University of Herts project using Rickmansworth farmer's diaries

Over the last year or so I’ve provided a couple of updates about the wonderfully detailed diaries of farmer John White of Rickmansworth, and in several articles in this column I’ve mentioned observations that he made. Things have developed, and it’s time for a longer item.

A strong team of transcribers has been at work for nearly a year, and over half the volumes have now been transcribed. They’ll now form the raw material for the next phase of the work, which will have several parts and take some time to get ready. And next to them are the account books, which are being professionally scanned with the help of a grant and will also be available soon.

Parsonage Farm about 1900. Image: Three Rivers Museum

They’re especially important because the University of Hertfordshire is leading a research project which will provide some of their business students with a challenging case study to find out why John White was successful 150 years ago when so many of his friends and colleagues were struggling. What can we learn for now?

The full name is “Hertfordshire Agriculture: Research into Victorian Enterprise for a Sustainable Tomorrow” (HARVEST). Starting in April and running to October, it will explore this amazing collection of truly historic papers to discover lessons on sustainability for the 21st century. A project involving students and staff from the University working with our museum volunteers, it’s part of the Heritage Co-Production scheme funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) with a grant administered by the University. It will be led by Dr Sue Davies and Dr Derek Ong, and it’s very exciting new ground for the Museum - we’re very pleased to be part of it.

Sheep in the High Street, about 1872. Perhaps they were heading for the annual Fair, held behind the Swan (centre right) at the end of November. Image: Rickmansworth Historical Society/Geoff Saul Collection

But that’s not all. We’ve hardly started to read the diaries properly, but already we know how John White felt about others affected by what was happening here - for example, after a damaging storm Mr White was concerned about the seafarers out in it. The year 1879 was especially bad: the weather had been disastrous for farmers (in October he wrote that he’d started haymaking on June 30 and finally got the corn harvest in on October 9) – he thought he would survive, but he knew that some of his colleagues would not. At the New Year he was horrified by the Tay Bridge disaster in Scotland, in which a railway bridge collapsed killing all 75 people on a train; and in his year-end round up he noted “one of the most eventful years on record and most disastrous to the agriculturalists of this country and fraught with many melancholy events from beginning to end. Two most disastrous Wars, the Zulu & the Afghanistan, where so many valuable lives have been sacrificed”. So we know at first hand how people in Rickmansworth felt about both national and international events – and this runs through the whole 50-year set.

John White's Parsonage farm yard in about 1900. Image: Rickmansworth Historical Society/Geoff Saul Collection

But his main interest was much closer to home. The wedding of their daughter Fanny, the arrivals of their 11 grandchildren, the death of one of them at the age of two, the sudden death of their son-in-law - all are recorded in a way which tells us a great deal about how Victorian people saw and felt about these things. The wedding of the first grandchild, and the arrival of the first great-grandchildren, are mixed in with the harrowing account of the last weeks of the life of Sophie, his wife of 55 years who had done so much for the lads of the town, before his own heath declined so that he had to suspend his diary in 1896 – he lived to 1904.

The junction of Church Street and High Street, c1870. The Whites will have known pretty well all the people in this image. Image: Rickmansworth Historical Society/Geoff Saul Collection

And we also find his very personal feelings about some of his own long-serving staff – Jack Halsey was his much-loved shepherd for more than 40 years, and he notes with concern and without blame the absence through sickness of his workers. He gives us an idea of the work done by women and men both as casual and as hired labourers, and how the various ‘farm pupils’ got on (not all proved suited to the profession). But most of all, we’ll be able to track his progress through economic depression, and see what it meant to him and his Rickmansworth and indeed Hertfordshire neighbours.

The work will take years to complete, and there will be enough to occupy a whole team of people: but it’s moving. This might be of interest to local schools, and if Watford Observer readers would like to be involved in a really important local history project please contact us at chairman@trmt.org.uk. And we’re now ready to give talks about this Rickmansworth farmer – use the same address to find out more.