My husband, Trevor Fawcett, who has died aged 83 in Bath, accumulated an encyclopedic knowledge of the city’s 18th-century heyday through intensive research, particularly through newspapers, directories, diaries and public records of the period.
He lived in Bath for 33 years, moving there after taking early retirement from his post as a librarian at the University of East Anglia. He quickly recognised that research into Bath’s past was largely undertaken by non-professionals, and believed they would benefit from mutual support and collaboration. From this was born the History of Bath Research Group.
Trevor was intrigued by all aspects of the city’s cultural life: entertainment, education, medicine, shopping, town planning and administration, printing, the place of horses and the diversity of the population. His monographs included Bath Entertain’d (1998), Bath Administer’d (2001), Bath Commercialis’d (2002), Voices of 18th Century Bath (1995), and Georgian Imprints (2008, about the history of printing and publishing in Bath). Many of his articles were published in journals and magazines.
He was born in Leeds, the only son of Joseph, a wholesale florist in Leeds Market, and his wife, Irene (nee Beck). Trevor went to Leeds grammar school and subsequently studied geography, French and Portuguese at Leeds University. He spent national service learning Russian at the Joint Services School for Linguists, based in Cornwall, London and Fife.
Trevor developed an appetite for European travel, in particular leading groups on walking and cultural holidays for the Ramblers’ Association. It was on one of these holidays, in Positano, Italy, that he and I met in the unlikely habitat (for us) of the beach. We married in 1962.
After a postgraduate course in librarianship at University College London, Trevor joined Leicester College of Art and Technology (now De Montfort University), then Southampton University. In 1965, he was appointed chief cataloguer with responsibility for art and music at the new University of East Anglia.
It was in Norwich that Trevor began seriously to mine the local 18th-century newspapers, writing up his research into articles and a book, Music in 18th-century Norwich and Norfolk (1979). He became acutely aware of the difficulty of faithfully reproducing art works in print, and his stimulating writing on this topic led to him being invited to contribute to Grove’s Dictionary of Art (1996).
Throughout his life, Trevor was alert to the natural world and environmental concerns. In his later years he focused on butterflies, observing and recording them for Bristol Regional Environmental Records. He edited and wrote reports for the Bath Natural History Society’s annual magazine. He tried to keep his environmental footprint as small as possible, never owning a car, and avoiding flying. Using public transport, we travelled widely in Europe and latterly in the UK (especially seeking out interesting churches).
Trevor regarded his family to be his greatest achievement. He is survived by me, and by our sons, Adrian and Jon, and three grandchildren, Elsa, Oscar and Stella.
