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MINSTEAD REVIEWS Hampshire Family Historian NEW The Local Historian August 2003, pp 194-5 Minstead - life in a seventeenth century New Forest community by Peter Roberts Peter Roberts' study of the manor of Minstead in the heart of the northern New Forest is a welcome addition to a growing literature on forest communities and their commoners. It is nicely produced with a good range of maps, photographs, diagrams and tables to explain his findings. It is centred on the seventeenth century, and uses deeds, wills and probate inventories as well as court and tax records from the National Archives. The book begins by setting out the Forest Law, landowning and power structures, and the manorial rights and customs of Minstead. It then combines surveys of 1655 and 1842 with an analysis of 48 probate inventories from 1578 to 1697, to examine the farming, household economy and occupational structure of the area. The concluding chapter deals with change and continuity and has sections on the black economy, literacy, and population change. The appendices give examples of inventories, details of occupations and the descent of property, mini-biographies of some of the personalities involved, and a glossary of terms. The author has assembled an impressive array of data about Minstead and in his analysis of the inventories provides a valuable profile of New Forest commoners in a systematic fashion. His examination of farming from the inventories is most interesting and brings out the varied nature of enterprises, with its attention to subjects such as fruit and vegetables, goats, and bee-keeping it is a refreshing reminder of forest diversity. Nevertheless it is not always successful in providing a focussed sense of the nature of, and pressures on, the seventeenth century forest community. This is partly because the manorial and inventory sources are not easily matched with parish and taxation material which does not relate to the same boundaries, while Roberts' attempts to assess a wide range of topics results in jumping from section to section so that the overall theme is hard to follow. The discussion of woodland occupations is very useful, but the workings of the coppice system might have been more clearly explained. This is a good example of strengths of local history writing, in its use of local knowledge and expertise, but it would have benefited from a wider understanding of the economic and social context of the seventeenth century, and particularly of the pressures on forest communities. To do this the author might have made comparisons with, for example, Victor Skipp's study of Arden and Buchanan Sinth's book on the Wiltshire and Dorest forest riots of 1620s and 1630s. JOHN BROAD New Forest Association Newsletter
Summer 2003 Review by David Stagg This book should be essential reading to everyone interested in rural
history and the development of the countryside, particularly so if they
have associations with the New Forest. Residents of the Forest, and in
particular those of Minstead, may well be related to the families mentioned,
and if not themselves then their neighbours will be related. In an area
that has escaped major development, the place names and topography have
changedrelatively little from the 17th century, and the majority of the
holdings will have remained in continuous occupation This book is a serious historical study with the sources being well referenced.
It is this which distinguishes fact from fiction, but it in no way interferes
with the general readability of the work. In fact the book is so well
organised that it is very likely that after the first reading it will
become a work of reference. It will certainly be used as a basis for information
on particular subjects. For instance the discussion on Livestock must
contribute to the question as to when the New Forest pony gained in economic
importance. This is the sort of book which one should be very cautious
of lending to a friend or neighbour - you will probably never see Peter Roberts has the advantages both of considerable research and of extensive local knowledge. Perhaps he can be persuaded to use these to extend the history of Minstead Manor in some subsequent volume. He has the added advantage that he is recording facts and details as they were, not trying to fit these into some preconceived idea. Where others might be seeking to illustrate the way of life of a typical commoner, in fact a typical commoner has never existed. They are all very much individuals. No doubt some of the present generation will be able to make contributions to the story, and I will be surprised if some ancient disputes are not given a new lease of life. When real history can be so interesting, why is there such demand for historical fantasies?
Minstead: Life in a 17th Century New Forest Community Little has been documented, until now, about New Forest life in the 17th century. Hythe-born author and local historian, Peter Roberts, has been working on Minstead, for several years. Drawing on information from such sources as Court Rolls, wills, inventories, Churchwarden's Accounts, Abstract of Claims and Forest Inquisitions he has built up a unique picture of a village in the heart of the New Forest. He breathes life into the Olding, Stride, Whitehorn, Osman and Purkess (to name but a few) families with details of their holdings, stock and working lives and links the properties and people to modern times. He also explores the lives of the Compton family, Lords of Minstead Manor for centuries, Minstead's importance in the Hampshire charcoal making industry and the origins of the Trusty Servant Inn. This scholarly book, dedicated to the past, present and future commoners of Minstead will be an invaluable source book of the period for Forest residents, local and family historians but also, outside the Forest, as a detailed study of a commoning community in the 1600's. 166pages with 35 b&w illustrations, appendices, glossary and comprehensive index. Family History Monthly November 2003, p. 53 A detailed, yet very readable, account of life in a New Forest community covering everything from how villagers baked their bread to the running of the manorial court which controlled their lives. Hampshire Family Historian February 2004, pp. 278/9 "How often do we all wish we could really put 'flesh on the bones' of our ancestors' lives? If your forefathers came from the Minstead area, or indeed the New Forest in general, your wish has been granted." So writes this book's reviewer, Judy Kimber, known to many members as HGS Chairman from 1987 until March 1994. In this facinating study Peter Roberts has built up a detailed picture of the villagers, using a variety of sources such as will and inventories, forest court records, tax returns, manorial court records etc. He sets the village in its Forest context, giving an overview of the area and describing its administration, which in many ways was and continued to be, unique until the late 19th century. There is a brief history of the Compton family, the major landowners, and minibiographies of other notable individuals. However it is the ordinary commoners wha are the principal theme of the book and the author has succeeded in giving us a real insight into their lives. By skilful use of the information gained from 48 inventories we find out much more about farming in the area, the farm implements used, the cattle, horses and pigs owned and the crops grown, all related to actual people. Delightful snippets abound such as the names of Joan Currington's three cows, Primrose, Pache and Cherry, and that James Phillips owned oxen. Most commoners lived in one-room cottages, though a few had two or more rooms. The author has used the list of household items such as cooking utensils, bed and bedding etc. found in the inventories to present a vivid picture of the interiors. Chapters concerning the working lives of the commoners, almost all of whom needed a secondary occupation to support a family, and the general social scene which includes topics ranging from literacy to treatment of the poor, are equally full of personal detail put into the setting of the times. Twenty-three different occupations are listed in an appendix. Lists of names abound in other appendices and in the comprehensive index. The book is well illustrated, sources are quoted throughout and there is a useful bibliography. Peter is to be congratulated in producing such a readable, finely detailed, fact and name-filled contribution to the annals of local and family history in the county. For anyone with ancestors in the New Forest this book is a must, but even if you have no connection with the area you will learn much about the lives of ordinary people, who knows, you may be inspired to research in your "own" village. You could have no better example to follow.
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