Researching From Home

With Adrian Corder-Birch

Adrian Corder-Birch is retired; he has interests in local history, genealogy and industrial archaeology.

Where is your ‘office’?
I prefer to call it a study rather than an office and it is situated on the ground floor.  It contains part of my reference library, a laptop, computer and printer.  My wife, Pam, has her study in the balcony room on the first floor.

Do you have a view out of a window when you are working? What is it and is it a distraction?
I am fortunate enough to have two windows.  One, where my main desk is, faces west towards the drive.  The other, where my computer is located, faces south across our front garden where magnolia, cherry and other trees are in full bloom, with azaleas and rhododendrons just beginning to come out.

What Essex research are you catching up on? Will this result in something published?
I am currently completing research for a book about the history of the Portway family and their foundry in Halstead where tortoise stoves were manufactured.  Pam is compiling a separate book about the history of Bois Hall (now demolished) which was a former home to the Portway and many other families.  It is our intention that both books are published and launched simultaneously, when circumstances permit.

Do you set yourself a strict timetable to work to or just pick up your research as and when?
I no longer work to a strict timetable as I am retired.

Do you have a favourite online resource?
I use several online resources and it is difficult to suggest a favourite.  Those I use regularly include Ancestry, British Newspaper Archive, Free BMD and of course Essex Archives Online including Parish Registers.  I also keep an eye on EBAY and sometimes purchase items relating to Essex history.

What is your favourite research beverage and snack?
A cup of tea and this time of the year a hot cross bun.

Apart from the news, is there anything that distracts you from your research?
I am sometimes distracted by wildlife in the garden including squirrels climbing everywhere, noisy partridges, green woodpeckers and occasionally a spotted woodpecker.  I am very fortunate to see this wildlife, which is well worth being distracted.  The main disturbance this time of the year is from rooks, building a rookery in our oak trees and making quite a noise. 

What are you most looking forward to when you are able to visit ERO again?
One of the benefits of the lockdown is that I am beginning to sort through documents and photographs, which should be deposited at the Essex Record Office.  I am looking forward to normal service being resumed so that I can deliver these records, which will undoubtedly help historians in the future.  This will provide an opportunity to see the archivists and archive assistants again, many of whom I have known for some years and have become good friends, quite apart from being extremely helpful and sharing their extensive knowledge.

Researching From Home

With Dr James Bettley

Dr James Bettley is an architectural historian, currently planning his next project.

Where is your office?

I’m lucky to have a study on a mezzanine floor at the back of the house that makes it feel quite separate from the rest of the house. We’ve lived here for 30 years and I’ve been working from home for 20, so the current situation doesn’t feel that strange.

Do you have a view out of a window when you are working? What is it and is it a distraction?

There are two windows, facing east and south, with views over our garden and fields beyond. The windows are not in my direct line of site so I don’t find the view too distracting.

What Essex research are you catching up on? Will this result in something published?

I’m thinking about a couple of subjects – John Bateman of Brightlingsea, and the 20th-century restorations of St Peter’s Chapel, Bradwell – but the research I really want to do involves travelling in the UK and abroad, so that’s on hold for the time being. Any thoughts of publication are very remote just yet.

Do you set yourself a strict timetable to work to or just pick up your research as and when?

Generally when I’m at home I work from 8 to 6 with an hour for lunch and a walk, but I’m slipping into a more relaxed coronavirus regime of concentrated working from 9 to 1, lunch followed by a couple of hours permitted exercise or essential shopping, then catching up on emails etc until 6 or so.

Do you have a favourite online resource?

British Newspaper Archive. Endlessly diverting.

What is your favourite research beverage and snack?

Coffee, mainly. I tend not to snack, although I can’t pretend that if there’s a packet of biscuits open I don’t occasionally…

Apart from the news, is there anything that distracts you from your research?

I’m easily distracted by emails, tweets etc, but not for long.

What are you most looking forward to when you are able to visit ERO again?

T/M 508/2. It’s only a photograph of a map (the original’s at New College, Oxford, who owned land at Bradwell) but it includes a vignette of ‘St Peter’s Chapel in Ruins’ that I’d like to see. But mostly I’m simply looking forward to being able to visit the ERO and a number of other libraries and archives again. Perhaps we’ll value you all the more after this period of abstinence and deprivation.