Archivist Eve Bickerton celebrates the invaluable contributions of The Friends of Somerset Archives (FoSA). This dedicated group has been a cornerstone of support for the Somerset Archives and Local Studies service, and their efforts have significantly enriched the archival collections and services.
The Friends of Somerset Archives
The Friends of Somerset Archives (FoSA) was established in 2005. Its aim was to coordinate the interests and activities of regular users of the Somerset Archives and Local Studies resources, and to support the archives by volunteer project work and material contributions.
Over the years their support and promotion of the work of the Somerset Archives and Local Studies has helped to raise the profile of the use of archives and their importance in education and research. Through regular meetings and visits to places across Somerset, the publication of the quarterly newsletter ‘Snippets’, and volunteering work under the guidance of Somerset Archives, FoSA has made significant contributions in many different areas.
Over its twenty years, FoSA volunteers have been involved in the digitisation of Somerset’s tithe apportionments and the indexing of photographs deposited by the Somerset Light Infantry. They were also involved in our significant Dickinson Project, helping to conserve and index the letter books of the Dickinson/Prankard mercantile businesses.
However, like so many groups and organisations following the lockdowns and uncertainty of COVID, FoSA suffered a reduction in membership engagement. A vote was taken at the AGM in late 2023 to close the group. Some kind and generous good has however come out of the closure of FoSA. Using funds remaining, the group elected to purchase documents to add to the collections of the Somerset Archives, providing a genuine lasting legacy to the people of Somerset and its history.
New Acquisitions Thanks to FoSA
Documents of the Rendell Family
Firstly, in Autumn 2023 we were able to purchase a box of documents relating to the Rendell family of Bishops Hull, Taunton. The papers date from the 1700s to the 1960s and show generations of lives in the parish through land ownership deeds, marriage settlements, wills and other ephemeral material.
The second purchase was the diaries of (we think!) William Warry of Martock. The diarist is not named in the volumes, but elsewhere there is a loose piece of paper labelled ‘True copy births of all our family taken from the old Bible at Martock, April 24 1870’ which lists ‘The Children of W. Robert and Elizabeth Cole Warry’. The diaries span 1854-1870 and include daily events, as well as notes of personal incomes and expenditures. The handwriting is not the easiest, but well worth the perseverance as the diaries provide a fascinating insight into the life of a 19th century family on the edge of the Somerset Levels.
The third document purchased with the funds of FoSA is a minute book from the Portishead Society of the National Union of Women’s Suffrage Societies (NUWSS). The National Union of Women’s Suffrage Societies (NUWSS) was founded in 1897 and was a democratic and non-militant organisation (not to be confused with the Women’s Social and Political Union (the suffragettes).
Women in North Somerset were actively involved in the suffrage movement and made significant contributions, such as Ivy Millicent James designing the Women’s Social and Political Union’s (WSPU) banner, and Emmeline Pethick-Lawrence choosing the colours of white, green and purple to represent the movement to symbolise purity, hope and dignity.
The volume includes a list of members, gives the goings on of the group during the war years and their constant push towards equal rights for women, and also includes snippets of correspondence sent to and from the government.
Our Thanks
We would like to take this opportunity to thank the Friends of Somerset Archives for their work, and to publicly acknowledge the significance of their contributions and support. These three documents purchased at the close of FoSA serve as a lasting reminder of the group’s dedication to Somerset Archives and Local Studies, and their support to both the organisation and the collections in its care.
See the Documents
To see any of the documents listed above you can: