Painting of the Roundhouse viewed from Haverstock Hill by Robert Finlay McIntyre, 1880s [All images: © Camden Local Studies and Archives Centre]

THE daily chores of a man charged with patrolling the common land of Hampstead were wide, varied – and tended to make him grumpy.

Walking the boundaries of Hampstead Heath, he had to make sure kindling collectors and livestock grazers were obeying the rules – and sometimes he had to use force to make sure.

Luckily, the Heath steward kept a detailed diary and the handwritten log, dating from the 1830s, is kept at the Camden Local Studies Archives at Holborn Library. Chief archivist Tudor Allen is giving an illustrated talk at Belsize Library tonight (Thursday) to reveal some of the treasures lying among the thousands of items he looks after – and the diary is just one such item that opens a window into the past.

Poor John Stevenson appears to be overworked and possibly underpaid.

“His spelling is, to begin with, atrocious,” says Tudor. “And there is a lot of bad language. He was quite cantankerous. He was always getting into conflicts in his job. For example, we have one entry where he describes an altercation with a gardener who was fly-tipping rubbish on the Heath.”

Tudor began at the archives in 2007 and has helped everyone from professional historians and amateur genealogists to detectives investigating cold case crimes. The wealth of artefacts is astonishing, dating back to the 1500s.

The centre has been based at Holborn Library since the mid-1990s but is a collection of records from various sources over centuries.

“The collection existed long before we moved here,” says Tudor.

“You could have come into Holborn in the early 1960s and looked at archive materials –  libraries have helped with this collection for decades.”

And how the collection was formed means the range it covers is vast: from council papers to wills, diaries, paintings and photographs, the collection has been added to from public bodies, societies and individuals.

“It is very difficult to say how it was collected,” says Tudor.

“Think of it in terms of local government papers. We are Camden Council, and have been since 1965, so we hold all of those records. Before then, there were the Metropolitan boroughs of Hampstead and St Pancras. Before then, there were reams of old parish records. They are here too.”

A letter by Charles Dickens, 1837

Associations too have left their documents for safekeeping: the records of the Highgate Harriers athletic club have been donated, including a host of runners medals.

Wartime documents shed light on the perils people faced.

On the shelves are a series of editions of a newsletter called The Swiss Cottager, written by people sheltering from the Blitz in the tube station. “It was written by the people down there,” says Tudor.

“It was something  other stations across Camden did as well.

“It says ‘these bulletins will be as spasmodic as Hitler’s hallucinations’.”

Other items prove stories that often sound too good to be true.

For example, artist Dante Gabriel Rossetti was said to have buried a handwritten collection of his poetry in the Highgate Cemetery grave of his wife and muse, Elizabeth Siddal. It was said he regretted not copying the work, so some time later, went back to his wife’s grave and removed them.

“We now know this happened,” says Tudor.

“We have the cemetery records and the exhumation is registered.”

The depth and range is well illustrated by such quirky documents as an inventory dating from 1758 of The Castle in Kentish Town.

The Castle Tavern in Kentish Town Road is said to be where Lord Admiral Nelson would meet his lover, Lady Hamilton. It remained a pub until around 15 years ago, when an estate agent bought the property and tried to demolish it.

The possessions of publican Samuel Hoggins in the 1840s are laid out.

“It is a description of every single thing Hoggins owned, room by room. It would be for a valuation of his business and property – perhaps for a will. It shows the Castle was very popular – Hoggins was quite wealthy.”

Among the list of goods – which includes all the pub’s glasses, a Dutch kettle and lamp, four-poster beds and goose down mattresses – is a urine glass.

“It was used then as a tool to analyse health,” explains Tudor.

Others collected curios and when they died handed over their treasures to the people of Camden.

“One of our best collections  are the records of Ambrose Heal, of the Heal’s furniture family,” adds Tudor.

A programme from Camden Town’s Bedford Theatre Music Hall, 1903

“He collected everything and anything. He died in 1913 and left the lot to St Pancras, because he ran the department store in Tottenham Court Road and this was his borough.

“He loved the history of St Pancras. Among the items were play bills for a theatre on the site of the La Scala in Tottenham Street, Fitzrovia. The Heals archive includes art works, photos, manuscripts – it is vast, and I would love to spend a year going through it.”

A personal favourite for Tudor is a document dating from 1609. It is in Latin and with King James I Great Seal on it to prove it is authentic. It grants land and property for St Giles in the Fields, while possibly the oldest item in the collection is a land deed dating from 1587, marking the transfer of ownership in Holborn.
While the archive is predominantly documents, they have some items they could not refuse.

“There are a set of muskets from the Hampstead militia, based at the Armoury in Pond Street, from the time of the Napoleonic wars,” says Tudor.

And Camden’s cultural history is reflected by some of the letters the archives owns. They include musings from Charles Dickens, George Bernard Shaw and Millicent Garrett Fawcett.

Among thousands of photographs and art works are pieces by Scottish artist Robert Finlay MacIntyre, who lived in Hampstead.

“It includes an image of the Roundhouse,” adds Tudor. “He lived locally in the 1880s and he painted many Camden street scenes. He was very prolific.”

Photographs include a collection donated by a tube surveyor.

“He took pictures of entire streets where tube lines were being tunnelled beneath to use as evidence in case of subsistence,” says Tudor.

“He captured every single building on certain routes.”

And for the historians wanting to see how everyday lives were lived down the centuries, the archive has local newspapers to look through.

“We have a lot of 19th-century newspapers and it is interesting to see how different they are today,” he says.

“And we have, of course, every copy of the Camden New Journal.”

• Tudor is speaking about the archive on Thursday, February 15, at 7.30 pm, Belsize Library, Antrim Grove, NW3. £5

• Camden Local Studies Archive is at Holborn Library, 32-38 Theobalds Road, WC1X 8PA. More details and information on exhibtions and events on the website:
www.camden.gov.uk/local-studies-archives-centre