A sorry state in-deed

As county archivist at Surrey Record Office from 1956 to 1974, Marguerite Gollancz was an early and vocal advocate for the preservation of historic documents. A recently discovered file reveals the lengths she went to in her quest.

In 1962, alerted by a researcher, Miss Gollancz rescued a collection of deeds relating to the Glyn family of Ewell from a well-known department store in Surrey. Dating from the late 17th to mid-19th centuries, these parchment deeds were being sold by the department store to cut up into 'make it yourself' lampshades at 5 shillings per skin!

Parchment lampshades were very much the thing in the 1950s and 1960s. Practical Mechanics magazine, December 1958 issue, reported, "Vellums and parchments have long been used for lampshade making and old legal and other records may be obtained from shops. Such materials make up into first-class lamps for clubs and institutes. Old deed material sometimes has a crease at the fold due to age and storage, and this is ideal for panel pieces in making up small shades or other components of a larger job."

Miss Gollancz was aghast and, to prevent any further sales, visited the store's buyer to obtain the fifty remaining deeds on approval. She then secured permission from the Chairman of Surrey County Council to purchase these deeds for the record office. An invoice dated 6 April 1962 from the department store records 99 'antique parchments' at 5s each, a total of £24 15s. The price was later reduced to 4s per skin. A letter from the store confirmed that 30 sheets had already been sold.

An admonishing letter (26 April 1962) from Miss Gollancz to the store, declared:

"Both my Chairman and I are deeply distressed by the sale of this important group of historical documents for cutting up into lampshades. Although the majority of the deeds will now be preserved for the use of historians, the historical value of the group has been seriously diminished by the loss of a number of the documents, including, to my knowledge, at least one of the late seventeenth century."

Stressing the importance of preserving historical records in county record offices, she continued:

"a serious view is being taken by national and local organisations concerned with the preservation of records, and by historians, of the loss and destruction of the raw materials of history when facilities for its preservation exist in every county."

And what of the 30 sheets that were sold? Their fate is unknown but, by chance, nearly 50 years later, we took into our care a deed that had been made into a lampshade, complete with sticky plastic covering and decorative frill.

The deed was revealed to be a one year lease from 2 May 1794 for a messuage, garden and hop ground with a quarter acre of land in Ewell near the Green Man Alehouse. The lessor was Phillip Wright of Ewell, brewer. Among the Glyn deeds rescued from the store by Miss Gollancz in K86 is a counterpart lease from 2 Aug 1794 for a messuage, malthouse, barn, stable, yard, orchard and garden in Ewell, and the lessee was a certain Philip Wright of Ewell, brewer. Perhaps not the same property but it is possible that the 'lampshade' deed came from the Glyn family papers.

So had this deed been purchased from the department store? No, the deed was one of many being discarded by an Epsom law firm in the 1960s. The donor (an employee of the firm) had retrieved it and made it into a lampshade, in keeping with the fashion of the time. Mercifully the deed was rescued by our amazing conservation team who were able to remove the covering, unpick the stitches holding the frill, relax the document in a humidification chamber and flatten it using light weights. The deed, now restored to its proper form, has been added to the archive and available to view in our public searchroom.