A RECENTLY discovered diary written by a mystery woman has given an insight into life in Winston during Georgian times.
No one knows who penned the diary that first turned up in an antiquarian’s catalogue in 1988 and was bought by Richmond historian Peter Wenham.
It was rediscovered by North Yorkshire historian Jane Hatcher and Bob Woodings, who had just arrived in North Yorkshire from Oxford.
They have now produced a book about their investigation into the diary and its author which is due to be published later this year.
Mr Woodings said: “This diary, it is very clear, was written by a young woman living in Richmond at the time.
“She never gives her name, never gives her age, and never says where she is living. But her entries in her daily account do give clues.
“We have tried to identify her from what she writes about and the people among whom she lives.
“It’s rather like trying to piece together one of those Agatha Christie mysteries. And there are all sorts of other unknowns for the reader to solve.”
He added that Winston is especially important to her because it was home to her closest friends, her four cousins aged between 25 and 32. They were the daughters of the Rector of Winston, Revd John Emerson.
Mr Woodings said: “What these girls don’t find in Winston and the rectory they certainly head off to Richmond for. And men and clothes are certainly their priorities.
“This diarist tells in detail how she spends her time and what she sees happening around her. The diary describes horse racing, dances in the assemblies, visits by the local militia, tea drinking with her female friends, attending the visiting actors and their plays, and so on.
“In fact the diary is unique in showing just what it was like to be living in this mid-Georgian period in the north of England.”
The diary covers the period from 1764 to 1766 and Mr Woodlings believes it is the second volume of what was a longer journal, but research has failed to turn up any other manuscripts.
Mr Woodings paid tribute to his co-author for her part in bringing the book together.
He said: “This diary is rather like a play, with all sorts of characters passing across its pages and Jane Hatcher, with her remarkable skills in locating and reading parish records, wills and all sorts of period records, has managed to bring them alive, and to enable today’s reader to see something about what this diarist was seeing, and all sorts of truths that she tried to keep to herself, including about herself.”
Their book, Life in Georgian Richmond, North Yorkshire: A Diary and Its Secrets, is published by Pen And Sword and is due on bookshop shelves from April 18.
