New catalogues available online

As with many catalogues we have been adding recently, the following collections have not been catalogued from scratch. I have relied exclusively on the original lists sent to us by Sheffield Archives as the material was first donated to them in 1940 and 1965 respectively. As both collections actually relate to Derbyshire, they were transferred to us about eight years ago.

For archivists there is quite a difference between a list and a catalogue – the former is really just what you might expect, a brief (or sometimes detailed) list of each item or file within a collection. The latter is the arrangement of that list, ideally to defined international standards – “fondly” referred to by us as ISAD(G) – so that it is easier to navigate the collections and find what you are looking for.

As anyone who has used our online catalogue will know, that is not always how it feels. This is primarily because most of our catalogues were created in a time before computers and were not therefore created with the online user in mind. We are always working to improve our catalogues and the functionality of the online catalogue, but with thousands of collections and catalogues created over several decades, it is very definitely a long-term project.

The other main difference between the what was available for these collections before this week, is that although the Sheffield lists were available to download from the online catalogue, the information they contained would not be displayed in a search of the whole catalogue. This is no longer the case as items from both collections will now be returned during a search – if of course the descriptions contain the words, dates, etc. that you were searching for!

The collections added this week are:

D7672 Luxmoore family of Ashford, antiquarians

Rev. J.R. Luxmoore was a vicar at Ashford and he probably laid the foundations of this collection. The majority of the collections consists of secondary material, being notes, mainly for a history of the parish of Ashford-in-the-Water and for a Derbyshire bibliography, compiled by the Rev. J.S. Luxmoore who died in 1940. It also includes title deeds for properties in Ashford, Longstone and Edale title deeds (D7672/1). Unfortunately, these items are not yet catalogued because there were no descriptions in the Sheffield lists, and as I am working at home I can’t actually take a look at them to write new descriptions.

D7806 Charles Cammell (1810-1879) of Norton Hall, Norton and Brookfield Manor, Hathersage (also Ditcham Park, Southampton), manufacturer, merchant and landowner

Charles Cammell (1810-1879) was born in Hull, Yorkshire, where he was later apprenticed to an ironmonger. On completing his apprenticeship in 1830, he moved to Sheffield. In 1837 he established an iron and steel manufacturers and merchants at Furnival Street, Sheffield with partners Thomas Manby Johnson and Henry Johnson; the firm later became known as Charles Cammell and Company. He was an extremely successful businessman and purchased various properties, including Norton Hall and Brookfield Manor. This collection containing the deeds and related papers for the following properties and estates in and near Hathersage:

• Brookfield Estate, including North Lees
• Moorseats and Kimbercales (Court)
• Greens House Farm
• The Shaws
• Leveret Crofts

Plus various land and property in Hathersage purchased or acquired from John Spencer Shuttleworth, Broomhead’s trustees (previously David Cooper’s – originally Smilters Farm), the devisees of George Morton, and the trustees of the Roman Catholic chapel of St. Michael, Hathersage.