding Archivists, and three hard-working committees. We have an excellent team of stewards who regularly and gladly give of their best throughout the open season. Add these stalwarts to the list of contributors assuming responsibility’ for the various tasks mentioned above and you have a strong group of likeminded people, who know what they want to do and get on and do it. The future of the Trust looks bright for tomorrow, but we must always remain aware of the need for new’ recruits for the day after tomorrow’. Our Membership Secretary. First Class awaits your call.
May I lake this opportunity to say thank you to all “Shaker” Members of the Trust. Your subscriptions are an important contribution to our running costs and Museum improvements and make the Treasurer’s job worthwhile. If you feel like becoming a “Mover**, however, and contributing some of your time to the Trust, you can be sure of a warm welcome. Just give Dorothy Bone a ring. To the “Movers*’ 1 say. “Well done, and thank you for your tireless efforts, and of course your subscriptions too’*.
Finally, a big thank you to those who have been and are currently involved in the production of posters, the Echo, and the Newsletters, of whom there are many. This is no mean task, compiling, editing, typing, proof reading, packaging, designing, and delivering. Well done all!
Gerry Williams
Chairman
This special edition of the Emsworth Echo has been edited by Pam Clayton, 49 Maisemore Gardens, Emsworth, PO10 7JX. She is grateful to Angela Macmorland, Sheila and Roy Morgan and Alison Galbraith for their editorial advice, and to Janna Cundall for the cover illustrations.
The Echo has been set by Angela Macmorland.
The Secretary of the Trust is Dorothy Bone, 24 Hollybank Lane, Emsworth PO 10 7 UE. (Telephone 01243 373780)
The Membership Secretary is Bruce Vail, 1 Horndean Road, Emsworth PO 10 7PT. (Telephone 01243 3 75361)
All items in this Echo are copyright to EM&HT on behalf of the contributors.
