A fascinating record of daily life on a Nairn farm in the Victorian era will go up for auction in Shropshire tomorrow. [Wednesday March 20]
The 34 journals and four photo albums reveal everything about the life of Achareidh farm from 1830-1899.
Down to the scanty one shilling donation to Nairn parish church and the generous £6 11s 3d (around £1k today) spent on nearly 35 gallons of whisky in 1883, every record tells a story.
From weather to manure
There’s a daily weather journal, folio books showing crop rotations, a record of eggs laid, memoranda of sheep, a manure record, bank account books, volumes of letters, farmer’s diaries—you name it, farmer Augustus Terry Clarke was meticulous in his record keeping.
Eight account books, 1837 to 1887, record every item of daily expenditure.
Among the many thousands of entries, those for 1883 include entrance to the Highland Society Show (3/-) and catalogue (1/-), train to Inverness (3/4d), cab hire (4/-) and two papier-mâché trays (4/-).
Photos of local views
The albums include photographs of local views and a snapshot of Africa in 1909-1910, as well as newspaper cuttings on the Boer War from 1899, including accounts of the sieges of Ladysmith and Mafeking.
The unique archive has been held by the Clarke family, formerly of Achareidh farm, for several generations.
Farmer Augustus Terry Clarke (1808-1886) was quite a local personality.
He was an amateur architect of some standing, as drawings by him now held in the Historic Environment Scotland Canmore archives bear witness.
Designs for Clarke family homes
He left designs for his own house at Achareidh, and also for Coworth Park in Berkshire, said to have been home to his father for a while.
He also designed for his brother Henry Danvers Clarke’s home, The Parsonage at Iping in Sussex (now known as Hammerwood House).
The Canmore collection of Clarke’s drawings also includes furniture and clever designs for agricultural machinery.
Brodie Castle even boasts one of his designs, the elaborate chimneypiece in the Red Drawing Room, which can still be seen today.
Clarke was also a magistrate for the county of Nairn.
Huge collection of books
He amassed a huge collection of books, some of which can still be found in circulation today, bearing his own bookplate.
He married Charlotte, daughter of Major John Lloyd Jones, in August 1832, and they had nine children.
His family owned Achareidh until 1993.
The owners of the Achareidh archive now live in the Midlands and have made the collection available to Halls Fine Art Auctioneers in Shrewsbury for auction.
Fascinating and unique
Chris Moore is Halls’ rare books specialist, and says the archive is important.
“The detail in it is fascinating and unique,” he said. “In this digital age, manuscripts are increasingly sought after.
“There’s no doubt private collectors will be interested in it, but I would like to see it return to a public collection in the Highlands, or at least to the Scottish National Archive.”
The Achareidh lot is expected to fetch in the region of £1,000.
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