Adding Colour to Ancestors’ Lives

Rampside Hall, Barrow-on-Furness, Cumbria

 

Clubs’ early records can yield clues about our ancestors’ interests. The type of association they joined shows what they were involved with and sometimes there are records that give a greater depth of information about their lives. A paid researcher turned up a really marvelous find like this for me in the Cumbria Archives. 

Although born in Weldon, Northamptonshire, my 2x great-uncle, Charles Pratt Chambers, spent most of his life in the Lancashire/Cumbria area. He moved around but so did the county boundaries so research in this area can be tricky. By the time Charles ended up in Broughton-in-Furness he was an established estate agent. He and his wife had no children. Did this give him more time to indulge his own interests? 

From the articles found in the Cumbria Archives, Charles’ interests seem to have included buildings in the area. The article about Rampside Hall in Barrow-in-Furness, Cumbria, fits very well with his profession as an estate agent. It was the other article which proved the most interesting. Charles gave a talk about weather and climate to the Barrow Naturalists Field Club in 1904.

 

  Weather map 1887

It isn’t clear from the presentation whether Charles Chambers was a member of the naturalists’ club but what is clear was his fascination with the subject. His talk was timely. He referenced the Ulysses storm of February, 1903 which struck Ireland and Scotland, doing considerable damage. It was clear from the presentation that Charles made a study of weather knowledge which he was able to explain to his audience. Perhaps the meteorological observations he made over the years in Broughton contributed to the study of weather in the UK and the system of prediction which is in place today. The text of the presentation was a wonderful find that added depth to my knowledge of Charles Pratt Chambers. 

Sources:

Cumbria Archives Service, Furness Collection. Articles by Charles Chambers referenced as Z2632/1 and Z2479/1

The Ulysses Storm, 1903 https://weatherrescue.wordpress.com/2017/10/12/february-1903-the-ulysses-storm/

Photos:

Rampside Hall By Lee Coward, CC BY-SA 2.0,  https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=8943271

Weather map of Europe 1887 By <<< previousnext >>>This page comes from Book 16 of the 4th edition of Meyers Konversationslexikon (1885–90). The copyrights for that book have expired and this page is in the public domain. http://susi.e-technik.uni-ulm.de:8080/Meyers2/index/index.html, Public Domain, 

https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=2664994