Identity area
Reference code
Title
Date(s)
- 1893 - 1969 (Creation)
Level of description
Collection
Extent and medium
3 boxes, 60cm
Context area
Name of creator
Biographical history
Bill Steel was born around 1910, probably in Lanarkshire where his family were farmers. At some point the family ceased farming and moved to Lesmahagow, Lanarkshire.
In the mid to late 1920s Bill studied agriculture and horticulture at several locations including the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh and the West of Scotland Agricultural College.
Theer is some evidence that during the 1940s Bill ran a business from Musselburgh / Edinburgh involved in the supply of plants.
Bill married Eliza (Ella) Macleod Paton in the late 1940s and they eventually moved to Busby in Renfrewshire and ran a market garden and nursery. Around 1960, due to ill health, Bill gave this business up and he and his family moved to Longniddry in East Lothian. He maintained his interest in gardening and established a fine garden there, continuing to keep notes and diaries until close to his death - he died of leukaemia on 5th January 1970, aged around 61. Ella continued to tend their garden until her death in 2002.
The above, and further biographical information is from a biography written by Bill's grandson, Chris Ostler, who acquired Bill's papers on the death of his mother who was Bill's adopted daughter - the papers pertaining to agriculture / horticulture were donated to RBGE by Chris in February 2015.
Repository
Archival history
Immediate source of acquisition or transfer
family
Content and structure area
Scope and content
3 boxes of archives including mainly cash books, diaries, pamphlets and lecture notes pertaining to Bill's time at RBGE:
Farm cash book, 1924-1930
Wm J Steel journal, 1893-1930 - Cash book?
Carbon copy correspondence book, 1938-1940 + blank book
lecture notes - properties of alpines -farmer's class, 1925-26 - cash book?; ledger accounts; general book keeping
Notebook - chrysanthemums and Dahlias
Envelope - old catalogues
Yellow plant list
lecture notes - surveying, agriculture, 1925-26, botany (Matthew Orr) 1934, Genetics (Dr Nelson) 1934
Account book 1908-1929
Pamphlets - West of Scotland Agricultural College - 100 common weeds, 47 poisonous plants; Ministry of Agriculture, red spider mite, pests and the breeding of grassland; Tables - making up pasture mixtures; home storage of apples and pears...
Commercial strawberry culture
bee keeping
recipes
lecture notes, botany
accounts, 1918-1925 - livestock
exercise book - tomatoes
lecture notes? ferns
automatic control - boiler
Scottish Beekeepers Association, 1932 and associated papers
notebook - strawberries
lecture notes, propagation - L.B. Stewart and pathology - Dr Wilson
Notebook - beekeeping
Ideas -practical and otherwise
Fruit Grower, Feb 1940 (Food production in wartime)
Cash ledger 1945-1949
cash book 1949-1956
large ledger 1950
bundle of papers - salesmanship
lecture notes - public parks, tomatoes
letter book 1907-1960s
39 assorted small notebooks / diaries
Appraisal, destruction and scheduling
still to be appraised
Accruals
System of arrangement
Conditions of access and use area
Conditions governing access
access limited until collection can be assessed
Conditions governing reproduction
permission required from RBGE
Language of material
- English
Script of material
Language and script notes
Physical characteristics and technical requirements
Finding aids
Allied materials area
Existence and location of originals
Existence and location of copies
Related units of description
Notes area
Note
RBGEA2015/28
Alternative identifier(s)
Access points
Subject access points
Place access points
Name access points
- Nelson, Alexander (Subject)
- Orr, Mathew Young (Subject)
- Stewart, Lawrence Baxter (Subject)
- Wilson, Dr. Malcolm (Subject)
Genre access points
Description control area
Description identifier
Institution identifier
Rules and/or conventions used
Status
Level of detail
Partial
Dates of creation revision deletion
Description created in August 2019 by LP from a list made in February 2015