Who Lived in a House Like This?
Alex De Gier was our speaker on 1st June. His talk was entitled ‘Who
Lived in a House Like This?’ and was inspired by “A House Through
Time” and “Who Do You Think You Are?”
Using his own house in Knaresborough as a focus, he showed us how
he researched the owners and occupants of the house and some of their
family histories. It all started with his curiosity over a ‘night bell’ sign near
the porch and led him to find connections to the Siege of Lucknow in
1857, the origins of the Labour Party, the Coalport Pottery company and
the development of the electric telegraph amongst other events.
Alex showed us how maps can show the development of an area but
that other sources such as deeds, census returns, directories, electoral
registers and the Land Valuation of 1910 can glean much information; he
warned us against assuming that all the people who had lived in the
house were owners. Through the deeds of the house, Alex discovered a
list of the owners and that the house had been a school for girls and
Sunnyholme Nursing Home (which explained the night bell).
Selecting particular people who had lived in the house, Alex followed
their history and connected them with the events of their time, such as
Nora Shallard, whose father was connected to the D’Oyly Carte
Company and the music halls and who founded the Choristers
Association. Her uncle, Sidney Shallard, had connections to the
beginnings of the Labour Party and her grandfather was an eminent
scientist, Sir Charles Wheatstone.
Another resident was Harold Bruff, born in Agra, an acclaimed railway
engineer who was also interested in Yorkshire dialect; his father was
known as the Brunel of the East. Another relative, Peter Shuyler Bruff
also bought and developed a large area of land which became Clacton
on Sea, who later in life put his son in charge of Coalport pottery.
Through the 1921 census, Alex discovered Richard Hardcastle and
again he showed us the army records which revealed that he was serving
in India at the time of the Indian Mutiny and received a medal for this. His
son Sidney invented the Hardcastle Torpedo.
Alex ended his talk by summarizing all the fascinating information he
had found out about the people who lived in his house and no doubt
inspired quite a few of us to get researching our own houses.