J.J. BAGLEY: AN APPRECIATION

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2 J.J. BAGLEY: AN APPRECIATION John Joseph Bagley was born in St. Helens in He was educated at Cowley School, St. Helens, going on to read history at Liverpool University. He graduated in 1930 and completed his M.A. in In 1938, after seven years teaching history at Rochdale Grammar School, he moved to Up Holland Grammar School, and soon began to work as a part-time tutor for the Extra Mural Department of Liverpool University. He spent two years of his war service at R.A.F. Cranwell, instructing would-be signals officers in mathematics during the day, and in the evenings discussing current affairs with village classes arranged by the Adult Education Department of Nottingham University. In 1951 Joe Bagley joined Liverpool University Extra Mural Department as Staff Tutor in History. Nine years later he was the first tutor to be appointed Senior Lecturer, and in 1967 the first tutor to be appointed Reader. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society in He has long served as the Chairman of the Southport University Extension Society. During his years with the university, Joe travelled the length and breadth of the north west, everywhere by public transport! His local history classes and week and weekend courses at Alston Hall have fired and kept alive a vigorous interest in the north west and its past for successive generations of students. His name on a lecture programme continues to be a guarantee for a good attendance, whatever the topic. For the last thirty years Joe has also been closely involved with the more academic study of local history, developing and launching one of the earliest part-time Diplomas in Local History at the Institute of Extension Studies in For twenty years he taught a course on local records for the School of History's Master of Archive Administration, a rare example of an extension studies tutor being allowed to contribute within an internal department of the university! His lectures for that course provided the basis for what is possibly his best known work, Historical Interpretation: Sources of

3 English History. Published in two volumes in 1965 and 1971, Historical Interpretation provided historians with one of the first descriptions of documentary sources, set in the context of their provenance and within a discussion of their significance for local and national studies. Thus Joe has helped to ensure that parish pump antiquarianism is becoming a characteristic of the past and that the interplay between local and national history can no longer be ignored by serious local historians. He has been a member of this society since 1945; served as its editor between 1950 and 1967, was elected a vice-president in 1956 and president in The Record Society of Lancashire and Cheshire has also benefitted from Joe's support and advice; he has been a member of its council since He has also served the Community Council of Cheshire's Local History Committee as member and chairman, and is the editor of their pioneering 12 volume History of Cheshire. More recently he became co-editor of the Statutes and the Community pamphlet series for the British Association for Local History and is currently president of the Liverpool Family History Society, and Southport Historical Society. Formally listing responsibilities, willingly accepted, but rarely eliciting public regard or gratitude, scarcely conveys much beyond an impression of a busy, energetic life. Joe's list of publications alone reveals the range of his interests, although he has lately returned to old friends in the Stanley family for a book on the earls of Derby. He has always generously shared his knowledge of the north west; answering enquiries from all over the world; directing young research students to the important questions in the region's history and to the most useful sources; unstintingly giving his time to reading many, many essays, articles, books, and theses in draft form and offering constructive advice to thier authors. His enthusiasm is infectious and his energy irresistable! Inevitably at a committee meeting, it is Joe who takes the positive, optimistic line, while his younger colleagues languish in cautious inertia! He comprehends the world of local history from the most obscure of academics to the keenest of amateurs and is one of the select band of scholars who established local history in the north west and nurtured it to its present flourishing state. In spite of his considerable achievements he continues to generate ideas; not for his own esteem but arising from his fascination with history. To all his endeavours he brings sense and good humour and remains one of the most warm-hearted and interesting of companions. Innumerable historians owe

4 Joe a great debt of gratitude, and it is a privilege for me to say "thank you", on their behalf. J.I. Kermode BIBLIOGRAPHY OF THE PUBLISHED WORK OF JJ. BAGLEY Upholland Grammar School : the Evolution of a School through Three Centuries, University Press of Liverpool (1944), 80 pp. ill. Margaret of Anjou, Queen of England, Herbert Jenkins, (1948), 256 pp. ill. A History of Lancashire with Maps and Pictures, Darwen Finlayson (1956), 6th enlarged edition 1976, 128 pp. ill. Life in Medieval England, B.T. Batsford, (1960), 5th edition 1971, 175 pp. ill. (American distributor G. Putnam's Sons). Henry VIII and his Times, B.T. Batsford. (1962). 154 pp. ill. Henry VIII and his Times, Arco Publishing Co. (1968) 154 pp. ill. Enrique VIII y su Tiempo, Editorial Herrero, Mexico (1964), 154 pp. ill. Historical Interpretation : Sources of English History, , Penguin Books (1965), 285 pp. Historical Interpretation 2 : Sources of English History present day Penguin Books (1971), 296 pp. [David and Charles (in America, St. Martin's Press) published hard-back, illustrated editions of both volumes of Historical Interpretation in 1972.] The Story of Merseyside, Parts 1 and 2. Parry Books, (1968 and 1969). 95 and 96 pp. ill. Lancashire, B.T. Batsford (1972), 232 pp. ill. Lancashire Diarists, Phillimore (1975), 210 pp. ill. (With P.B. Rowley) A Documentary History of England, Vol , Penguin Books ('1966), 269 pp." (WitrTAJ. Bagley) The English Poor Law, Macmillan (1966), 74 pp. ill. The State and Education in England and Wales, , Macmillan (1969), 88 pp. ill. Medieval People, B.T. Batsford (1978), 72 pp. ill. (With A.S. Lewis) Lancashire at War : Cavaliers and Roundheads , (1977) Dalesman, 72 pp. ill. Transactions of the Historic Society of Lancashire and Cheshire : 'The Foundation and Financing of Upholland Grammar School' Vol. 101 pp 'Kenyon v Rigby : the Stuggle for the Clerkship of the Peace in Lancashire in the Seventeenth Century', Vol. 106, pp Review Articles : The Bi-Centenary of William Roscoe, Vol Pilkington Brothers and the Glass Industry, Vol Liverpool under Charles I, Vol The Autobiography of William Stout of Lancaster, Vol The Diary of Richard Kay etc., Vol Peterloo : the Case Reopened, Vol A History of Merchant Taylors' School Crosby, Vol Transactions of the Lancashire and Cheshire Antiquarian Society : 'The Fleetwoods of Upholland', Vol. 58, pp

5 'Matthew Markland. a VVigan Mercer', Vol. 68, pp (\Vith A.J. Havvkes)''Peter" Austin Nuttall', Vol. 64, pp Record Society of Lancashire and Cheshire, Vol. 109, A Lancashire Miscellany, ed. R. Sharpe France, 'The Will, Inventory and Accounts of Robert Walthew of Pemberton', pp Prefaces to new editions of : Miss \\'eeton's Journal of a Governess, David and Charles (1969). Historv of Liverpool by'ramsey Muir. S.R. Publishers (1970). Cheshire' Round, No. 6 (1966) 'The Searchers', pp The Amateur Historian 'Inventories as a Source of Local History', Vol. 4, pp and H'orld Book Encyclopaedia Article on 'Lancashire'. AS EDITOR Transactions of the Historic Society of Lancashire and Cheshire. Vols ( ). (With James Murphy) Vols (With J. Murphy and K.B. Drake) Vol. 118 (1967).,4 History of Cheshire, Cheshire Community Council in progress. Vols published. Vols in preparation. The Great Diurnal of Nicholas Blundell, , 3 Vols. (Record Society of Lancashire and'cheshire, Vols. 110, 112, 114, 1968, 1970, 1972).' Life in the Middle Ages, series published by Arthur Barker Ltd. Life in a Medieval City, J. and F. Gies (1969). The Medieval Soldier, Vesey Norman (1971). The Medieval Castle, Philip Warner (1971). Merchants and Moneymen, J. and F. Gies (1972). Consultant for The Decay of Feudalism published by B.B.C. Radio for Schools (1974).