| a bibliographical newsletter Issue 4 August 2018 |
This issue updates on some current developments in Devon bibliography. Despite the distractions outlined below, the current listings for 2018, 2017 and 2016 have been updated largely by reference to the British national bibliography and such stray local items as have come to hand. It is important that these are picked up as the BNB has very little local content, such as guidebooks and local authority publications. It is up to libraries in Devon to record this local heritage but over the past five years they have been falling down on the job, both for printed and digital publications as there is insufficient designated staff to hunt them down, record them and acquire selected items for heritage collections.
Exeter's Elgin marbles
This is the somewhat provocative title of a pop-up display at St Stephen's Church in Exeter on 11 August. It forms part of a celebration surrounding the rededication of the blue plaque to Thomas Bodley on the corner of High Street and Gandy Street in Exeter organised by the Exeter Civic Society entitled Celebrating Sir Thomas Bodley. It illustrates pages from thirty of the more than ninety manuscripts from Exeter Cathedral Library - a great loss to Exeter, but it is probably thanks to his action in 1602 that Exeter retains, albeit scattered to the four winds, one of the finest surviving medieval libraries in Britain. Images from a selection of thirty of these manuscripts will be seen in Exeter for the first time in more than four centuries, with the kind permission of the Bodleian Library, in a pop-up display provocatively entitled Exeter's Elgin Marbles. Doors open at 1.30 and at 2.00 Ian Maxted will be giving a talk on Bodley the librarian. The event is intended for members of the Exeter Civic Society. Non-members who are interested in attending should contact Ian Maxted in advance as numbers are limited.
Exeter's Elgin marbles
This is the somewhat provocative title of a pop-up display at St Stephen's Church in Exeter on 11 August. It forms part of a celebration surrounding the rededication of the blue plaque to Thomas Bodley on the corner of High Street and Gandy Street in Exeter organised by the Exeter Civic Society entitled Celebrating Sir Thomas Bodley. It illustrates pages from thirty of the more than ninety manuscripts from Exeter Cathedral Library - a great loss to Exeter, but it is probably thanks to his action in 1602 that Exeter retains, albeit scattered to the four winds, one of the finest surviving medieval libraries in Britain. Images from a selection of thirty of these manuscripts will be seen in Exeter for the first time in more than four centuries, with the kind permission of the Bodleian Library, in a pop-up display provocatively entitled Exeter's Elgin Marbles. Doors open at 1.30 and at 2.00 Ian Maxted will be giving a talk on Bodley the librarian. The event is intended for members of the Exeter Civic Society. Non-members who are interested in attending should contact Ian Maxted in advance as numbers are limited.
Wheatons
In 2017 the long-established Exeter printing and publishing firm of Wheaton finally closed its doors after more than 180 years of activity. For almost a century it was the largest printing and publishing firm in Devon, producing more than 2,500 titles and acting as one of the largest employers in Exeter. With commendable speed Anthony J. Wheaton produced an account of the firm's history A lasting impression : a history of Wheaton's in Exeter 1835-2017 (Tedburn Saint Mary : AJW Publishing, 2017. 184 pages : illustrations. ISBN: 978-1-5272-1327-2). Over the years the company produced books under a variety of imprints: Arnold-Wheaton (1978-1988) ; BPC Bindery Ltd (1990-1998) ; BPC Digital Techset Ltd (1990-1998) ; BPC Information Ltd (1997-1998) ; BPC Wheatons Ltd (1994-1996) ; BPC Whitefriars Ltd (1994-1998) ; BPCC Wheaton Ltd (1986-1998) ; BPCC Techset Ltd (1986-1998) ; British Printing and Communications Corporation (1981-1998) ; British Printing Company Ltd (1990-2011) ; Cornwall Books (1980s) ; Cwmni Wheaton (1967) ; Devon Books (1984-1998) ; Elsevier Ltd (1989-2018) ; Oyez Wheatons Ltd (1986-1991) ; Pergamon Press Ltd (1966-1998) ; Pergamon Educational Productions (1983-1989) ; Pergamon Journals (1981-1989) ; Pergamon-Wheaton (1977) ; Polestar Aberdeen Ltd (1998) ; Polestar Digital Techset (1998-2016) ; Polestar Wheatons Exeter Ltd (1998-2015) ; Religious and Moral Education Press (1974-1990) ; Polestar Whitefriars Ltd (1998-2015) ; Regional Mazazines (1980s) ; Staffordshire Books (1980s) ; Warwickshire Books (1980s) ; Wheaton Publishers Ltd (1986-1991) ; Wheaton Education Ltd. 1990) ; Wheaton of Exeter (1959-1967) ; Wheatons Exeter Ltd (2016-2017) ; Wheaton, A. and Co (1902-1998) ; Wheaton, A. and Co. Ltd (1862-1902) ; Wheaton, Alfred (1846-1851) ; Wheaton, Anne (1851-1856) ; Wheaton, Mary (1849-1856) ; Wheaton, Phoebe (1846-1851) ; Wheaton, William (1835-1846). No full listing of imprints has been recorded but a provisional listing of almost 2,500 titles has been produced for the Devon Bibliography in four sections, covering 1835-1939, 1940-1965, 1966-1975 and 1976-2017. The same lack of information is also true of the archives of the company. The author reports on a suitcase of records in his possession relating to the firm and other records may survive with firms with which Wheatons was at some stage linked but it would be a shame if records of this important firm have been allowed to be destroyed.
Dartmoor Press
Another kind of problem is posed by very different publisher than Wheatons. The Plymouth publisher Dartmoor Press produced booklets containing material from original documents relating to parishes in Dartmoor and west Devon researched and written by Mike Brown. There was a flurry of more than 400 publications between 1994 and 2001. A series of publication lists were produced, the latest traced, for 2001, being reproduced in Genuki. Since then Dartmoor Press seems to have concentrated on publishing through CD-ROMs and USB sticks, the main distributor being the Parish Chests website. Those available in July 2018 are included at the end of another provisional listing produced for the Devon bibliography. None of the Dartmoor Press publications appear in the British National Bibliography and individual titles are consequently difficult to locate. Some titles have been acquired by the Westcountry Studies Library, others by the Plymouth Local Studies Library. Senate House Library also has a number of titles. Dates of publication and titles sometimes differ between the publisher's catalogue and the holding libraries so a definitive list of imprints is difficult to ascertain. The Plymouth and West Devon Record Office also have at least 46 publications (ref: 1903, not all separately listed) but more significantly 405 files of Mike Brown's manuscript working notes have been deposited (ref: 2807). So here, while records appear to have been largely preserved, it has been difficult to locate the printed publications.
The Shacklock Collection of books on Sabine Baring-Gould
This collection of more than 1,000 volumes has now been transferred to Lewtrenchard Manor Hotel , the manor house where Baring-Gould lived, and the task of sorting and listing them has begun. David Shacklock has placed them in the Hotel in the hope that they will be used by visitors and researchers but there is no supervision of the material there and it is important that the collection is assessed and any unique items which are not contained the the Westcountry Studies Library, Plymouth Library or the University of Exeter special collections are secured. A listing will be added to the Devon bibliography in due course to join the main union listing of the Sabine Baring-Gould collection.
In 2017 the long-established Exeter printing and publishing firm of Wheaton finally closed its doors after more than 180 years of activity. For almost a century it was the largest printing and publishing firm in Devon, producing more than 2,500 titles and acting as one of the largest employers in Exeter. With commendable speed Anthony J. Wheaton produced an account of the firm's history A lasting impression : a history of Wheaton's in Exeter 1835-2017 (Tedburn Saint Mary : AJW Publishing, 2017. 184 pages : illustrations. ISBN: 978-1-5272-1327-2). Over the years the company produced books under a variety of imprints: Arnold-Wheaton (1978-1988) ; BPC Bindery Ltd (1990-1998) ; BPC Digital Techset Ltd (1990-1998) ; BPC Information Ltd (1997-1998) ; BPC Wheatons Ltd (1994-1996) ; BPC Whitefriars Ltd (1994-1998) ; BPCC Wheaton Ltd (1986-1998) ; BPCC Techset Ltd (1986-1998) ; British Printing and Communications Corporation (1981-1998) ; British Printing Company Ltd (1990-2011) ; Cornwall Books (1980s) ; Cwmni Wheaton (1967) ; Devon Books (1984-1998) ; Elsevier Ltd (1989-2018) ; Oyez Wheatons Ltd (1986-1991) ; Pergamon Press Ltd (1966-1998) ; Pergamon Educational Productions (1983-1989) ; Pergamon Journals (1981-1989) ; Pergamon-Wheaton (1977) ; Polestar Aberdeen Ltd (1998) ; Polestar Digital Techset (1998-2016) ; Polestar Wheatons Exeter Ltd (1998-2015) ; Religious and Moral Education Press (1974-1990) ; Polestar Whitefriars Ltd (1998-2015) ; Regional Mazazines (1980s) ; Staffordshire Books (1980s) ; Warwickshire Books (1980s) ; Wheaton Publishers Ltd (1986-1991) ; Wheaton Education Ltd. 1990) ; Wheaton of Exeter (1959-1967) ; Wheatons Exeter Ltd (2016-2017) ; Wheaton, A. and Co (1902-1998) ; Wheaton, A. and Co. Ltd (1862-1902) ; Wheaton, Alfred (1846-1851) ; Wheaton, Anne (1851-1856) ; Wheaton, Mary (1849-1856) ; Wheaton, Phoebe (1846-1851) ; Wheaton, William (1835-1846). No full listing of imprints has been recorded but a provisional listing of almost 2,500 titles has been produced for the Devon Bibliography in four sections, covering 1835-1939, 1940-1965, 1966-1975 and 1976-2017. The same lack of information is also true of the archives of the company. The author reports on a suitcase of records in his possession relating to the firm and other records may survive with firms with which Wheatons was at some stage linked but it would be a shame if records of this important firm have been allowed to be destroyed.
Dartmoor Press
Another kind of problem is posed by very different publisher than Wheatons. The Plymouth publisher Dartmoor Press produced booklets containing material from original documents relating to parishes in Dartmoor and west Devon researched and written by Mike Brown. There was a flurry of more than 400 publications between 1994 and 2001. A series of publication lists were produced, the latest traced, for 2001, being reproduced in Genuki. Since then Dartmoor Press seems to have concentrated on publishing through CD-ROMs and USB sticks, the main distributor being the Parish Chests website. Those available in July 2018 are included at the end of another provisional listing produced for the Devon bibliography. None of the Dartmoor Press publications appear in the British National Bibliography and individual titles are consequently difficult to locate. Some titles have been acquired by the Westcountry Studies Library, others by the Plymouth Local Studies Library. Senate House Library also has a number of titles. Dates of publication and titles sometimes differ between the publisher's catalogue and the holding libraries so a definitive list of imprints is difficult to ascertain. The Plymouth and West Devon Record Office also have at least 46 publications (ref: 1903, not all separately listed) but more significantly 405 files of Mike Brown's manuscript working notes have been deposited (ref: 2807). So here, while records appear to have been largely preserved, it has been difficult to locate the printed publications.
The Shacklock Collection of books on Sabine Baring-Gould
This collection of more than 1,000 volumes has now been transferred to Lewtrenchard Manor Hotel , the manor house where Baring-Gould lived, and the task of sorting and listing them has begun. David Shacklock has placed them in the Hotel in the hope that they will be used by visitors and researchers but there is no supervision of the material there and it is important that the collection is assessed and any unique items which are not contained the the Westcountry Studies Library, Plymouth Library or the University of Exeter special collections are secured. A listing will be added to the Devon bibliography in due course to join the main union listing of the Sabine Baring-Gould collection.
