Alton Papers, no. 23

Publication Date: 2019

Cost: £3.00 (+p&p if ordering by post)
Where to buy: Curtis Museum or by post - see How to Order page.

Articles:

• A Private Lunatic Asylum in Alton, 1845-1915
  Author: Georgia Smith
  ​Based in Westbrooke House, this institution was opened by Dr Charles Mountford Burnett who studied insanity ‘by science’ and so hoped that his patients were ‘far more susceptible to cure than has hitherto been supposed’. The story then follows the demise of the asylum with the building remaining empty until it became the offices of the Alton Urban District Council.
• Westbrooke House and the Manor of Flood
  Author: Jane Hurst
  This takes the history of the site of Westbrooke House back to the mid-1200s and then comes forward to the Victorian period. The various owners and occupiers are introduced and they include Elias Marshal of the King’s Horse; Nicholas de la Flode, King’s Bailiff of Alton; the Hawkins family of brewers; Rev Docker and Colonel James John Hugonin. The article ends with information on the grounds of Westbrooke House - which became the Public Gardens and the site of Alton’s 2019 Big Dig.
• People of Alton in the Census of 1881 - What was Their Work and Where Were They Born?
  Author: Paul Fenwick
  Paul Fenwick’s research looks at the trades of local people and where they were born. A great diversity of jobs existed with only about 60% being from Alton and the adjacent villages. Advertisements of the era are used for illustration.
• John Lightfoot - Vicar of Shalden 1765-1777
  Author: David Lacey
  John Lightfoot was not only a cleric - he was a botanist, Fellow of the Royal Society and friend of Joseph Banks, Gilbert White and Alton’s botanist William Curtis. This all goes to show how the area around Alton was connected with many men who were at the forefront of scientific thought in the latter half of the 1700s. Although we have no painting of John Lightfoot, we do have a silhouette - a ‘Profile of Mr Lightfoot taken by a Mr Curtis. Was this done by ‘our’ Mr Curtis?
• ‘We Must Get Hold of Mr Curtis’
  Author: Jane Hurst
  2019 is the 70th anniversary of the formal opening of Jane Austen’s House by President of the Jane Austen Society - the Duke of Wellington. When the Society had been formed seven years before, it was agreed that ‘We Must Get Hold of Mr Curtis’. ‘Mr Curtis’ was William Hugh Curtis, the Hon. Curator of the Museum which had been named of his grandfather - another William Curtis. William Hugh became the Society’s Chairman and guided them towards becoming the world-wide group they are today.
• Chawton and World War Two
  Author: Violet Hunt
  Violet wrote about the eight men listed on the village war memorial, giving their details, as well as information of life in Chawton during that time. The article ends with news of Chawton’s Welcome Home Fund which gave £4 to each of the 55 Service men and women who had served during the conflict.