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Authority record
GB0192-118 · Corporate body · 1850-1872

The corporation petitioned for the 1848 Public Health Act to be applied to York, and took over public health responsibilites from the city commissioners in 1850. The Board was not part of the corporation, but its members were appointed by and often members of, the corporation.
Gained functions from city commissioners in 1850. Merged with the corporation and functions transferred to Urban Sanitary Committee when the council became the urban sanitary authority in 1872.

Loadman family of York
Family · 19th century - 20th century

At least two generations of the Loadman family ran a shop initially at 5 College Street, then at 37 Stonegate and at Minster Gates, York, as a dealer in antiques, old china, furniture, and curios.

The shop was started by Thomas Loadman between 1871 and 1881, and operated until at least the 1950s. Thomas Loadman was born in Helmsley in 1819 as the son of a brewer. He married Jane Sollitt in 1845 in York. Thomas Loadman worked as a gas inspector for most of his career and appears to have opened the shop as a dealer in old china alongside this role later in life with the support of his wife and children. Several of his children helped to run the shop and continued to run it after his death. This includes: Margaret Elizabeth Loadman, born 1847, who moved the shop to Stonegate after Thomas Loadman's death; Eugene Loadman, born c 1865; and Herbert Myers Loadman, born c 1873.

GB0192-611 · Corporate body · Twentieth century

LNER York Employees Amateur Swimming Club was established by June 1920. Until 1928 men's and women's sections trained and were administered separately.

Lle
GB0192-131 · Corporate body · 1951-1962

Possibly renamed due to involvement in 1951 Festival of Britain activities in York including production and promotion of guidebook, setting up an information bureau and arranging guided tours of the city. Tang Hall branch library established in this period.
Replaced Public Library Committee in 1951. Instructed City Librarian. Functions gained from or complementary to Publicity Committee (1944-1949). Replaced by Library and Friendly Relations Committee in 1962.

GB0192-133 · Corporate body · 1962-c.1972

Gained responsibility for friendly relations with foreign towns in 1962.
Replaced Library and Publicity Committee in 1962. Gained friendly relation function from Friendly Alliance with Foreign Towns Committee (1958-1961) in 1961. Instructed City Librarian.

GB0192-702 · Corporate body · ?-present

On 22 May 1948, former RAF pilot Leonard Cheshire took a dying man, who had nowhere else to go, into his home.

With no money, Leonard nursed the man himself in his home of Le Court in Hampshire. They became friends and this act of kindness prompted more people to go to Leonard for help. People were keen to share a home with others and support each other.

By the summer of 1949, his home had 24 residents with complex needs, illnesses and impairments. As awareness of Leonard's work spread he started to receive referrals.

New NHS hospitals struggled to cope with waiting lists of people needing urgent care. Disabled people were at the bottom of the list of NHS priorities at the time. People were often left to manage on their own, or to rely on others to help them get through each day.

As Le Court became established, people started to champion the need for similar homes in their communities. Interest in these services was not limited to the UK. International communities also sought these services. The establishment of Leonard Cheshire as a charity had begun.

By 1955, there were five homes in the UK. The first overseas project began outside Mumbai, India.

The 1960s saw rapid expansion. By 1970 there were over 50 services in the UK; five services in India and activities in 21 other countries around the world. It is currently unknown as to the exact date when the York Committee was established.

Leng; family
GB0192-703 · Family · 18th century-20th century

The Leng family were residents of York, and are most well known for the creation of the 'Fulford Biscuit', and for their factory in York.

The 'Fulford Biscuit' was the creation of John Leng and his wife, Hannah Horsely, who lived in Wilberfoss. John, and his brother William, were brought up by their Uncle Thomas after their father died and their mother, Elizabeth Horsley, remarried. In 1800 Uncle Thomas died and left William £300. John, who was a 28 year old baker, was left the farm.

John and Hannah had 7 children, and his brother William and hist wife Ellis Rowntree had 10. It was during this time that the biscuit, which became so popular, was created. The biscuit was plain, yeast-raised, and saucersized, a development from the much plainer (and harder) ship's biscuit.

In the early 1800's, John sold out to William and moved to Fulford in search of a better education for the boys and better marriage prospects for his girls. Non-Freeman of the City were not allowed to open a shop in York, but could trade in Thursday market, where William sold his meat and where kin lived at 7 St. Sampson's Square.

77 Main Street, Fulford, became John Leng's family home with the bakery built into the side of the house. John set up his son 'Biscuit John' in St. Saviourgate, later moving to 2 Coppergate.
His son Charles was in Lambeth, distributing the biscuits. Brother William's sons Robert and George were apprentices when their father and two brothers died in 1831. Their mother, Ellis, moved to 69 Main Street, Fulford. Baker John died in 1849, and as Hannah was already dead, the Fulford Biscuit rights and recipe were left to daughters Mary and Maria Leng. Mary died in 1855 and Maria married.

Once qualified, Robert and George set up at 7 St Sampson's Square as competitors to Biscuit John, as York was now an open market. Later his only son John Philip, still at 2 Coppergate, sold the biscuits but later traded as a corn and flour merchant also buying many properties in York for his 10 children. Only George and his family continued making the biscuits at 77 Main Street. They were sold in Coppergate until 1902, when his widow, Jane Hunt, died.

Marjorie Leng, a granddaughter of John Philip, inherited the recipe, but not the method.

GB0192-517 · Person · 1902-1997

Iris Lemare was born in London on 27 September 1902, the daughter of organist Edwin Lemare. Iris went to Bedales and then Geneva to dstudy at the Dalcroze / Eurythmics School. She went on to story the organ under George Thalben-Ball at the Royal College of Music in London, where she won the Dove Prize. She also entered the conducting class of Malcolm Sargent.

In 1931, Lemare started concerts with Elisabeth Lutyens and violinist Anne Macnaghten. She conducted several of Benjamin Britten's early works, including the premiere of his Sinfonietta opus I and later his choral 'A Boy was Born'. She also premiered several works by Alan Rawsthorne, Christian Darnton, Elizabeth Maconchy amongst others. Overall the concerts premiered over 40 new works, many of them by women.

In 1937, Lemare became the first woman to conduct the BBC Symphony Orchestra, and during her career she also conducted the Oxford Chamber Orchestra and the Carlyle Singers. She loved opera and conducted Handel's Xerxes amongst other works in the late 1930s at Pollards, a house in Essex belonging to the Howard family.

During the Second World War she founded the Lemare Orchestra. She featured many new or little-known works and her soloists included Joan Hammond, Benno Moiseivitch, Geza Anda, Peter Donohoe and many others. In the 1970s she worked in opera and presented works by Menotti, Maconchy and Britten, and the premiere of John McCabe's The Play of Mother Courage.

Following her 81st birthday she was invited by the BBC Singers to conduct a 50th anniversary performance of Britten's 'A Boy was Born'.

Aside from her working life, Lemare was a keen walker, bird-watcher, swimmer and skier. She died on 23 April 1997 at Askham Bryan near York.

GB0192-505 · Corporate body · c.1906-?

The Legion of Frontiersmen was founded in Britain in 1905 by Roger Pocock, a former constable with the North-West Mounted Police and Boer War veteran. Prompted by fears of an impending invasion of Britain and the Empire, the organisation was founded as a field intelligence corps on a romanticised conception of the 'frontier' and imperial idealism. Headquartered in London, branches of the Legion of Frontiersmen were formed throughout the empire to prepare patriots for war and to foster vigilance in peacetime. Despite persistent efforts, the Legion never achieved much official recognition.

The first known meeting of the York branch of the Legion of Frontiersmen was mentioned in the Yorkshire Post of 3rd December 1906, when it would appear that the branch was in the early stages of being founded. The York branch, also known as a squadron was in existence until at least 1938, as it was mentioned in the newspapers of that year as having taken part in the Military Parade.

Leeman; Philip (c.1934-2016)
GB0192-518 · Person · c.1934-2016

Philip Leeman was born in Nunnery Lane, York, in around 1934. He was also educated in the city, and following National Service in the RAF he worked as an administrator in the Yorkshire Herald offices. He was particularly attracted to history, and was a founder member of Clements Hall Local History Group.

He had a keen interest in classical music, and attended music nights at Guppy's on a regular basis.

He died in York on 24 May 2016.

Leeman; George (1809-1882)
GB0192-311 · Person · 1809-1882

George Leeman was born in 1809, the son of a greengrocer. He married twice - in 1835 and 1863, and had at least six children.
His son Joseph Leeman became a lawyer and MP for York like his father. Leeman died in Scarborough in 1882.

GB0192-418 · Person · 1838-1931

John Ward Knowles was born in 1838. He left school at the age of 12.

Following a visit to the Great Exhibition in London with his father in 1851, Knowles enrolled at the newly opened School of Design in York. He continued there as a pupil until 1854, winning prizes for his stained glass work in 1852 and 1854. In around 1858, Knowles moved to London for a year to work for Heaton and Butler, where he developed an interest in photography and architecture.

In 1863, following his return to York, Knowles began to undertake conservation work on the 'Fifteen Last Days of the World' window in All Saints Church. Three years later he was a member of the committee for the 1866 Great Exhibition at Bootham, York.

In 1869 Knowles moved his stained glass business from Goodramgate to Stonegate. Five years later he married Jane Annakin, with whom he had two sons, John Alder and Milward, and four daughters. Both sons would follow him into the family business of J W Knowles & Sons. In 1874 he also bought and began to restore 23 Stonegate (now number 35).

During the 1880s and 1890s Knowles undertook extensive conservation work on the St Cuthbert and St William windows at York Minster, during which process he photographed all the panels before their restoration and rearrangement. He also spent some time working on the stately home Nostell Priory.

John Ward Knowles died on 17 August 1931 at the age of 93.
John Ward Knowles was the father of John Alder Knowles, stained glass painter, who worked with him in the family business J W Knowles & Sons.

GB0192-419 · Person · 1881-1961

John Alder Knowles was born in 1881, the eldest son of stained glass painter and restorer John Ward Knowles.

In 1903, Knowles travelled to Toronto, Canada, and then to Minneapolis, where he spent the next nine years working at the Ford Brothers stained glass works. On his return to England in 1912 he began to assist his father with his York stained glass business.

Knowles' career was interrupted by his service in both the First World War and the Second World War.

John Alder Knowles was granted an Honorary Master of Arts from the University of Hull in 1957 for his scholarly monograph on the York School of Glass Painting (published in 1936 and illustrated with his own sketches and photographs). During his career he wrote more than 60 articles on the history of stained glass.

Knowles died on 25 November 1961, aged 80.
John Alder Knowles was the eldest son of John Ward Knowles, stained glass painter, and worked with him in the family business J W Knowles & Sons.

GB0192-701 · Person · ?-?

Charles Brunton Knight was a resident of York and local historian. He is most well known for his History of the City of York, originally published in 1944.

Kleiser; family
Family · 1819-1977

Joseph Benedikt Kleiser was born in Freiburg in Baden, Germany, in 1823. He was baptised there on 19 March 1823. His parents were Jacob Kleiser and Fransizka Geschwander. He had an older brother, Andreas (later Andrew), born in 1819.
On 12 March 1840, Joseph arrived in London via Calais and Belfast. Andrew (under the name Andreas) had arrived two years previously, on 2 Nov 1839.

By the time of the 1841 census, both brothers were working as clockmakers. Joseph lived and worked in Chelmsford, Essex, while Andrew had settled in York, where he lived on Stonegate along with his business partner, Philip Schwerer.

In 1854, Joseph married Mary Potter in York. They had three sons:
Cuthbert Joseph Kleiser (born 1855)
John Henry Kleiser (born 1857)
Louis Augustine Kleiser (born 1860).

Andrew Kleiser had also married into the Potter family. He married Hannah Potter in September 1847 at the Catholic chapel on Little Blake Street. They had one daughter, Jane Frances. She was born in 1849 but died in 1853, aged about four.

Andrew was naturalised in September 1852, and Joseph was naturalised in April 1854.
Andrew died in January 1885, and Joseph later that year in December. As Andrew had no surviving children, the Kleiser business passed to Joseph's three sons, Cuthbert, John, and Louis..

Cuthbert Joseph Kleiser married Hannah Lilian Cundall, the daughter of Luke and Hannah Cundall, in 1888. They had one son, Louis Cyril Kleiser, born 1893. Cuthbert died in 1929.

John Henry Kleiser never married, and died in 1920, a patient at the York Asylum.

Louis Augustine Kleiser also never married, and died in 1943.

Cuthbert's son, Louis Cyril Kleiser, was also known as 'Cyril'. He was born in 1893 and died in 1977.

Kirk; Maurice (?-?)
GB0192-700 · Person · ?-?

Maurice Kirk was born in York in the 1920s and educated at Nunthorpe Boys School. He served during the Second World War, and subsequently worked for the University of Leeds. His father, Archibald Kirk, was Lord Mayor in 1963.

GB0192-481 · Corporate body · 2007-present

The Kingsway Area Residents Association was formed in 2007 to feed back information to City of York Council about grass roots issues. In particular, it is tasked with feeding back housing concerns, repairs, community issues, environment and crime.
Reports to York Residents' Federation.
See Also - York Subscription Library

Kexby Parish Council
GB0192-236 · Corporate body · 1894-present

Kexby Parish Council was officially created when the Local Government Act of 1894 formed Parish Councils. The new Parish Councils assumed responsibility for local civic and social welfare which was previously managed through ecclesiastical parishes. At the time of its creation, Kexby was included in Escrick Rural District. In 1935 it became part of Derwent rural district and in 1974 became part of the Selby district of North Yorkshire. Kexby officially became part of York Unitary Authority in 1996.

Kay; Robert (?-?)
GB0192-772 · Person · ?-?

Robert Kay was a successful bootmaker with a number of shops in York. He was the son of an intemperate shoemaker. A Wesleyan temperance reformer, he ran Priory Street Wesleyan Young Men's class in around 1894. His notebook, also called Grandfather Robert Kay's diary and covering the period 1875-1900, was created to record 'what I remember in connection with, and a record of, any noteworthy incident occurring at any of the public houses between Fossgate and Walmgate Bar.' The notebook, whose original is still in the possession of the Kay family, is addressed to 'my much beloved children' and signed 'drink, debt, dirt and the devil I HATE, Robert Kay'.

J.W. Ruddock & Sons
Corporate body · c1881-1967

Although the firm of J.W. Ruddock's tailors was established c1881, members of the Ruddock family were tailors in York from at least 1851.
John Ruddock was born in c1823 and had four sons: George (b. c1844), John William (1) (b. c1852), Tom (b. c1855) and James (b. c1859).
John William Ruddock also had four sons - George Ruddock (b. c1882), John W. Ruddock (2) (b. c1883), Harold W. Ruddock (b. c1887), and Henry Ernest Ruddock (b. c1893).

GB0192-159 · Corporate body · 1912-1974

Originally Sub-committee of York Education Committee. Renamed Youth Employment Sub-Committee in 1949

Juniper Communities Ltd
GB0192-531 · Corporate body · 1974-2002

Juniper Communities Ltd was founded as a charity in 1974, to provide residential care for adults with learning difficulties in the centre of York. The charity operated at least two houses, with specialist staff, in the city, before it was finally wound up in 2002.

Joseph Rowntree Foundation
GB0192-744 · Corporate body · 1904-present

The Joseph Rowntree Foundation (JRF) was founded in 1904 as the Joseph Rowntree Village Trust (JRVT), before changing its name to the Joseph Rowntree Memorial Trust (JRMT) in 1959 and finally to its present form in 1990. It was one of three Trusts established by the York Quaker philanthropist and businessman Joseph Rowntree to continue his family's pioneering work in the field of social reform; the others being the Joseph Rowntree Social Service Trust (now the Joseph Rowntree Reform Trust) and the Joseph Rowntree Charitable Trust.

The JRF is also the owner of a subsidiary private limited company, Clifton Estate Ltd, which was created in 1926 to manage land and properties in Clifton. Since 1968 the Trust's housing operations have been managed through the Joseph Rowntree Memorial Housing Trust, later renamed the Joseph Rowntree Housing Trust, as well as through the Joseph Rowntree Housing Society Ltd (between 1980 and 1996).

As of 2018 the JRF describes itself as an independent social change organisation working to solve UK poverty through research, policy, collaboration, and practical solutions.

THE JOSEPH ROWNTREE VILLAGE TRUST (JRVT) 1904-1959

From its foundation the JRVT was closely tied to the Rowntree family and the family owned confectionery company Rowntree & Co Ltd. Joseph Rowntree endowed all three Trusts with shares in the company and the six founding Trustees (shared by all the Trusts) were members of his family and company directors. However each Trust had its own distinct character and mission, albeit all in service of Joseph Rowntree's overriding commitment, set out in his 1904 Trust deed, to seeking out the 'underlying causes of weakness or evil in a community' rather than merely 'remedying their more superficial manifestations.'

The JRVT was envisioned as a Housing Trust that would provide attractive, sanitary and well built homes for rent in village communities with good quality recreational and communal facilities. Its tenants were to be drawn from all levels of society, with a mix of houses and rents so that village life would be within the reach of the average working man. In setting out his plans for such communities, Joseph Rowntree drew on the experience of fellow Quakers such as the Cadburys who had created a model village at Bournville in the 1890s although Rowntree did not intend to create 'company villages' but rather communities open to all.

To this end the JRVT was endowed with a significant amount of property as well as company shares, making it the wealthiest of the Trusts and the only one intended from the very beginning to be permanent. This property included the West Huntington estate, on which Joseph Rowntree had already begun work on his own model village of New Earswick. He had purchased the 163 acre estate in 1901 and the first twenty-eight cottages, designed by innovative architects Raymond Unwin and Barry Parker, were built in 1902-1903. The JRVT took over responsibility for the development of New Earswick in 1904 and this remained its primary function until the 1950s.

The first phase of building under the JRVT took place between 1904 and 1918 when work on the estate was funded entirely by the Trust to a plan prepared by Unwin and Parker. Bricks and tiles were provided by the Trust's own works and the Trust was also responsible for all road repairs, sewage disposal, street lighting and landscaping. The plan included wide tree-lined avenues and around twelve acres of land to be reserved for recreational use and provided sites for key amenities such as the central Folk Hall, completed in 1906, which provided space for meetings, concerts, the village library and other functions, and the New Earswick Elementary School (renamed New Earswick Primary School in 1942) completed in 1911. The Trust also operated a model dairy at White Rose Farm, using Carl Sorensen's pioneering methods of milk production to provide a high quality supply for the village.

In 1919 Raymond Unwin was appointed Chief Architect to the Ministry of Health and Barry Parker took over his work for the Trust, beginning the second phase of development at New Earswick which lasted until 1936. In the post war period rising costs and a shortage of materials meant the Trust could no longer support the full cost of development and were obliged to make use of government subsidies and to simplify their designs. The resulting drive for economy in all aspects of building had a significant effect on the original plan for the village. The building programme was continued on a year by year basis, Parker introducing a series of cul-de-sacs so that each expansion could be completed within a year and shorter roads were needed to supply each new development.

Approximately 259 new houses were completed in New Earswick between 1919 and 1936 and the Folk Hall was considerably enlarged in 1935. At the same time the Trust was developing the Clifton estate left to the Rowntree Trusts at Joseph Rowntree's death and fully controlled by the JRVT from 1928. Unlike New Earswick the estate at Clifton was developed for sale, although by 1941 a minority of the houses there still remained unsold and were let as rentals.

However the building programme began to slow in the economic depression of the 1930s, with the closure of the Trust's own brick and tile works in 1934 followed by a complete cessation of house building in 1936. Work did not cease entirely however, with work beginning on the new Joseph Rowntree Senior School in 1939, a joint venture between the Trust and Local Authority. The school was opened in 1942 and in the same year the Trust appointed Louis de Soissons as their new consultant architect. The Trust also acquired Homestead House at Clifton from Benjamin Seebohm Rowntree in 1936, on the condition that the grounds were maintained by the Trust as a public park. The House was subsequently let to Seebohm's son Peter Rowntree who oversaw the park and also ran a market garden on the site known as the Clifton Fruit Company.

The development of New Earswick entered its third phase with the close of the Second World War. The Trust purchased adjacent land at Kettlestring Farms in 1945 and began a substantial expansion of the village in 1949 into the area previously occupied by White Rose Farm. The work continued throughout the 1950s and included a mixture of houses, bungalows and flats as the Trust began to focus their efforts on creating a better balance of accommodation in the village. At the same time the Trust continued to improve their existing housing stock with the use of government Improvement Grants, in particular through the installation of central heating and indoor bathrooms.

The new balance of accommodation included housing for the elderly and for single professional people. The Trust entered into discussions with the Local Authority concerning the provision of accommodation for the elderly within the confines of the National Assistance Act of 1948 which had extended the role of voluntary organisations in this area. In this the Trust was influenced by Seebohm Rowntree's 1947 report on the welfare of the elderly which had recommended small, well designed homes and group homes for those no longer able to fully care for themselves. Consequently the Trust built twelve cottages for the elderly and converted Westbrook House on Western Terrace into a small group home with a resident warden. The home proved so popular that it was transferred to a larger house, The Garth, in 1949 and extended in 1958-1960 to provide interconnected bungalows for the elderly known as Garth Court.

The Trust also commissioned a block of twenty flats for single business and professional people between 1957 and 1960. Recognising that this kind of accommodation was more common in continental Europe, they commissioned two Swedish architects to design and equip the flats. The completed flats boasted the first use of underfloor heating in New Earswick and Swedish standards of insulation with extensive use of double glazing.

ADMINISTRATION OF THE JRVT

The administration of the JRVT was overseen by its Trustees, in whom was vested all of the property and income belonging to the Trust. Initially limited to eight in number, the Trustees were required to meet quarterly, but usually met more often in the early decades when New Earswick was still under development. New Trustee appointments could be made by Joseph Rowntree or, after his death, by the original Trustees, and thereafter alternatively by continuing Trustees and the Religious Society of Friends. The first Trustee from outside the family was Thomas Henry Appleton who was appointed in 1906 following the death of Joseph's son, John Wilhelm Rowntree. The Trustees appointed a Chairman from among their number and the Chair was re-elected on a yearly basis.

The Trustees took all major decisions relating to the work and policies of the JRVT but the day to day administration was increasingly carried out by a range of sub-committees and a growing number of office staff. In the first three decades there was a great deal of overlap between Trust and Rowntree Company administration. All three Rowntree Trusts initially shared an office at the Cocoa Works, the company headquarters in York, and in many cases also shared staff with each other and with Rowntrees. The Trust's first permanent secretary, Percy Jackson Pfluger, joined Rowntree & Co in 1913 and was assigned to the Trusts' office but remained, like many early 'Trust staff' on the company payroll. He was appointed as JRVT secretary in 1933, whilst also serving as temporary secretary to the Joseph Rowntree Social Service Trust. In addition to acting as secretary for the JRVT, he prepared the Trust's annual reports and accounts. He remained in post for the next fifty years, retiring in 1963. The Rowntree Company's legal and building departments also regularly advised the JRVT and carried out work on its behalf.

It was not until the 1940s that the administration of company and Trusts began to diverge, although the company's solicitor continued to act for the Trust. In 1942 it was noted in the Trust minutes that its staff were now no longer part of the Rowntree company or of their pension scheme. In 1948 the JRVT finally moved from the shared Trust office in the Cocoa Works to the ground floor of Beverley House, Clifton, which had been acquired by the Trust during the war. Beverley House was the headquarters of the JRVT, JRCT and later also the JRSST until 1990 and underwent a number of alterations and extensions during that time as the Trusts' activities grew.

In 1946 the first full time officer, Lewis E. Waddilove, joined the Trust as 'social investigator' and assistant to the Trustees. In 1947 he was added to the newly created Executive Committee consisting of York-based Trustees John Stephenson Rowntree and Peter Rowntree and secretary Pfluger, which was set up to deal with the routine work of the Trust, leaving more important matters and policy decisions to the quarterly meetings. By 1954 Waddilove was described as the Trust's Executive Officer.

The Executive Committee was supported by a number of other sub-committees of varied duration. One of the most important of these was the Earswick Committee which was created at the inaugural Trust meeting in 1904 'to exercise the powers of the Trustees in respect of the Earswick estate'. The committee comprised non-Trustees and included the New Earswick Housing Manager (originally called the Estate Agent) who was responsible for the welfare of tenants, allocation of houses and collection of rents. The post, which was held by a succession of women, was originally a part time one, but was made full time in 1918 and continued until 1967. The Earswick Committee reported directly to the Trustees at their quarterly meetings.

Other sub-committees were appointed as and when needed and their minutes and reports were shared with Trustees. An Education Committee was appointed in 1909 for example to report on the type of school most suitable for the village and the resulting Primary School and Senior School was managed by a Foundation Managers Committee and a Modern School Committee. In the late 1940s The Garth Committee was formed to manage the home for the elderly founded first at Westbrook House in New Earswick, before being transferred to The Garth in 1951. There was additionally a Pension Fund Committee from 1950, a Plans Committee of villagers to give feedback on proposed building developments, and a House Selection Committee to assist the Housing Manager with the selection of tenants.

The Trustees and its Earswick Sub-Committee also worked in conjunction with a representative council of villagers who met first as the Earswick Council in November 1904 and then as the New Earswick Village Council from October 1907. Consisting of eleven members, one of whom was appointed by the Trustees, the Village Council managed the Folk Hall, arranged lectures and classes, and represented the village in all matters concerning housing and village life. From 1935 they also administered an Amenities Grant in the village on behalf of the Trust, contributing to the funding of the village's many social clubs and services, as well as issuing a regular New Earswick Bulletin of news and community information.

THE JOSEPH ROWNTREE MEMORIAL TRUST (JRMT) 1959-1989

Though its primary concern before the 1950s was the development and management of New Earswick, the JRVT had also made a number of important contributions to housing policy and planning on a national and international level. New Earswick itself was a living and working example of the kind of housing standards the JRVT hoped to promote elsewhere and the Trust frequently welcomed visitors to the village, including over 200 members of the German Garden Cities Association in 1909.

They also made grants to organisations working to improve housing standards. In 1910 they made a grant to the National Housing Reform Council and in 1912 they began a long association with the National Housing and Town Planning Council. From 1919 the Trust also gave support to the Garden Cities and Town Planning Association which became the Town and Country Planning Association in 1940, as well as the London Housing Committee. In York the Trust funded an architect and planning consultant to prepare a master plan of improvement works in the city which became the 1948 exhibition 'A Plan for the City of York.'

The wider part that the Trust could play in questions of housing policy and social life came increasingly to the fore in the 1940s and 50s. In the early 1940s Benjamin Seebohm Rowntree wrote to his fellow Trustees to remind them that the 1904 Trust Deed allowed them to use their resources for any object that was of benefit to the working classes. As work on New Earswick inevitably slowed, the Trust would have more income at its disposal to devote to other projects and should think seriously about what its future role should be.

The resulting discussion continued, on and off, for the next fifteen years and involved not just the JRVT but also their sister Trusts. Meetings held in 1954, 1955, 1956 and 1957 between the JRVT, their sister Trusts, the Charity Commission and consultants drawn from the world of academia and social policy considered at length the powers afforded to the Trust by its founding Deed and the future direction of its work, taking into consideration potential overlap with the work of the JRCT and JRSST. It was decided that the JRVT should broaden their work to include that of social research and enquiry, seeking out the 'underlying causes' of social ills stressed by Joseph Rowntree in 1904. These new far-reaching powers were enshrined in a private Act of Parliament brought by the JRVT in 1959 which allowed the Trust to support research into housing and social questions and to work overseas.

To match this wider scope of activity the Trust's name was formally changed to the Joseph Rowntree Memorial Trust (JRMT) and from 1960 the Trust began to publish triennial reports detailing its work. Its administrative structure was also revised to reflect its increase in activity. In 1961 the positions of Trust Director and Assistant Director were created with responsibility for the day to day management of the Trust. Lewis Waddilove became the first Director, a post he held until 1979, and James Edward Ford Longman the first Assistant Director. The Director liaised directly with the Trust Chairman and reported to the quarterly meeting of Trustees which continued to take all strategic and policy decisions and approve the allocation of funds. Every project supported by the Trust was in addition to have its own Advisory Committee to act as an intermediary between Trust and grant recipient. These committees usually included a Trustee and the Trust Director.

From 1959 onwards there was therefore a significant expansion of the Trust's activities into the fields of housing policy and research, community and family life, the training of social workers, and social services in the UK and abroad, as well as support for Yorkshire based projects. Many projects were initiated by the Trust itself, in keeping with Joseph Rowntree's instruction to his Trusts to 'seek out' and address the underlying causes of social ills. In 1958 the Trust had launched a group of influential studies on national housing policy and rents under the direction of David Donnison known collectively as the Rowntree Trust Housing Study. Over the next twenty years other JRMT funded studies followed, investigating the effects of the 1957 Rent Act, the Voluntary Housing Movement, housing and the mobility of labour, and the development of Housing Associations amongst other subjects. The Trust also offered financial aid to a number of housing organisations, including the National Federation of Housing Societies, the Shelter Housing Advice Centre (part of the charity Shelter) and the National Association of Almshouses. In 1971 the JRMT supported the creation of the Tuke Housing Association which provided social housing in and around York, taking responsibility for its administration (which it later transferred to the Joseph Rowntree Housing Trust).

In the field of community and family life the Trust turned its attention to the rapid changes in urban life, funding a 1961 study of 'high rise' living that led to further guidance, again funded by the Trust, on the design and care of playgrounds for children in urban areas. Other early projects supported by the Trust included a study of services for the elderly in Tyneside, York Family Service Units, and the National Birthday Trust Fund's research into perinatal mortality, as well as work on such wide ranging subjects as the sociology of law, race relations, drugs, and teenage delinquency. In 1959 the Trust also made a five year grant to the Institute of Community Studies to support a broad range of social research with a Trustee and Executive Officer Lewis Waddilove joining the Institute's Advisory Committee.

The Trust also gave key support to the Social Work Staff College (later the National Institute for Social Work Training) which was founded in 1961 with the joint funding of the JRMT and the Nuffield Foundation. The need for an Institute to coordinate professional social work training and support had been recognised in the 1959 report of the Younghusband Working Party which examined the role and training of social workers in health and welfare services. Together the JRMT and Nuffield Foundation purchased and adapted Mary Ward House as a site for the Institute and provided further funding over the next ten years. In 1972 the Institute's first Director, Robin Huws Jones, was invited to join the JRMT as Associate Director and he remained with the Trust as a consultant following his retirement, helping to shape its work in this area. In addition to this institutional support the Trust also contributed funding to a number of regional social work training courses at Liverpool, Tyneside and York.

At York the JRMT played a key role in the foundation of the university in 1963, making a contribution of £100,000 to be spread over ten years. In addition to financial support the Trust also stated its intention to co-operate with any university departments that shared its research interests, particular in the social sciences. In 1962 the Trust was approached by the university regarding a proposed Institute of Social and Economic Research that would further the kind of social research pursued by the Rowntree family and Trusts and employ research students from the social science departments. The Trust agreed to make a grant of £23,500 over five years towards the general expenses of the institute and to fund two research projects. The Institute was launched the following year under the management of an Advisory Committee which included a representative of the Trust.

Whilst the Trust's initial funding to the Institute ended after five years, it continued to provide grants for individual projects such as Tony Atkinson and A. K. Maynard's re-analysis of Seebohm Rowntree's 1950 poverty survey, the report for which was published in 1981. Between 1981 and 1983 the Trust provided further funding for the creation of a broader social science research organisation, the Institute for Research in the Social Sciences, which would include the Institute for Social and Economic Research as well as staff and research units from other disciplines. In 1989 the Trust founded a Chair of Housing Policy at the university as part of the new Centre for Housing Policy (CHP).

The effect of this wide-ranging work on the effects of housing policy, investigations into family and community life and social services and social science research was to focus the Trust more clearly on the need to influence the implementation of social policy at national level. In January 1971 the Trust made the decision to establish a national Centre for Studies in Social Policy, funded by the Trust but independent from it. The Centre launched in 1972 with the mission to advise government and local authorities in taking social policy decisions. In 1977 it merged with Political and Economic Planning to form the Policy Studies Institute which continued to enjoy the support of the Trust. In the 1980s the JRMT found, bought and converted a new headquarters for the Institute in Park Village East, London.

In the same year that the Centre for Studies in Social Policy was launched the Trust took responsibility for a government initiative that would lead to the formation of the influential Social Policy Research Unit at the University of York. In December 1972, in the wake of the Thalidomide scandal, the Trust agreed to administer the Family Fund set up by the government to allocate money to families who had a child suffering from congenital disability. The Trust allocated the funds within guidelines agreed with the Department of Health and Social Security (DHSS), the first time that an independent trust had thus administered public funds to deliver a service akin to that directed locally by statutory authorities.

In order to monitor the progress of the Fund, to collate the necessary data reports to administer it and explore the broader research opportunities in social policy it presented, the Trust established an independent research project in the Department of Social Administration and Social Work at the University of York, led by Jonathan Bradshaw. The project was launched in August 1973, with the costs shared between the DHSS and the Trust. It was originally intended that the research project would run for three years but in 1975 the research team were asked by the DHSS to become one of their standing research units, developing a broader research programme on children with disabilities. The DHSS subsequently took over the funding of the unit and it was renamed the Social Policy Research Unit, although the unit continued to maintain close links with the Family Fund and would later undertake other large scale projects for the JRF. These included the Poverty and Social Exclusion Survey in Britain in 1999 and the Minimum Income Standards project in 2006-2008.

OVERSEAS WORK OF THE JRMT

The Trust's work in this area was not confined to the UK. The 1959 parliamentary Act established the Trust's authority to provide houses and community services anywhere in the Commonwealth and to pursue research anywhere in the world. The initiative for this work came from the Trust's involvement with the National Citizens Advice Bureaux, run by the National Council of Social Service in the UK, and the suggestion that a similar service, adapted to local needs, could be of use in those Commonwealth countries adapting to the pressures of rapid industrial and urban change. The Trust secured the services of an experienced officer from the National Citizens Advice Bureaux Committee who visited Northern and Southern Rhodesia (later Zambia) in late 1959 to meet people engaged in voluntary social work there. Her report claimed that a Council of Social Service would be of more use to coordinate the various voluntary services before Citizens Advice Bureaux could be established.

The Trust subsequently arranged for other experienced officer to travel to Rhodesia for six months in 1960 to coordinate services, leading to the creation of Citizens Advice Bureaux in Salisbury, Bulawayo and two additional African townships in Southern Rhodesia. In order to establish the permanent body needed to manage these new bureaux the Trust engaged H. R. Poole of the Liverpool Council of Social Service who set up a base in Salisbury for a year and helped establish a Northern Rhodesian Council of Social Service with subsidiary local councils and a series of related committees and conferences, as well as responding to enquiries from Uganda and Nyasaland (later Malawi). The Trust subsequently helped to set up Councils of Social Service in Southern Rhodesia, Uganda and Kenya.

The considerations that governed these initial forays into overseas aid also shaped their support of other projects in Africa. The Trust's annual reports made it clear that they were all too aware of the pitfalls of a British charity influencing social and political developments in societies they had little direct knowledge of. Thus they sought to use their funds to support projects they could maintain a personal relationship with, that furthered their key commitment to improved social and community services and housing, and to allow these projects to be shaped by their own evolving societies, funding trained staff and necessary equipment for existing projects rather than establishing wholly new projects of their own.

Between 1960 and 1963 the Trust provided funding for the Uganda Youth Council's youth leader training courses in Kampala. They also made a grant to the Outward Bound Association of Rhodesia to fund a Training Officer from 1965 and paid for a full time warden at the Waddington Community Centre at Lusaka which was open to both Africans and Europeans. They also made a contribution towards fellowships for three African graduate students to come to Britain to study social administration and supported the secretarial training of twenty girls in Zambia. Throughout the 1960s and 1970s they also made several grants to the pioneering Jairos Jiri Association for Rehabilitation of the Disabled and Blind in Bulawayo to pay for trained staff.

In housing too the Trust worked with existing organisations, advancing a loan for the purchase of land and the building of co-operative housing and shops in Bulawayo in 1962-1963, managed by the Mhlahlandhlela Housing Co-operative in collaboration with the Bulawayo Municipality. In the 1970s the Trust also made a financial contribution towards staff costs at a self-help housing scheme in Kafue, near Lusaka, which had been set up by the American Friends Service Committee and the Zambian government, as well as to a group of housing co-operatives in Lesotho.

The Trust took the decision to discontinue its work in Africa in 1988.

THE HOUSING TRUST

The broader powers exercised by the Trust in the fields of social and housing policy and research did not undermine its core commitment to New Earswick and the practical provision of affordable and good quality housing and amenities in the UK. However its new dual role as a charitable body administering an endowment for the purposes of social research and experiment and as a housing association developing a housing programme with the aid of government subsidies gave rise to a number of legal difficulties. In 1967 the Trust took the decision to separate its role as a housing association from its other activities in order to divide and safeguard its status as a housing trust and an endowed charity, and to ensure its housing work could continue to qualify for statutory grants and loans. The Joseph Rowntree Memorial Housing Trust (later the Joseph Rowntree Housing Trust) was launched on 1 January 1968 and was vested with all of the land and property of the JRMT, including the New Earswick estate and adjacent Kettlestring Farms. In addition it received an annual grant from the JRMT to carry out its work.

The legal distinction between the two Trusts was not, at least in its early decades, always reflected in its operations and administration. The JRMT and JRMHT shared Trustees, staff and offices, although the administration of the JRMHT was delegated to a New Earswick Management Committee and the finances of the two were kept separate. The housing programme followed by the JRMHT was to continue on from that of the JRMT and included the extensive New Earswick modernisation programme begun in 1966 and continued throughout the 1970s which saw the interiors of the oldest houses in the village extensively remodelled.

The two Trusts have continued to work closely together and this is reflected in their archives which show a significant degree of overlap. The JRMT had the power to contribute to any part of the work of the Housing Trust that was legally defined as charitable and the work of both Trusts was included in the published Triennial Reports from 1968 to 1991 and then in the Annual Reports from 1991 to 2003. It was only in 2004 that the two Trusts began to publish separate Annual Reports, although the first two Housing Trust reports describe it as the 'operational arm' of the Joseph Rowntree Foundation, and thereafter they are described as working in partnership.

THE JOSEPH ROWNTREE FOUNDATION (1990-)

The late 1980s were a time of significant change for the Trust. In 1988 Rowntree Mackintosh was taken over by the Swiss company Nestlé. Although the JRMT, like the JRCT, had divested itself of some of its Rowntree shares and diversified its investments following the Cocoa Losses of 1973, company shares still accounted for 60 per cent of the JRMT's income in 1988, and made up 3.8 per cent of the company's ordinary share capital. The takeover was opposed by both the JRMT and JRCT (the JRSST had disposed of its Rowntree shares in the 1970s) and its success obliged both to sell their remaining company shares, severing the direct link between the Trusts and the company but almost doubling the value of the JRMT's assets to £110 million.

As a result of the takeover the JRMT was able to take back ownership of The Homestead, previously the home of Seebohm Rowntree and then leased to Rowntree Mackintosh as their international headquarters. In 1990 the Trust moved their offices from Beverley House to The Homestead and as of 2018 it remains their York headquarters.

It was also able to devote more money to its research and development programme, which came under review in the same year as the takeover. In its 1988-1991 Triennial Report the Director was keen to stress the active role of the Trust in research and development, stating that it did not make grants 'in the traditional sense' of contributing to charitable appeals or giving to good causes, but rather supported specific programmes of original work decided, and often initiated, by the Trustees, and subject to regular review. This was described in later reports as a mandate to search, demonstrate and influence. The boost to Trust income meant that the Trust now had considerably more resources to develop its programmes, in 1987 the JRMT gave £2.8 million in new grant commitments, by 1991 this had risen to £6.1 million.

In their 1988 review Trustees agreed that housing would continue to be a major activity of the Trust, as would social care, which would be expanded to include community care and the delivery of services to support families and carers. Its work for those with learning difficulties would also be broadened to include all aspects of disability. Social policy, which had been a major area of Trust work since the 1960s, was in turn to be confined in the future to social security issues and income support, with the Trust's work on employment (and Africa) discontinued. The Trust also established Local and Central Government Relations as a distinct area of activity, a field of work that had begun in the mid 1980s under the direction of Deputy Trust Chairman, Sir Charles Carter.

These areas of work were to be supported by committees of Trustees and outside experts. In 1991 these were the Housing Research Committee, the Social Policy Research Committee, the Community Care and Disability Committee, and the Local and Central Government Relations Research Committee. Most grant funded projects also had an individual Advisory Committee to offer support and enable the Trust to review its progress, and all were from 1990 subject to new Project Agreements which set out the expectations of both the Trust and the researchers and committed them to contributing a clear summary of their work for the 'Findings' series of four page summaries of Trust funded research projects.

At the same time there were changes to the Trust's staff as Director Robin Guthrie left to take up the role of Chief Charity Commissioner and was replaced by Richard Best, previously the Director of the National Federation of Housing Associations. Under his directorship the Trust changed its name to the Joseph Rowntree Foundation to better differentiate it from its sister Trusts, and set about raising its public profile.

Best saw an immediate need to make the results of the JRF's broad range of research more readily available to policy makers, the press and the public, and in 1989 Roland Hurst, the Trust's first Director of Information Services, was appointed to manage the dissemination of the Trust's research output through new publications, specialist briefings and a closer relationship with the media. As part of his work he launched the 'Findings', as well as 'Search', a more detailed quarterly magazine.

By the end of 1991 the Directorate and staff of the JRF and JRHT combined numbered some 250 people. This included five Directors: the Director of the Foundation and the Directors of the Family Fund, of Housing and Property Services, Research, Finance, and of Information Services, and, where relevant, their reporting committees. Reporting to the Director of Research were the Social Policy Research, Housing Research, Local and Central Government Relations Research, and the Community Care and Disability Committees.

Meanwhile the housing operations undertaken by the JRF and its associated bodies (the Joseph Rowntree Housing Trust and the Joseph Rowntree Housing Society Ltd) were administered by the Housing Committee and New Earswick Management Committee, both reporting to the Director of Housing and Property Services. In 1993 the JRF added the new post of Housing Research Development Officer to bridge the gap between housing research and housing operations and to ensure the research directly influenced the work of the JRHT. In 1995 a new Development Overview Committee was added to support research and development projects involving the JRHT.

Although the work of the Trust focused in the early 1990s on the five main areas set out in 1988, projects within these programmes were often grouped together around a particular theme, with their results analysed in a final overarching report commissioned by the JRF. The Trust's 'Action on Estates' programme in 1993-1994 for example brought together eight research projects in the housing field, as well as practical work at the Bell Farm housing estate in York, to make detailed recommendations on ways to empower residents of estates across the whole of the UK, including the influential report 'Unleashing the Potential' by Marilyn Taylor.

From the mid 1990s the JRF adopted the overarching theme of 'strengthening communities and combating exclusion', and this began to shape much of their programme of research and development. In 1995 it brought together 30 research projects under a Trust commissioned Income and Wealth Inquiry, chaired by JRF Chairman Sir Peter Barclay, the final report of which received a great deal of publicity. In the same year the Trust's Family and Parenthood programme brought together 22 research projects in the report 'Family and Parenthood: Supporting Families, Preventing Breakdown' by David Utting. In 1996 Lynn Watson brought together findings from 20 Trust funded projects in the field of housing and community care to analyse the housing needs of care users and the effects of the 1993 Community Care Act. Where relevant, this research could directly influence the practical work of the Housing Trust, such as with the 'Lifetime Homes' scheme that saw the design criteria of the JRF's Lifetime Homes Group applied to the JRHT's 'Woodlands' housing development in York.

A major area of work during this period was the establishment by the JRF of Communities that Care UK, a company that received its core funding from the Trust between 1997 and 2001, when it became financially independent. Based on an American scheme, CTC UK focused on early intervention and prevention services for children and their families at risk of developing social problems. The scheme was trialled in three areas and, following an evaluation commissioned by the JRF, was extended to more than twenty communities by the end of 2001.

Trust committees changed to reflect these new and emerging priorities. Community Care and Disability became the Social Care and Disability Committee in the mid 1990s. In 1997 the Social Policy Research Committee became the Work, Income and Social Policy Committee, and in 1998 the Housing Committee became the Housing and Neighbourhoods Committee. In 1997 the Trust also added a Young People and Families Committee to direct its expanding youth intervention work.

So that it could continue to respond to wider change and ensure its work remained relevant, in 1998 the Trust created a new Policy and Practice Development Department, led by a new Director, to engage with external developments and agendas and liaise directly with the JRHT and Care Services department when needed. In 2002, as it approached its centenary year, the Trust conducted a further strategic review of its programmes in order to identify new areas of work and adjust its committee structure where necessary. The review identified the Trust's core areas of work as housing and deprivation, the twin issues of 'poverty' and 'place' which lay at the heart of the work undertaken by Joseph and Seebohm Rowntree and in the foundation of the JRVT itself in 1904.

Research and development programmes in these two areas were to be overseen by two existing committees, the Housing and Neighbourhoods Committee, and the Work, Income and Social Policy Committee which was renamed the Poverty and Disadvantage Committee.
Beyond these core areas the review recommended the replacement of standing research and development committees with a series of more flexible time-limited committees, responsible for individual programmes of work. Thus the Social Care and Disability Committee and the Children, Young People and Families Committee closed in 2003. They were replaced by a number of single programme committees, including a Drug and Alcohol Research Committee, an Immigration and Inclusion Committee and a Parenting Research and Development Committee.

Between 2002 and 2005 the JRF carried out a wide range of work through these standing and single programme committees. In the field of housing the Trust advocated for more affordable housing, as exemplified by its CASPAR (City Centre Apartments for Single People at Affordable Rents) scheme in Leeds and Birmingham, and its administrative support for the All-Party Parliamentary Group on homelessness and housing need. In the field of 'deprivation' the Trust produced its annual Monitoring Poverty and Social Exclusion survey, which it extended to Northern Ireland in 2006, as well as launching the Public Interest in Poverty initiative which surveyed public attitudes towards poverty, and advocating for access to affordable credit. In response to wider changes the JRF also commissioned research into the experiences and perceptions of migrants working in low waged jobs in the UK and carried out a comprehensive review of modern slavery.

Its work with families and young people included research into anti-social behaviour and funding a 2005 independent Commission on Families and Wellbeing of Children which was set up to look at the relationship between the state and the family. This work intersected with research on educational and employment opportunities available to disabled young people. The Foundation also continued to advocate for sustainable funding for long term care for the elderly, producing a series of costed policy options and working in partnership with the King's Fund, Age Concern, and Help the Aged to discuss these policy concerns with older people.

To aid the dissemination of this work, Trustees also approved a number of new programmes for the Policy and Practice Development Department which would build on the findings of JRF research and development activity with the aim of influencing policy makers on key issues such as neighbourhood regeneration, affordable homes for single people, the value of mixed income communities, and meeting the challenge of long term care for the elderly.

The long-serving Director of both the JRF and JRHT, Richard Best, retired in 2006 and was replaced in 2007 by Julia Unwin. A further review of the strategic direction of the JRF took place in 2007 which expanded the Foundation's core interests to poverty, place and empowerment. As a result of the review the Foundation established three new strategy groups to advice Trustees on its search, demonstration and influencing work under these three themes. Key research in these areas included routes out of poverty, barriers to reducing inequality, the regeneration of places, and meeting housing needs in times of change. The Foundation also sought to return to its founding principles by commissioning a public consultation on the nature of 'social evils' in the twenty-first century and how these had changed over the previous century, followed by analysis of the issues identified and exploration of possible solutions. This work was published in 2009 as 'Contemporary Social Evils', incorporating new research by the National Centre for Social Research.

A number of new programmes were introduced in 2009 under these three key themes. These included an examination of how climate change would affect the people and places facing poverty and disadvantage in the UK, how to offer a 'better life' to older people in residential care, and an exploration of the impact of globalisation on UK poverty. The Foundation also launched the JRF Housing Market Taskforce to work towards the establishment of a more stable housing market, particularly for vulnerable households.

In 2012 the JRF agreed a new Strategic Plan for 2012-2014 following consultations with staff, Trustees, and external stakeholders across the UK. The plan organised the Foundation's work around the themes of poverty, place, and ageing society and introduced a number of new programmes. These included a three year programme to contribute to evidence and debate on the wider implications of an ageing society, care for people with dementia, and care homes as places to live and work, as well as initiatives encouraging businesses to become 'anti poverty employers' and a partnership with the charity Crisis to monitor UK homelessness. The Foundation also made substantial grants to a programme exploring the relationship between housing and poverty, and to a major new four year programme to develop an anti-poverty strategy for the UK. The latter culminated in the launch of the country's first comprehensive plan to solve UK poverty, 'We Can Solve UK Poverty', in September 2016.

The 2015-2017 Strategic Plan adopted the three core themes of individuals and relationships, the places where people live, and work and worth. New programmes of work included the promotion of inclusive growth in cities, the 'reframing' of poverty to improve public and political debate on the subject, research into minimum income standards across the UK, and the relationship between poverty and ethnicity. The Foundation's current strategic plan sets out its priorities for 2018-2021, based upon the two overarching outcomes that everyone should have a decent home in a good place, and that everyone should have decent living standards and prospects.

GB0192-512 · Corporate body · c.1891-2009

John Hodgson Charitable Trust was first administered by the Guardians of the York Union (together with a representative appointed by Sheriff Hutton Parish Council from 1891 onwards). In 1924 the constitution of thecommittee was altered when it was decided to adminster the charity by a committee existing of six members of the York Board of Guardians and five Rural District Councillors from the outlying councils situated in the York Union, together with a representative of Sheriff Hutton Parish Council. These members continued in office until the 17th October 1930, when the Charity Commissioners amended the constitution for the regulation of the charity, owing to the operation of the Local Government Act 1929, which dissolved the Board of Guardians.

The charity held £2,500 London and North Eastern Railway Company 4 per cent First Preference Stock, and £2,500 London and North Eastern Railway Company 4 per cent second Guaranteed Stock, bequeathed by the late John Hodgson Esq, a Guardian of the Poor who lived in Strensall, to the Chairman of the York Union, W Surtees Hornby Esq. The income was to be given at the discretion of the Board of Guardians to people in the area living on small incomes, afflicted by illness or without the means of procuring items they needed in times of distress. The stipulation was that these people could not already be receiving poor relief, other than outdoor medical relief, and had to live in the York Union area or the village of Sheriff Hutton. Residents could also be from the areas of Beningborough and Overton, as these villages were in the York Union area at the time of John Hodgson's death in 1890.

The charity was finally wound-up in 2009.

James (Jim) Walter Hammond
1932-2021

James (Jim) Walter Hammond was a former York School Master, and a well known member of the Rowntree Players Dramatic Society. He performed with the players for 40 years from 1968 to 2007.

GB0192-329 · Person · c1897-1996

William Arthur Jagger was born in 1897, the son of Albert and Rose Jagger. In 1920, he married Ethel Cook and they had two children - Irene May Jagger (b. 1920) and Peter Francis Jagger (b. 1925). He died in 1996.
See Also - National and Local Government Officers Association

J W Knowles and Sons
GB0192-422 · Corporate body · c.1861-1970s

The exact start date of the business is unknown but it is thought that it began around 1861.

J Kendrew, York printer
GB0192-659 · Corporate body · 19th century

J Kendrew was a printer based in Colliergate, York, in the first quarter of the 19th century. He appears to have specialised in chapbooks, including penny books and larger format versions.

J. & G. Oldfield Ltd
Corporate body · 1664-1970

Oldfield's Wine Merchants was established in 1664. The firm appears in the earliest published York Trades Directory in 1781. It last appears in the Directory of 1970.

GB0192-696 · Corporate body · ?-present

Invalid Children's Aid Nationwide (I CAN) is a national registered charity (number 210031) for children with speech and language difficulties. The charity began as the Invalid Children's Aid Association (ICAA) on 26 November 1888, founded by Allen Dowdeswell Graham, a clergyman, to help poor children who were either seriously ill or handicapped. In 1888, he wrote 'Poverty is bad enough, God knows, but the poor handicapped exist in a living hell. It's up to us to do something about it'. Allen Graham organised a group of home visit volunteers who took food, bedding and medicine to children and their families, and helped arrange admissions into hospitals and convalescent homes, holidays, apprenticeships, and the loan of spinal carriages, wheel chairs and perambulators. Royal patronage began in 1891 and continued throughout the 20th century. The dates of operation of the York branch of the association are currently unknown.

As the Association grew, volunteers were gradually replaced by professional social workers and 'Homes of Recovery' were set up, where the treatment of children with tuberculosis and rheumatic heart disease was first pioneered. The first of these residential establishments was Holt Sanatorium opened in 1906 and Parkstone Home for boys was opened in 1909. In 1935, the ICAA helped publicise the need for immunisation against diptheria by holding a conference in London. The ICAA worked closely with the London County Council in providing Care Committee Secretaries to the Schools for Physically Handicapped Children, and acting as an agent for the tuberculosis 'TB Contact Scheme' from 1925. During 1939 to 1945, the Association was involved in the special arrangements for the evacuation of physically handicapped children to homes or selected foster homes.

The National Health Service Act 1948 introduced financial support for medical care and appliances required by the Association's social workers, enabling greater concentration on providing casework support to help alleviate the stress experienced by families with handicapped children. The Act also led to the transferral of the Association's Heart Hospital, which had been opened in 1926 to the Health Authorities and the gradual replacement of convalescence by short term holidays.

In the 1950s the Association's motto was 'To every child a chance' and aims were:

  1. To collect and put at the disposal of parents and others, all information with regard to the care of invalid and crippled children, and the facilities which exist for their treatment.

  2. To co-operate with doctors, hospital almoners and others by reporting on those aspects of the child's social background which are relevant to the understanding and treatment of the illness.

  3. To assist parents to carry out the doctor's advice with regard to treatment by :-

a) Arranging convalescence where necessary.

b) Helping them to understand, and where possible rectify, any adverse social conditions that may exist.

  1. To help in the re-establishment of the child in normal life.

  2. To visit the seriously invalided child.

With improvements in health care, the Association also began to concentrate on the educational problems arising from specific disabilities or chronic illness. In 1961 the Association organised an International Conference of Dyslexia and in 1964 the Word Blind Centre, Coram's Fields, was opened to study dyslexia and other reading difficulties. This led to the formation of the British Dyslexia Association.

By 1981 the ICAA was maintaining five residential schools for children with special educational needs. It also ran a central information service, which provided free advice, and hired publications and films, and centres run by social workers in London and Surrey offering support to families with handicapped children. Social work services were run partly through grant aid from local authorities, and included Keith Grove Centre, Hammersmith which was opened in 1967, and Grenfell House Social Work Centre in 1981.

In 1983 a Curriculum Development centre was opened for the research of teaching materials for children with speech and language disorders. The ICAA also expanded its area of work to include the Midlands and the North East with the opening of Carshalton Family Advice and Support Centre and regional offices.

In 1986 the ICAA was renamed as I CAN. In the late 1990s I CAN delivered a range of direct and partnership services to help children by pioneering work in special schools, nurseries and centres within local schools and by providing training and information for parents, teachers and therapists. In 1999 there were 25,000 children with severe and complex speech and language impairment, with only 14 specialised schools available in the country, I CAN managing three of these at Dawn House School, John Horniman School and Meath School. In these schools I CAN employed teachers, speech and language therapists, educational psychologists, care staff and social workers. In the financial year April 2000 to March 2001 the charity's gross income was £6,151,000, and expenditure was £7,035,000. I CAN has been involved in national projects such as 'Changing lives', an initiative launched in 1999, aimed at changing 'early years' provision to support 1,200 children in 2002.

Insurance Committee
GB0192-102 · Corporate body · 1911-1948?

An independent committee setup by the National Insurance Act 1911, the corporation contributed 20% of the membership.

GB0192-192 · Corporate body · Twentieth century

Initially a single post, this expanded to a discrete department in the mid twentieth century with a chief inspector at its head.

Inspector of Nuisances
GB0192-193 · Corporate body · Nineteenth-twentieth century

Instructed by Medical Officer of Health, Local Board of Health and Chief Sanitary Inspector. Supported by Assistant Inspectors of Nuisances.

Inland Waterways Association
GB0192-698 · Corporate body · ?-present

IWA is a membership charity that works to protect and restore the country's 6,500 miles of canals and rivers. It is unclear when the local branches in Yorkshire and the North Midlands were originally founded, however they were certainly operating by 1959.

Ideal Laundry
GB0192-697 · Corporate body · ?-?

Ideal Laundry was opened in St Martin's Lane, York, in the early part of the 20th century. It later moved to Trinity Lane. The company became incorporated in 1979. Whilst its exact dates of operation are not known, the company had certainly ceased trading by 1995, when the site was excavated by archaeologists prior to redevelopment.

Huntington Parish Council
GB0192-416 · Corporate body · 1894-Present

The Parish Council represents the local community at council level and is responsible for local matters such as planning applications as well as local facilities including the upkeep of public spaces in the village.

GB0192-510 · Corporate body · ?-present

Huntington Local History Group is a social organisation which meets to research and discuss the history of the Huntington area. As part of their work, they conduct research and face-to-face interviews with members of the public, asking them to record their memories of the area.

Corporate body · 1977-2021

The Huntington Good News Association was founded at a public meeting in 1977. The organisation was established to create a group of volunteers who could held those living in and around Huntington who needed support, including tasks such as taking people to hospital appointments, collecting and delivering shopping, running a lunch club, and picking up prescriptions.

During its years of operation, the group remained solvent and received grants for their work, including from the City Council, Parish Councils, the York Common Good Trust, the Norman Collinson Charitable Trust, and the Joseph Rowntree Foundations.

The decision was taken to close the organisation in July 2021. Many of the functions of the group were being carried out by other organisations, and it was felt that the Covid-19 pandemic made it difficult to continue operating as they had been.

Hunt; Reginald (1894-1941)
GB0192-425 · Person · 1894-1941

Reginald Hunt was born in 1894 at 2 Park Grove, York, the only son and middle child of John Henry Hunt and Bertha Mary Hunt. In 1901 the family lived in Spurriergate and by 1911 had moved to 26 Aldwark. Reginald was educated at St Olave's School and from 1904-11 was a day boy at St Peter's School, York. His father - a brewer, and later a Brewers' manager - was a cousin of (the later, Sir) John Joseph Hunt of the John J Hunt Ebor Brewery.

During the First World War Reginald worked as a Voluntary Aid Detachment nurse, first at Nunthorpe Hospital (September 1915 to November 1916) and then at St Mary's Convent Hospital - now York's Bar Convent - from December 1916 to May 1917. In both positions he was required to supervise the hospital orderlies, and he moved from the rank of Private to Lieutenant during that period. His sister Violet also worked as a VAD nurse, at Clifford Street Voluntary Aid Detachment Hospital.

Reginald also entered the brewing profession. In 1921 he received the Freedom of the City of London in the Worshipful Company of Distillers; from 1934-35 he held the office of Master of the Company. He was also onetime President of the Yorkshire Wholesale Wine and Spirit Association. On the death of Sir John Joseph in 1933, Reginald became Chairman of the John J Hunt Ltd and Scarborough & Whitby Breweries.

Grimston Court, Dunnington, designed by Walter Brierley for Sir John Joseph also passed to Reginald; he lived there with his sister Violet until his death in 1941.

Reginald Hunt took an active role in public life in York. From 1934-5 he was Governor of the York Company of Merchant Adventurers; he served on the House Committee of York County Hospital and as a governor of the hospital; from the group's inception he was Chairman of the Supporters of York County Hospital. During the First World War he was actively engaged with the work of the St John's Ambulance Brigade in York. He gave presentation cups to at least two local societies, the York Rowing Club and York Speedway, and was actively involved with many other societies and charitable organisations.

Reginald Hunt died on 29 April 1941, aged 46.
Reginald Hunt had two sisters - May (Mary) Hunt and Violet Hunt.

Hungate Mission School
GB0192-414 · Corporate body · 1861-1920s

Hungate Mission School was founded in the March 1861 as Salem Mission School by Mr James Harrison, a member of the Quaker Society of Friends. As well as being a Sunday School, it taught reading, writing and arithmetic on every night of the week except Saturday when the teachers met together to clean up the place for the Sunday services.

The school first opened in Whixleys Court, St Saviourgate, with a teaching staff representing nearly every religious community in the city. It was essentially non-denominational. It eventually left Whixleys Court and moved to a building in Garden Street, Hungate, which had been built by the Weslyan Methodists. At this time the name of the school changed to Hungate Mission School. By this time it was so important a centre that a volume was printed publishing the rules of the school, with two colour plates showing the schoolroom and its arrangements.

The Mission School continued to teach pupils until the 1920s and closed down when the Hungate area began to disappear.

Hughes; Mary (1886-1955)
GB0192-262 · Person · 1886-1955

Mary Stuart was born on 23 June 1886 at Shirenewton, Monmouth, the daughter of Alfred Donald Stuart, a mercantile clerk, and his wife Emily. On 15 July 1912 she married John Armstrong Hughes, a clerk in Holy orders.

Mary Hughes came to York aged 38 when her husband, John, became warden of the St Mary's Educational Settlement. After leaving York she accompanied her husband to America, where he served as warden at Pendle Hill. During her time in York she worked with refugee groups in the city, and was a member of the York Refugee Committee.

After the death of her husband in 1942 she came back to York and lived with her daugher in New Earswick. Later they moved to Kirby Moorside in the Yorkshire Moors, before later returning to live in New Earswick.

Mary Hughes died on 20 April 1955 at The Retreat, York, aged 68.

GB0192-778 · Person · c.1919-2020

David Hughes was born in North Berwick, East Lothian, the son of Mary and John Hughes. His father was an Anglican clergyman who became a Quaker after his experiences as a chaplain in the First World War. David and his siblings, Michael and Barbara, went to Quaker schools in York, where the family lived. They spent two years in America in the 1930s, when John was appointed director of the Quaker study centre Pendle Hill, in Pennsylvania – a formative experience for David.

He read geography at Emmanuel College, Cambridge, but his studies were interrupted by the Second World War and he was awarded a 'war degree' after two years. As conscientious objectors, David and Michael both faced military tribunals, but neither was jailed. David took the alternative of joining the Friends Relief Service, delivering relief to war-affected citizens. He spent six years with the FRS, in London and also in Holland, where he drove ambulances and lorries, and in Germany working in refugee camps.

In 1938 he volunteered at Dovercourt camp, Harwich, which took in, and found homes for, Jewish children fleeing the Nazis via the Kindertransport evacuation. David persuaded his parents to take in a young brother and sister. (His mother was already active in refugee work in York.) The boy, Harry Baum, later became very successful in the travel industry. All his life David kept on his key ring a small brass disc with his name and Dovercourt room number on it. He gave public talks about these experiences, into his 90s, and was interviewed by members of the Holocaust Education Trust.

While teaching at Ottershaw School, Surrey, the UK's first state boarding school for boys, David met Betty Wilson, who had come from Northern Ireland to work as a cook at the school. They married in Antrim in 1951, and daughter Lotte was born a year later. The family emigrated in 1952 as 'Ten Pound Poms' to Australia, where my father taught at a Quaker school in Hobart. My parents did not much like Tasmania, however, and returned after two years. The best part of the adventure was sailing round the world and visiting exotic lands.

The family settled in Shropshire, where David began teaching at Wellington Boys' Grammar School. His daughter Tanya was born in 1956. David retired in 1979 and he and Betty later moved to Church Stretton, where they were active in the local United Nations Association and the Liberal Democrats.

Sadly, Betty's dementia and move to a care home later forced them to live separately. David moved to Bishop's Castle at the age of 94 and enjoyed an unexpected new lease of life. In his 90s he published an anthology, The Seven Ages of William Shakespeare (2010), and a book in 2016 on the moral teachings of Jesus.

Betty died in 2019, and David died on 3 December 2020, aged 101. He is survived by his two daughters
Mary Hughes, mother.

Housing Committee
GB0192-91 · Corporate body · 1920-1974

Originally formed as a special sub-committee to carry out new duties of the Health Committee under the 1919 Housing Acts. It gained wider responsibilites over the course of the twentieth century.
Originally sub-committee of Health Committee.

Housing and Estates Manager
GB0192-208 · Corporate body · Twentieth century

Managed Housing and Estates department with responsibility for applications, lettings, inspections and repairs.

Corporate body · pre-1391-nineteenth century

Founded pre-1391. Transferred in 1478 to gild of Corpus Christi. Following dissolution of gild of Corpus Christi in 1547, hospital continued independently, then co-opted Lord Mayor and Aldermen as master and officers in 1552. Property transferred to Lord Mayor and commonalty of York in 1582-3, subsequently managed as a corporation charity.

Home Start York
GB0192-693 · Corporate body · ?-present

Home-Start is a local community network of trained volunteers and expert support helping families with young children through their challenging times. It is not known when the York branch actually started, however it was certainly before the 1990s.

Holmes; Sydney John (?-?)
GB0192-723 · Person · ?-?

Sydney John Holmes was born and raised in Acomb near York. He fought in the First World War, incuding in Ypres in 1917-1918.

Holberry; Samuel (1814-1842)
GB0192-687 · Person · 1814-1842

Samuel Holberry was a prominent Chartist activist.

Holberry was born in Gamston, Nottinghamshire, the youngest of nine children. In 1832 he joined the army, leaving in 1835 and moving to Sheffield, where began working as a distiller, and married Mary Cooper.

Together with other activists campaigning to extend the political rights given by the Reform Act 1832, he engaged in a number of peaceful protests. After a rebellion in Newport, Monmouthshire (now known as the Newport Rising) was put down in 1839, Samuel and a group of conspirators planned a Sheffield Rising.

The groups began to organise a militia, and supposedly 'provided themselves with arms, and fixed upon a plan for taking some, and firing other parts of the town'.

The plot was exposed by the landlord of a pub in Rotherham who had infiltrated the group. Leaders were identified, and both Samuel and Mary were arrested. In contrast to many members of the group, Samuel freely admitted that he had aimed to upset the Government and was willing to die for the Charter. He was convicted of conspiracy to riot and sedition and was sentenced to four years' imprisonment. He was placed in Northallerton House of Correction.

In gaol, Samuel developed consumption and died after being transferred to York Castle in 1842. He was buried in Sheffield General Cemetery, with 50,000 people attending his funeral.

Hey; family
GB0192-690 · Family · 19th century

The Hey family were resident in York in the 19th century. The family was intermarried with the Gray family of Grays solicitors, York, and associated papers can be found in the business collection (reference GDC) and the family collection (reference GFP).

Heslington Parish Council
GB0192-689 · Corporate body · ?-Present

Heslington Parish Council was officially created when the Local Government Act of 1894 formed Parish Councils. The new Parish Councils assumed responsibility for local civic and social welfare which was previously managed through ecclesiastical parishes.

Hepper & Watson
Corporate body · 1974-present

Hepper & Watson Estate Agents was founded in 1974, following the amalgamation of Hepper & Sons and Watson & Sons. The origins of both companies date back to the 19th century. The company changed emphasis from being an estate agency to asset management. The company continues to trade today under the rebranded Watsons name.

Health Committee
Corporate body · 1900-1974

Responsibility for health issues such as sanitary notices, inspection of food, slum clearances, health instiutions, public baths, air pollution. Acted through an increasingly large number of sub-committees such as environmental health, mental health, ambulance service, maternity etc. Business transacted relates to policy, management and named individuals.
Previously the Urban Sanitary District Committee (1872-1901). Instructed the Medical Officer of Health and the Chief Sanitary Inspector.

GB0192-388 · Person · 1923-2017

Dennis Haydock was born on 15th December 1923 in Crookes, Sheffield to Ada and Edwin Haydock who were deaf and dumb from childhood. Dennis had one older brother, Eric Haydock who was 4 years his senior. Dennis served in the 1st (Armoured) Batallion Coldstream Guards as a tank Gunner from 1942-1947. After the war, Dennis worked at Sheffield Forge and Rolling Mills and in 1980 he moved to York with his wife and took up work in the Terry's chocolate factory.

Dennis Haydock died in 2017.
See Also - Normandy Veterans Association

Haxby Town Council
GB0192-444 · Corporate body · 1894-Present

Haxby Town Council was officially created when the Local Government Act of 1894 formed Parish Councils. The new Parish/Town Councils assumed responsibility for local civic and social welfare which was previously managed through ecclesiastical parishes.

Hawksby; John (1910-?)
GB0192-759 · Person · 1910-?

John Hawksby was the brother of professional boxer Fred Hawksby. It also thought that he was a boxer, at least at amateur level. With his brother, he was also active in the management of local charitable tournaments in York.
Fred Hawksby (brother).

Hawksby; Fred (?-?)
GB0192-758 · Person · ?-?

Fred Hawksby was a professional boxer from York who was active between 1929 and 1935. He was also active in the management of local charitable tournaments in York, alongside his brother John.

Fred boxed at featherweight; lightweight and took part in 27 professional contests.
John Hawksby (brother).

GB0192-437 · Person · 1929 - 2005

Brian Hartley was born in 1929, and attended Trinity Hall, Cambridge in 1950, where he studied for the Natural Sciences Tripos. He then went on to gain a distinction in the Diploma in Prehistoric Archaeology. He retired from the University of Leeds in 1995, and passed away on 26th April 2005.

GB0192-406 · Person · 1788-1862

William Hargrove was born in Knaresborough, Yorkshire, on 16 October 1788, the youngest child of Ely Hargrove and his second wife. His father intended him to join the church, and he was placed under the care of his godfather, Robert Wyrell, at that time curate of Knaresborough. Wyrell recommended, however, that Hargrove be trained as a journalist, and as a result he was accordingly apprenticed to Mr. Smart of Huddersfield.

Following his apprenticeship Hargrove returned to Knaresborough, before purchasing the York Herald, a weekly newspaper, in 1813. He moved to York, and the first number of the York Herald under his management was published on 13 July 1813. He was editor of the paper for the next 35 years, and during that time expanded the staff to include a reporter, and a correspondent in nearly every town in Yorkshire. Hargrove subsequently bought the shares in the business of his two sleeping partners.

In October 1818 Hargrove entered the corporation of York as a common councilman for Bootham ward. He defended Queen Caroline in the York Herald, and announced her acquittal in 1820 by torchlight from the steps of the Mansion House. In 1827 he successfully promoted, along with Charles Wellbeloved, a scheme for the erection of a Mechanics' Institute, of which he became the first secretary and treasurer. In 1831 he was elected a sheriff of York.

In 1818 Hargrove published a 'History and Description of the ancient City of York'; comprising all the most interesting information already published in Drake's "Eboracum," with new additional content and illustrations. He had initially planned to reprint Francis Drake's Eboracum, but did not have enough support.

Hargrove also published the York Poetical Miscellany; being selections from the best Authors, in 1835. He was a contributor to the poets' corner of the York Herald and the York Courant, and to magazines. He also issued A New Guide for Strangers and Residents in the City of York. ... Hargrove's pocket edition, illustrated in 1842.

Hargrove collected the Roman and mediaeval remains excavated in and around York. About ten years before his death he transferred the whole collection to the museum of the Yorkshire Philosophical Society. He died at York on 29 August 1862.

Hardings Linen Drapers
GB0192-688 · Corporate body · 19th century-1974

Hardings Linen Drapers was founded in the late 19th century. By the early 20th century the business was trading from premises in High Ousegate, and later expanded to incorporate property on Coppergate as well (with entrances on either side of the building). The firm specialised in fabrics of all kinds, mainly for domestic use, and supplied on a wholesale and a retail basis. The company was eventually wound-up in 1974.

GB0192-566 · Person · 1920-2005

Geoffrey Handley-Taylor was born on 25 April 1920 in Horsforth, Leeds, the son of Walter Edward Taylor and his wife Nellie. He was educated at Wyther Park School, Leeds.

He was an author, bibliographer, and Honorary Home and Overseas Information correspondent for John Masefield Research and Studies (1958-1993). Based in York, he spent his working life as a journalist for the Yorkshire Evening Post, and also served with the Duke of Wellington's Regiment and at the War Office during the Second World War.

His books included 'Mona Ingleby, Ballerina and Choreographer' (1947); 'Winifred Holtby Bibliography and Selected Letters'; 'John Masefield, OM, The Queen's Poet Laureate' (1960) biography; 'Bibliography of Monaco'; 'Bibliography of Iran'; and 'Selected Bibliography of Literature Relating to Nursey Rhyme Reform' (which ran to many editions). He also rewrote and revised the periodicals section of the Encyclopaedia Britannica (1960s), and wrote 'Italian Ballet Today' (1949); 'John Gay and the Ballad Opera'; 'The Book of the Private Press'; 'Selected Letters of Winifred Holtby and Vera Brittain, 1920-35' (1961); 'C.Day Lewis, Poet Laureate' (1968); 'Vera Brittain: Occasional Papers' (1983); and 'Kathleen: the life of Kathleen Ferrier 1912-53'
(1988).

In 1950 he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature, and also held posts as Chairman of the British Poetry-Drama Guild (1946-1952), Vice-President of the Leeds University Tudor Players (1948-1950), Publisher at Leeds University Poetry (1949), Founder of the Winifred Holtby Memorial Collection at Fisk University, Nashville (1955), Honorary General Secretary of the Dumas Association (1955-1957), Chairman of the General Council of the Poetry Society (1967-1968), member of the General Council of the National Book League (1968), President of the Lancashire Authors Association (1969-1972), trustee of the Gladstone Memorial Library, London (1974-1978), join Literary Trustee of the Estate of Vera Brittain (1979-1990) and Honorary Founder Member of the John Masefield Society (1993-1997).

He died on 27 May 2005, aged 85.