Gordon Manley Papers

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Introduction

	Gordon Valentine Manley
	Contents
	Related material - here
	Related material - elsewhere
	Bibliography

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Catalogue

• Greenland 1932-33
• Notebooks
• Snow and ice
• London weather 1723-1811
• Offprints
• Press cuttings
• Articles in Manchester Guardian
• Other newspapers
• Articles on weather, not by Manley
• Manuscripts
• Reviews (manuscript)
• Miscellaneous
• Lantern slides
• Articles about Manley's Papers

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Gordon Valentine Manley

Gordon Manley was born in 1902, and grew up in Blackburn. He studied geography at Cambridge University, graduating in 1923, then worked for a year for the Meteorological Office, and was a member of the 1926 Cambridge Expedition to East Greenland. His close links with Durham stemmed from his time as a lecturer at Durham University from 1928 to 1939, when he was required to organise the teaching of Geography, becoming Senior Lecturer and Head of the new Department. He was Curator of the University Observatory from 1931-1939. It was in Durham that he met and married Audrey Fairfax Robinson, daughter of Arthur Robinson, Master of Hatfield College and a former Vice-Chancellor and Warden of Durham University.
He then moved to Cambridge University, until in 1948 he became Professor of Geography at Bedford College (University of London). In 1964 he moved to the newly-founded University of Lancaster until 1967, when he retired and moved back to Cambridge. His studies of meteorology and the measurement and recording of weather, especially the British climate, still form the basis for the study of historical British weather records, especially that for central England. He combined direct observation, such as that in the North Pennines during his work on the Helm Wind at Cross Fell, with careful archival research into the weather records collected in previous centuries.
During his time in Durham, Manley began work on the Durham University Observatory temperature series ( “The Durham meteorological record 1847-1940”, Q. J. R. Met. Soc. 67, 1941, 363-80). He took up this interest again in retirement, when he travelled frequently from Cambridge to Durham, working on the extension of a temperature series for Durham back to 1794, using similar methods to those used in creating the Central England Temperature Series mentioned above. He died in 1980, before publishing the results, and his working papers including those on his earlier work on the Durham record are in the Cambridge University Library, but a series of letters to Joan Kenworthy, detailing the methods he was using and his interim results, is deposited in Durham University Library Palace Green (DUL ADD-851). See also J. M. Kenworthy, “The Durham University Observatory record and Gordon Manley’s work on a longer temperature series for north-east England”, Chapter 2 in Tooley and Sheail (1985), 17-38, and M. Eglise, “A monthly temperatures series for Durham from 1784”, PhD. Thesis (2003), Durham University.

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Contents

The majority of Manley's papers are held at Cambridge University Library. This collection contains some of his research material relating to the historical records of British weather, some of his published articles, notably those he wrote regularly for the Manchester Guardian and teaching materials such as lantern slides. The material was surveyed twice, by M. J. Tooley and J. Kenworthy and their descriptions should be consulted when working with the collection (Kenworthy provides a great deal of extra biographical detail about the people involved).

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Accession details

Presented by Professor Manley's widow, via Prof. M. J. Tooley, 1993 (Misc. 1993/94:1).

Conditions of access

Open for consultation.

Copyright and copying

Permission to make any published use of material from the collection must be sought in advance from the Sub-Librarian, Special Collections (e-mail PG.Library@durham.ac.uk) and, where appropriate, from the copyright owner. The Library will assist where possible with identifying copyright owners, but responsibility for ensuring copyright clearance rests with the user of the material

Related material - here

Durham University Observatory Records.
Additional MS 851 - correspondence between Manley and Joan Kenworthy about the Durham meteorological record.
Records of the Moor House National Nature Reserve (North Pennines).

Related material - elsewhere

Cambridge University Library CUL ADD 8386 G. Manley Papers http://www.archiveshub.ac.uk/news/0711manley.html

Bibliography

Michael J. Tooley & G.M. Sheail, The climatic scene (London, 1985)
G. M. Sheail, “The papers of Professor Gordon Manley”, Weather 40, no.1 (January 1985), 22-3.

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Catalogue

Greenland 1932-33
Manley's interest in polar and high altitude environments began when he studied geography at Cambridge, inspired particularly by the teaching of Frank Debenham, and he took part in the 1926 Cambridge Expedition to East Greenland under James Wordie. See Geogr. J. 70, 1927, 241-4, 249-52, 260-62; Geogr. J. 75, 1930, 498-42; and “Pendulum observations at Sabine Island”, Meddelelson om Grønland 92, 1932, 1-16.
The notes and correspondence here relate mainly to Manley's later work on the meteorological observations of the British Greenland Expedition of 1935-36 to Kangerdlugssuak under L. R. Wager. Reports of this work can be found in Geogr. J. 90, 1937, 418-20, and Q. J. R. Met. Soc. 64, 1938, 253-276.

Notebooks
Snow and ice
London weather 1723-1811
These notebooks on London weather in the 18th century were kept by Elizabeth M. Shaw, who was working with Gordon Manley on a temperature series for London from 1723 to the beginning of the Greenwich record in the early 1800s. The work was funded by the Met. Office where the resulting series is held. Sources are noted by Shaw inside Notebook 2.

Offprints
Press cuttings
Miscellaneous
Lantern slides
Articles about Manley's Papers