Author visit to the Archive Group December 2019

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Peter Jones, author of The Stormy Blast, met with the Avenue
St Andrew’s Archive Group in December

Peter Jones’ book tells the story of 5 members of King
Edward VI School, Southampton during the First World
War. The book’s title was taken from a poem by Isaac
Watts,  Our God, Our Help in Ages Past:

Our God, our help in ages past,
Our hope for years to come,
Our shelter from the stormy blast,
And our eternal home.

One of the aims of the Avenue 2020 project is to provide
an ‘enjoyable experience for those seeking to uncover
the legacies’ of Avenue St Andrew’s. The Archive Group
at Avenue St Andrew’s were able to tell Peter about the
Avenue 2020 project, show him the church wall
memorial, and share their research and information from
the church archive.

Peter was kind enough to donate several copies of The
Stormy Blast to the volunteers of the group.

Volunteer Research Visit to the Special Collections Archive at The Hartley Library, University of Southampton

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On 18th November, 8 members of the Avenue 2020 project team visited the Special Collections Archive at The Hartley Library. We spent the afternoon looking at items from the MS52 and Cope

Collections, relating to Isaac Watts. The archive items included an original bible owned by the Watts family, books written by Watts, and information on the inauguration of the commemorative statue, which is now in Watts Park, Southampton. This visit was important to the project as it contributed to our research on the life and works of Watts, the so-called ‘Father of English hymnody’ and whose father was minister in one of Avenue St Andrew’s URC’s parent congregations.

Archivists from the Special Collections have written a very interesting blog post about Isaac Watts, which also refers to some of the material they have on him, to take a look go to: https://specialcollectionsuniversityofsouthampton.wordpress.com/2018/07/17/isaac-watts-1674- 1748-son-of-southampton-father-of-english