The Hockliffe project

Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC)

Still Image/Graphics, Text

"The Hockliffe Collection is a unique cache of over a thousand early British children's books. They were originally collected by Frederick Hockliffe (1833-1914), a Bedford publisher and bookseller. In 1927 his eldest son, Frederic Rich Hockliffe (1861-1929), bookseller and mayor of Bedford, donated the collection to Bedford Training College. This later became Bedford College of Higher Education and has since become part of De Montfort University. The books in the Hockliffe Collection range in date from 1685 to the mid-twentieth century, although the majority of works were printed between 1760 and 1840. The collection is not comprehensive, but it is representative of the wide range of writing for children in late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. There are fables, nursery tales and stories, and there are books of instruction and religious works. There are periodicals and books of poetry, alphabets, spelling books and battledores. There are chapbooks and ballads, and mathematical, geographical, historical and scientific books. And there are toy-books, game-books, and books with moveable parts. All of these books vary enormously in size and shape as well as in the quality of paper and printing. There is a wide variety of binding, often original. Most of the books contain illustrations of diverse kinds, often hand-coloured. But above all, perhaps, the Hockliffe Collection is interesting because it has been used. Many of the books are marked in some way, with indications of ownership or comments scrawled in margins. There is wear on some of the books which testifies to heavy use. Equally interesting is that some books appear to have been either little used or treated with great care. Placing the Hockliffe Collection on the internet will enable many more people to gain access to these rare and delicate texts. Scholars and students interested in later eighteenth and early nineteenth century culture and society will be able to read and also print out these books. All of the texts have now been microfilmed and they are in the process of being digitised. They will become available on the World Wide Web during 2001-2002. Explanatory material is being made available alongside the texts". (See project web site for more details).

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