Go Further
Of the Dales Countryside Museum shares a scrapbook capturing sport in the Dales through the decades
Eight more sites for researching the Holocaust
JEWISH GENEALOGICAL SOCIETY OF GREAT BRITAIN
w jgsgb.org.uk
The society was founded in 1992 and has all sorts of useful material for both beginners and experienced researchers.
JEWISH HERITAGE NETWORK
w jhn.ngo
Find out more about a wealth of online Jewish digital heritage projects.
JOODS MONUMENT
w joodsmonument.nl/en/page/571160
This online monument commemorates more than 104,000 individuals persecuted as Jews in the Netherlands who did not survive the Holocaust.
MEMORIAL BOOK, VIENNA IN 1938
w gedenkbuch.univie.ac.at/index.php?id=435
&no_cache=1&L=2
This website is home to a database of students, lecturers and researchers who were expelled from the University of Vienna.
NATIONAL HOLOCAUST CENTRE AND MUSEUM
w holocaust.org.uk
Learn more about the exhibitions and resources at this museum in Laxton, Nottinghamshire.
POLISH CENTER FOR HOLOCAUST RESEARCH
w new.getto.pl/en
Explore an interactive map designed to help you find information on people, events and places from the Warsaw Ghetto.
SHOAH FOUNDATION
w sfi.usc.edu
The foundation has recorded more than 55,000 videos of interviews with survivors and witnesses of the Holocaust and other genocides.
VOICES OF THE HOLOCAUST
w bl.uk/learning/histcitizen/voices/holocaust.
html
Listen to personal stories of survivors who moved to Britain during or after the Second World War.
The Upper Dales Folk Museum opened in 1979 and is now known as the Dales Countryside Museum. Its collections shed light on thousands of years of life in Yorkshire, and include a series of scrapbooks started by a local historian, as museum manager Fiona Rosher explains. about each subject, adding to her scrapbooks over many years. This particular file has the title Football 1909–1995.
What Are The Contents?
The scrapbook includes photos, photocopies, match notices, news reports and many other clippings. There are 67 pages in this one file alone, and many of the pages are double-sided.
The scrapbook reveals how important sport has been to the people living in the remote villages and towns of the Yorkshire Dales. There is a strong and long-standing sense of community and competitive spirit here. The early photographs show that many of the villages had a football team and were involved in sporting events. This is also reflected in the other scrapbooks linked to sport, festivals, shows and annual events within which competition is a major feature. These activities brought people together, as supporters, as organisers of the matches and as players.
This file includes early football teams in Hawes and Gayle, as well as a photo of women who played in a “humorous match” in 1976.
‘Where possible, Norah included the names of the people in the photos’
Together with content from the other sports-themed files, it enables us to present a picture of the competitive spirit that has existed in the Dales for centuries.
Why Did You Choose It?
I regularly see the impact that this collection has on people undertaking research and finding information that they haven’t discovered elsewhere. Where possible, Norah included the names of the people in the photos, gathering these over many years. So the scrapbooks are a mine of information for family historians.
Can You Tell Me More About Norah Worth?
Norah was skilled in needlework, had roles in the Women’s Institute and was involved in parish affairs, including arranging the annual church festival.
However, her passion was local history and she was known for collecting information, news clippings, event notices, photographs and anything else that reflected daily life in the local area and would be a useful addition to her archive. People sent or lent her photos and information, and by adding these to her files Norah ensured that they were kept for future generations. The information that may otherwise have been lost makes the scrapbooks a fantastic resource.
In addition to the 133 scrapbooks, Norah donated
to the museum a stunning patchwork coverlet and cushion made from ties that her nephew sent her from all over the world.
What Other Records Are In Your Archives?
We have a huge range of documents in our collections, including the Hawes Market Charter; farm account books; ledgers from local craftsmen; family papers; a book of engineering drawings; sketch books and diaries owned by the museum’s co-founder Marie Hartley; funeral cards; photos; and notices for local shows and events. Much of this material provides the context for the artefacts we hold, so adds value to the collection as a whole as well as being historically valuable in its own right.
Within the research room we hold parish registers; census material; burial and baptism records; wills; local-population studies; information about Bainbridge Workhouse; issues of the Upper Wensleydale Newsletter; Metcalfe Society documents; the Wensleydale Advertiser (1844–1848); the
Dalesman (1939 onwards); The Costume of Yorkshire (an 1814 book depicting the styles of dress that were worn by those working in different professions in the county); and inventories and documents on microfilm (the originals of which are held at North Yorkshire County Record Office).
We also house the Macfie and Calvert Archive in our research room, and work with the trustees to make their holdings accessible. This fascinating archive was established from the initial holdings of Scott Macfie (1868–1935), who accumulated a private collection of books on the history of Wensleydale.
A recent visitor studying for a PhD said, “The museum is an incredible addition to the Yorkshire Dales.” Messages like this show that we are continuing the legacy of our founders and helping to conserve and share the local heritage through our displays, events, exhibitions and research room.