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Greetings from India Dear all 2 I am having a fabulous and very interesting time working and living at FLAME (Foundation of Liberal and Management Education) University, situated near Pune in a deep valley by a natural lake. Despite the lake, the environment is dry and rugged with sparse bushes. The temperature averages 32°C every day. I share an apartment with 7 other girls. We all get along really well and they are mad, loud and fun, so there is always something going on and never a quiet moment! It is fully catered, but all the food is vegan. The campus has good facilities - a small gym, a football field, a pool, an outdoor theatre, a movie room and an amazing drama studio, which I am very jealous of! The power goes off about 4 times a day as the electricity has to be shared out and diverted, so you can be mid class and it goes pitch black! All my friends are Liberal Education students. Most speak three languages: their mother tongue, Hindi and English, and they all speak to each other in English because it is guaranteed to be understood. The university is very liberal, but you must be in your room for 11.30pm (there is an alarm that sounds like an air-raid siren, which gave me a shock first time I heard it!). The students can leave campus, but must get permission first and when you re-enter you have The average person in the UK uses 150 litres of water a day but this is not sustainable; we are using more water than the rivers are receiving from rain. Here are a few hints on reducing our water consumption: Remember to turn off the tap while brushing your teeth A running tap wastes over Alex (right) with friends Shinai Dominic (left) and Shambhavi Rai (centre). 6 litres per minute. Drop a hippo in your cistern Give your water company a ring; they can give you one of these devices for free. Bathers beware! A bath typically uses around 80 litres, while a short shower can use as little as a third of that amount. Preserving the past, recording the present, educating the future Earlier this year we bid farewell to museum volunteer Alex Smith who was travelling to India to live and study for several months before attending university in England. We asked Alex to keep in touch and tell us about her adventures. The following is an extract from her first missive… to pass a breathalyser test. I am a drama intern, so I work in the administration of the department and help with the organisation of events. In return, I can attend a few classes on topics such as comparing Indian drama to Shakespeare, costume, make up and acting workshops. I am going to shoot a film for an alumni of FLAME, which will be fun. I am really excited, but also nervous, as in front of the camera there is nowhere to hide! The week just gone was a holiday, which I spent living with a friend called Henna and her family. I really enjoyed my time there and I came to understand Indian culture much better, such as their family values, the role of women and the value of education. I also got to share what a typical Indian teenage girl does with her free time, which turns out to be similar to me! Alex Invest in a water butt Your roof collects about 85,000 litres of rain each year which then just runs straight into the sewers. This could fill 450 water butts with water: you could water your garden, your houseplants, or wash your car for free! To get a butt, call your local water company.
The 19 th Century Poor of Congleton The Poor Law Research Group Congleton is fortunate to have an excellent set of town records dating back several centuries. However, much information can be obtained from documents held in the County Archives at Chester and the National Archives at Kew. One group relates to the administration of the New Poor Law of 1834. Under the New Poor Law parishes or townships were grouped into unions, which were the unit of administration for relieving the poor and other local issues. Congleton Union, when formed, consisted of Congleton and some 30 nearby townships; the workhouse was built at Arclid. Each union was under the control of a board of guardians; paid officers were responsible for the day-to-day affairs of the union. A brief search of the county archives catalogue for Congleton shows board minutes, registers of births, baptisms and deaths in the workhouse, general and parochial ledgers, vaccination officer's report books, statements of account and more. These documents have been used to good effect by authors Marlene and Graham Langley in their book (copyright 1993), At the Crossroads, A History of Arclid Workhouse and Hospital. Unions were supervised by the Poor Law Commission, based in London, which was responsible for ensuring uniformity across the 600 or so unions. The system resulted in a huge amount of correspondence between unions and the The complexity of the New Poor Law made it necessary to publish handbooks for the various officers. This is the actual book owned by John Brocklehurst, Relieving Officer. (He was not the dishonest officer referred to in the text.) The inscription is probably in his own handwriting. The book runs to 547 pages. An eye-catching entry in the index is 'Corpse, admission of, into Workhouse.' About 30 further pages are devoted to advertisements for stationery associated with Poor Law administration. This book is stamped to show that it was bought from W J Harper of Sandbach. According to Morris and Co.’s 1880 Directory of Cheshire, W J Harper, of Market Square and Hope Street, was a music seller, stationer, newsagent, dealer in musical instruments, sewing and washing machines, iron bedsteads, bedding etc. Commission, much of which has been preserved in the National Archives at Kew. While the correspondence for each union is filed separately, it is for the most part un-indexed, and is known as Series MH12. The matters covered by MH12 vary widely. One member of the group, working on documents covering a period of under two years, found, among other things, a reference to the matron being paid in porter (a dark-brown or black bitter beer), a dispute between the guardians and the medical officers, inmates being set to stone-breaking, and fraud by a relieving officer (relieving officers were responsible for actually handing out relief, so were in a trusted position which was sometimes abused). Also of considerable interest are the appointment forms for officers, David Jackson Co-ordinator of the Poor Law Research Group which provide details including age, former residence and employment of people appointed by the guardians; these had to be approved by the Poor Law Commissioners. To make the content of the MH12 documents for Congleton Union more accessible a group of us have started to summarise and catalogue them. About 1,800 documents have so far been photographed and put on disk and each member of the group can enter the information on to a standard template at home. When the group has covered a sufficiently long period, their work can be combined into a single file. Please email David Jackson for further information and future dates of Poor Law Group meetings: djackson4761@yahoo.co.uk Preserving the past, recording the present, educating the future 3
Page 1: Where’s Jiggy? Chester had rhinos
Page 5 and 6: Then & Now from a paper shop along
Page 7 and 8: Step Back in Time on a History Walk
Page 9 and 10: Local History from only £1 ‘On y

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