A project began earlier this year to add descriptive content to documents held at Northumberland Archives relating to the Lord Crewe Charity; this has been made possible by a grant the charity itself made to the Northumberland Archives Charitable Trust.
The description read “File of miscellaneous insurance policies”; so, to be perfectly honest I wasn’t expecting it to be the most interesting of bundles. I am happy to report that I was proven wrong!
The various policies relate to those connected with the running of the Haydon Bridge estate covering the period 1892-1925; they give us a great insight into life at that time. For those researching family history or the history of a house we can see names of tenants, the extent of land and the value the policy provider attributed to it.
Many of the policy types will be familiar to the modern eye such as insurance for motor cars, life assurance, employers’ liability, theft and even boiler insurance. Some, less so. Many of the policies related to fire policies taken out to protect specified haystacks and sheds. Aircraft insurance taken out in 1916 made payment if the named insured property was ‘destroyed or damaged directly or indirectly by aerial craft (hostile or otherwise)’. A riot and civil commotion policy taken out in 1920 conveys a sense of fear post-WW1; the property insured was ‘pigs and poultry only’, the policy for “riot, civil commotion, strikers, locked-out workers or persons taking part in labour disturbances”.
Even the policies that did seem familiar are vastly different to today’s equivalent; employers’ liability related to domestic servants, providing a list of the number and description of those employed, e.g., indoor servants, coachmen, governesses and footmen. Motor car insurance was a great excuse to look up early vehicles that were unfamiliar to me. The last thing to note is how ornate some of these insurance policy headers are as you can see from the images.
