The diary covers the period May 1900 to July 1901. It was given to P D James in 2000 by a keen reader of her work, who had noted from ‘Time to be in Earnest’ that PDJ was ‘interested in old diaries’, as ‘a very small return for the many hours of pleasure your books continue to give me’. The correspondence is dated July - September 2000.
The diary gives daily comment on the weather, together with a note of Joseph Saywell’s daily work and activities, visits and reactions to events and attitudes in church life. A number of loose items are contained in the diary, as follows:
Words and music for a Harvest Hymn (words by J L Saywell, curate of Thornaby Parish Church, music by the Rev A W Hedges, Curate of St Peter’s, Middlesborough), 1879;
One page of handwritten brief biographical notes on J L Saywell (no date but probably circa 1984);
Notes of a Missionary Association Meeting June 3 1901;
Notes of J L Saywell’s various activities in the parishes of Thornaby-on-Tees, Northallerton, Ackworth, St Thomas and St Helen’s Lancashire, Middleton Tyas, and Moulton, 1877-1899.
A number of news cuttings and articles are also tipped into the volume.
Also in the file:
Three page typescript text of a talk given by a friend of the donor, then vicar of St Michael’s Headingley, Leeds, in which he analyses the contents of the diary and provides biographical details of J L Saywell, circa 1984/5.