Search FNL grants since 1931

This autograph letter with envelope from the composer Gustav Holst (1874-1934) is addressed to Mrs Bell, wife of the Bishop of Chichester. The Museum did not previously not have any letters associated with Bishop Bell, who was a great friend of Gustav Holst. Holst was eventually buried at Chichester Cathedral, which makes this connection even more significant. George Kennedy Allen Bell (1883-1958) was an Anglican theologian, Dean of Canterbury (1925-29), Bishop of Chichester, member of the House of Lords and a pioneer of the Ecumenical Movement. As Dean of Canterbury, he initiated the Canterbury Festival of the Arts, with guest artists such as John Masefield, Gustav Holst, Dorothy L. Sayers and T. S. Eliot.

In 1886, the artist Norman Garstin (1847-1926) and his wife Louisa joined the blossoming artistic community in Newlyn and Penzance and it became home for them and their three children. All of the family were exceptionally gifted and excelled in their chosen spheres.The Garstin archive includes draft manuscripts, photographs, business papers and letters from fellow artists and writers. However, the core of the collection consists of over one thousand letters written by the Garstin family to each other during the course of their lives: love letters shared by Norman and Louisa, letters between parents and children during childhood, and letters exchanged among the family as adults. The correspondence is affectionate, often humorous, and includes poems and sketches. All of the family excelled in writing engaging and descriptive accounts of the people and places they encountered, creating fascinating vignettes.

This archive relating to George Walker of Killingbeck is a good fit with one of the jewels in our archival crown, the famous set of 39 original watercolours by Walker which were published as The Costume of Yorkshire in 1814 (YAS MS1000). These were among a large bequest to the society by Sir Thomas Brooke, president from 1866 until his death in 1908.

The collection is now in safe keeping at the Brotherton Library Special Collections, University of Leeds, forming part of the YAHS collection and listed under YAS/MD489. The list can be seen online at https://library.leeds.ac.uk/special-collections. We are immensely grateful to FNL for their support, enabling the society to bid for all four lots and to keep the collection intact.

Formally known as Letters Patent, those signed by the monarch - Royal Letters Patent - are uncommon and this one also has the Great Seal attached to it, reinforcing its importance and legitimacy at a time of upheaval. It is essential in the story of the civil war in the city and county, and is especially meaningful for Worcester, which sees itself as ‘the faithful city’, loyal to the king in the conflict. It is in the characteristic legal hand of the period, written by or under the supervision of Sir Richard Willys, the king’s secretary, but the official signature of the king himself is visible at the top of the document.

The Commission appointed Edward, Lord Dudley, Thomas, Lord Coventry, and Sir Thomas Littelton with 23 others, including Henry Townsend whose writings are an essential source for the civil war in Worcester. The commission of array was an obsolete summons to arms to serve the king, deployed in the middle ages but fallen into disuse until Charles I revived it in 1642.

This map depicts the manor of Trotton and Cumbers Farm, owned by Laurence [Lawrence] Alcock, lord of the manor of Trotton. It records a wealth of information including the names of the individual fields which made up the manor and farm, their acreage, and the names of the surrounding landowners. The borders are beautifully decorated with vines, thistles and other plants, and the body of the map shows houses, other buildings and woodland. The title is enclosed in an elaborate cartouche and the map features a finely drawn thirty-two point compass.

Estate maps are valuable sources for researchers seeking to trace changing boundaries, land usage and land ownership over time, predating similar sources such as tithe and enclosure maps and awards. This survey is particularly useful when taken in conjunction with complementary material at West Sussex Record Office, which includes a court roll for the manor of Trotton, 11 Sep 1617-10 Jan 1625, and draft minutes and working papers in connection with the court baron of Trotton in the Delme Radcliffe papers, 1572-1778.

The records are a crucial part of Warwick's economic and industrial heritage and a testament to the entrepreneurial and engineering expertise of the local area. The company played a ground-breaking role in British motor design and sporting success. The archive's unique research value though is in the building of a brand and high quality marque synonymous with British style. The elegance of the design of Healey cars as well as the company's contributions to motor-racing and speed record breaking attempts are key parts of the collection's appeal. The high status of the collection and strong local connections will bring new audiences to heritage and there will be opportunities to use the collection for income generation activities, which will help improve the sustainability of Warwickshire County Record Office.

The archive includes drawings; business, legal, research and development correspondence and files; photographs; sales and promotional material; and press cuttings.

The Marchmont Manuscript of the key Scottish legal text Regiam Majestatem is written in Lowland Scots. The manuscript is signed and dated 18 October 1548 by the scribe Robert Ewyn, presented to the poet Alexander Hume by his maternal uncle, Alexander Hume of Manderston, in 1582, and bears the heraldic bookplate of Patrick Hume, first Earl of Marchmont, Lord High Chancellor of Scotland, 1702.

A small but significant collection of letters between Shetland antiquary Edwyn Seymour Reid Tait (1885-1960) and Horace Alexander Duncan, always called Barry Duncan (1909-1985), a native of Lerwick who had eventually become an artist and antiquarian bookseller in London.

This important archive of Heston Aerodrome, Middlesex, documents the construction and early operating of Britain’s first private airport. It consists of approximately 160 letters, 20 photographs, 65 drawings, 2 brochures and press cuttings.

Heston Air Park was conceived by fellow pilots and aircraft co-owners Nigel Norman and Alan Muntz in 1928, and constructed by their new company, Airwork Ltd. However it was all designed by Leslie Magnus Austin ARIBA (1896-1975). The Archive contains the correspondence between Norman and Muntz at Airwork and Austin from the initial stages in 1928 to 1931. It covers the purchase of land, construction, architecture and everything needed to build an airport, as well as recording a major disagreement regarding who should get the credit for the design of the new airport.

Sylvia Lynd played an important role in 20th-century literary culture as a judge for the Book Society (the British equivalent of the American Book-of-the-Month Club) and the Femina Vie Heureuse Prize. The Hampstead home that she shared with her husband, the writer and journalist Robert Wilson Lynd, was a notable literary meeting place, and the Lynds’ circle included many publishers, literary journalists and writers, including Victor and Ruth Gollancz, J.B. Priestley, Rose Macauley, and Hugh Walpole. Other guests at their home included James Joyce (who held his wedding reception there) and W.B. Yeats. In her own right Lynd was a significant pastoral poet, but will perhaps be best remembered for her prominent role as a literary tastemaker and influential female judge on the new book clubs and literary prizes formed during the interwar years.

The University of Reading holds the Archive of British Publishing and Printing, along with related book trade material, including the Mark Longman Library (formerly the library of the National Book League). It also holds several collections of the papers and literary manuscripts of 20th century authors, with a notable focus on modern poets and Irish writers. With this in mind, the Special Collections at Reading is a natural home for the papers of Sylvia Lynd.