The archive collection of Major Bell, a water bailiff working for the Avon and Dorset River Board was purchased last year with the help of Dorset Archives Trust. The archive is a small collection of diaries, correspondence, and photographs of Major C J Bell, covering the period between the late 1940s to early 1960s. The diaries themselves cover nearly a decade of his working life with mentions of flooding, fishing, and poaching across the county’s rivers.
This collection has been acquired at the same time as working on a 2-year project to catalogue the archive of Wessex Water and its predecessor companies, offering a better insight into the personal lives of the staff working in the water industry in Dorset.
His diaries also cover the life of a local Dorset man in the mid-twentieth century: visiting the Russell-Cotes Museum, supporting Boscombe’s football team, and taking his wife on outings to the cinema and Corfe Castle.
Monday 7th [July 1952]Jaunt to Throop Pier with Mr Treadfold and Mr Brayshaw and Mr Nicholson. There’s no doubt Parsons grabbed two salmon there last week.
Tuesday 8th A boring time at Throop trying to catch out Parsons. This is nearly impossible. Went to Boscombe ground and got 2 smashing seats for next season Nos 18 and 19. Did some gardening on return.
One of our History Centre Assistants, Nicola, was able to find more information using Ancestry and a photograph of Major Bell and his wife Jannette on their honeymoon. Based on the date of their honeymoon and using only his initials, she was able to identify their marriage certificate and his full name as Cuthbert John Bell, as well as locating him throughout his life across England using census records and newspaper articles. His biographical information has been added to our catalogue.
In January 1964, Cuthbert appears to have been fired by the Avon and Dorset River Board. There are reports in papers from as far afield as Belfast, Birmingham and Liverpool reporting that he was fired for being “too kind” to poachers. After this happened the anglers of the river banded together to help find him a new job.
Having looked through the diaries acquired at auction, we found that the diaries purchased from 1960-1963 were written in a different hand, and upon further inspection belonged to G Forbes, a woman who was president of the W.I., and Vice President of the Downton Lace Industry in Wiltshire. It is unclear on the connection between the two diarists and how they ended up together. Due to the connection to Wiltshire, these three diaries have been donated to the Wiltshire and Swindon History Centre.
It has been great to acquire a personal archive collection such as this to coincide with our cataloguing project for Wessex Water, and offer a further perspective into Dorset’s residents and history.
