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The archive consists of the extensive correspondence with the University of London and other bodies, conducted by Margaret Judith Smieton's mother between 1919-1922 and reflects the then prevailing uncertainties regarding available types and scope of horticultural degree courses, qualifications for grants, terms of admission etc.

Personal papers of Allan Victor Batley (1887-1970), relating to his career as a horticulturalist, with particular references to his time as the superintendent of the Parks and Cemeteries Department of the Borough of Dagenham, including letters of reference, written by his previous employers at Broke Hall Gardens, Ipswich, the Gardens at Leyswood, Groombridge, Waddesdon Manor Gardens, Aylesbury and Ashorne Hill Gardens, Leamington, as well as further correspondence, concerning his examination with the Royal Horticultural Society and his involvement with the Beacontree Heath Allotment Holders Association (30 March 1907-19 December 1934), together with photographs, showing him and family members, his private garden and the parks that he tended, such as Valence Park, Dagenham. Also accompanied by newspaper cuttings and printed certificates, awarded to him for participating in competitions involving vegetables and floral displays at the Dagenham Town Show (August 1950 and September 1951). Also accompanied by his birth, marriage and death certificates and a communion book.

W North collection, 1874-[1926], comprising a Leeds parliamentary election poster titled "Reaction versus Disunion", 1874; a report on potato disease by Robert Veitch and Son with sketches of vegetables, possibly by Veitch, 1892; and a children's poster titled "A Pageant of London", c 1926.

Letter from Mordaunt Martin of 'Burnham' to Dr [John Coakley] Lettsom, Sambrook House, London, 8 Mar 1801. Stating that he has despatched to Lettsom a parcel of mangelwurzel seeds. Explaining that he was prevented from answering Lettsom's letter of 3 Jan by an attack of gallstones, since relieved by pills of soap and rhubarb. Discussing the 'Brown Bread Act' [probably 41 Geo.3.c.16] to which, he says, Lettsom was in some degree accessory; quoting Lettsom and Horne Tooke on the Act; Martin prefers brown bread for his breakfast, using his own wheat 'sifted in the coarsest hair sieve', but deprecates the 'indiscriminate use of it'. Attacking at length the Potato Premium Bill, which had just been rejected, according to 'the paper of this night'; claiming that such a bill would force by premiums an unnatural produce on land which the occupiers could use for more profitable crops. Adding that his and Lettsom's 'hearts will beat in unison' on reading pages 109-110 of the 2nd edition of [Robert] Fellowes's Christian Philosophy [1799].

Autograph, with signature.