Summary
A successful outcome to the joint bid by the Norfolk
Record Office and the East Anglian Film Archive has brought the
promise of a state-of the-art home for Norfolk's historic records by
2003. The new premises will be a centre for outreach across the
county, and a significant step towards achieving this is the
establishing of the Record Office's Education and Outreach service in
January 2001, when the first Archive Education and Outreach Officer
was appointed. The conservation programme for records water-damaged as
a result of the fire at Norwich Central Library in 1994 has
accelerated, in part because of the establishment of a partnership
with a new outside contractor. The Record Office's public profile has
remained high and its relationship with depositors and researchers has
been further developed by the launch of an NRO Newsletter.
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Accommodation
In December 2000 the Heritage Lottery Fund trustees
announced the award of a grant of £4.2 million for the building of a
new centre at County Hall for the Norfolk Record Office and the East
Anglian Film Archive. The new premises are expected to open in 2003.
An air-conditioning unit was installed in the
microform section of the searchroom at Gildengate House to complement
the one fitted the previous year in the manuscript area.
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Accessions
326 deposits, gifts or purchases of documents were
made during the year, compared with 244 the previous year.
An exceptional archive of hospital records came
from Little Plumstead Hospital, which has deposited over 600 boxes of
patients' case files, 1930-c.1990. These documents are closed
to inspection for 100 years from the date of the death of a patient.
The Hospital opened in 1930 as the Little Plumstead Mental Deficiency
Institution and took in patients from all over Norfolk. It was run by
Norfolk County Council until 1948, when the Hospital became part of
the National Health Service. Additional records were also received
from the Norfolk and Norwich and West Norwich Hospitals, 1874-1993.
Records of a variety of societies and voluntary
organisations were deposited, ranging from Caister Lifeboat records,
1878-1921, to Little Plumstead Playgroup attendance registers and
account books, 1973-1998. Business records included a Tharston
blacksmith's accounts, 1903-1929, Hempnall and Woodton farm accounts,
1903-1961, and Aslacton Milling Company records, c.1930-1969.
The Hockwold cum Wilton estate of the Revd William
Newcome, 17th century to 1841, is very fully documented in a
collection of deeds which had remained undiscovered for many years in
a locked safe. Another sizeable group of deeds relates to the Stracey
of Rackheath estate, 18th-20th centuries. Miscellaneous early deeds
were received for Mundham, 1304, Kempston, 1349, Longham, 1353 and
1416, Topcroft, 1424, and Sustead, 1493. Two groups of manorial
records were acquired, relating to Larling, 1564-1857, and Briston,
Edgefield and Salle, 1605-1935.
Three significant collections of personal papers
were received. The Enfield family papers, c.1780-20th century,
include correspondence of the Norwich Unitarian divines, William
Enfield and Mr Houghton, dating from the 1780s to the 1820s. A
collection of letters and other family papers of the Ames family of
Lakenham, 18th-19th centuries, includes letters published as The
Ames Letters, 1837-1847 in Norfolk Record Society volume
31. The papers of the Revd Canon William Aitken (1841-1927),
residentary canon of Norwich Cathedral, comprise diaries, letters, and
photographs, c.1850-1927. As the result of a public appeal for
ex-servicemen's and -women's records, papers relating to Norfolk
people's experiences of war and of military and national service in
the 20th century have also featured strongly among personal papers
received.
At King's Lynn Borough Archives there were 12 transfers of records
during the year, including a children's archive created as part of the
Mayor's Millennium Project for schools.
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Cataloguing and
stocktaking
Backlog cataloguing completed included Great
Yarmouth Transport Company records from 1898, Norwich City Engineer's
letter books, 1912-1939, Petty Sessions records, 1986-1989, Norwich
registers of vaccination and of birth and death returns, 1882-1965,
over 1,000 maps from a Norwich estate agent’s archive, research
papers of the late Dr Roger Virgoe, the Checkley Collection relating
to Holt and a Lee Warner family photograph album, 1901-1904.
Existing catalogues which have been entered into
the CALM 2000 Plus for Archives database as part of the programme of
converting existing finding aids into electronic format include lists
of the Dean and Chapter archives, many other ecclesiastical records,
records of societies and a number of private collections. In addition,
tens of thousands of entries have been keyed into a Norfolk probate
index database, which is still in progress.
Stocktaking was on records of the Poor Law Unions,
the county series of road orders, Parish Council records, the diocesan
series of tithe maps and the Le Strange of Hunstanton, Rolfe and
Aylsham collections, covering approximately 10% of the archive
holdings at Gildengate House. Major transfers have been made of
closed, microfilmed and other rarely used series of records to an
outstore in order to create space for accruals in the Gildengate House
strongrooms.
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Public Services
13,646 visits were made to the searchroom compared with 13,303 in
1999-2000. 36,383 original documents were produced compared with
34,450 in 1999-2000. 10,114 postal, telephone and e-mail enquiries
were answered, compared with 9,792 in 1999-2000. The number of e-mail
enquiries now exceeds those sent by post. There were 305 (311) visits
to the Borough Archives at King’s Lynn.
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Research
Family history was, as usual, the major interest,
with local history the next largest category. Other research topics
included the Greyfriars tower and the Red Mount in King’s Lynn;
Dragon Hall in Norwich; medieval music for a British Academy project;
a preliminary survey of records for a Clergy of the Church of England
database, 1540-1835; land use and ownership in south-west Norfolk,
1600-1850; politics and religion in towns, 1660-1722; plague in the
17th century; the history of Holt in the 18th century; Quakers in
north-east Norfolk, 18th century; the English choral tradition and
East Anglian choral societies, 1824-1960; female education, 1870-1914;
prostitution in 19th-century Norwich; women, occupational health,
health visiting and district nursing in Norwich, 1850-1940; the
development of Hunstanton as a seaside resort; Norwich open spaces, c.1890-1911;
a survey of the Jewish built heritage; cinema history; and housing in
Norfolk, 1919-1924.
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Conservation and
Preservation
Documents conserved in-house included several
Norwich parish registers and items from the Bradfer-Lawrence
collection, among them Congham rentals, 14th-17th centuries, and notes
made by an agent to the Duke of Norfolk during tours of his Norfolk
manors in 1546 and 1554-5. Other paper documents treated included a
15th-century paper roll bearing copies of earlier deeds relating to a
Lazar house and chapel at Ickburgh, inventories of furniture at
Costessey Hall and Oxburgh, 1590-1598, and early 17th-century drafts,
in many pieces, for a map of Boughton and Shouldham. Parchment
documents treated included a Hempnall manor court roll, 1329-1399, two
Worstead maps dated 1781 and the leaves of two severely water-damaged
inclosure awards, which were adhering and badly cockled. Using the
low-pressure suction table, the latter were flattened and rendered
flexible again, ready for rebinding by one of the Record Office's
specialist outside contractors.
The conservation section has formed a partnership
with another specialist conservation and binding firm which has
successfully dealt with 140 volumes, mainly water-damaged inclosure
awards and will registers. 75 volumes, mainly from the Bradfer-Lawrence
collection, have been treated and rebound by a local contractor. In
addition, nearly 300 volumes from among the Guardians of the Poor
minute books and Norwich vaccination registers were rebound by a large
outside contractor. Most of the documents treated during the year have
again been ones which were water-damaged in the aftermath of the fire
at Norwich Central Library in 1994. Series of records on which
conservation work has now been completed include Norwich Archdeaconry
will registers and East Dereham Urban District Council records.
An improved storage system, using semi-rigid foam inside a board
folder, was designed for charters and other parchment documents with
pendant seals and has been used to protect twelve of the Norwich City
charters. A major programme of storage improvements has also included
the boxing over around 300 linear metres of previously standing
volumes, including will registers, records of the Society of Friends,
St Andrew's Hospital, Norfolk and Norwich Hospital and Parish
Councils, electoral registers, and several private collections.
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Education and Outreach
The Record Office's Education and Outreach Service
was established in January 2001, following the appointment of the
Archive Education and Outreach Officer. An Education and Outreach
Assistant will shortly be joining the Service.
The Record Office, working in partnership with the
University of East Anglia, continued to deliver programmes of evening
study leading to the Certificate in English Local History. Five
day-schools were held in the Record Office. Gems of the Norfolk
Record Office and Parish History were each run twice
because of over-subscription on the first occasion and another day was
given to an introduction to the Record Office. Among groups which
visited the Record Office for introductory sessions, talks and
displays of documents were a UEA Certificate in Field Archaeology and
Landscape History class, three classes from City College, MA students
from the Wellcome Unit, UEA, family history classes from Cromer,
Sheringham and Reepham, local history groups from Scratby and
Whissonsett and the Cyclists' Touring Club. A group of Certificate in
English Local History students also had a session at the King's Lynn
Borough Archives.
The County Archivist gave lectures on the Norfolk Record Office and
its work to the National Trust in Norwich, to the Norfolk Family
History Society at Norwich and its West Norfolk Branch at King's Lynn,
to the Mid Norfolk Family History Society at Dereham at Aylsham to the
Aylsham Association and in Norwich to the British Federation of Women
Graduates the Rotary Club and to extra-mural local history students at
the University. He also spoke to the Norfolk Archaeological and
Historical Research Group on the defence of the English coast in the
fourteenth century. Talks and lectures have also been given to Norfolk
Museum Interpreters and the University of the Third Age.
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Exhibitions
and Publications
At the Royal Norfolk Show in June, the Record
Office participated in The Past Forward Show, presenting
various aspects of the Department of Cultural Services. The Record
Office's contributions to this included demonstrations of paper
conservation, which proved immensely popular. Other events at which
the Record Office had stands were a family history fair at Gressenhall
in May, Skeletons in the Closet, and an open day at Great
Yarmouth Town Hall during the Great Yarmouth Maritime Festival in
September.
Small exhibitions in the Record Office’s
reception area were A Nine Days’ Wonder, Nelson in
Norfolk, 1,000 Years of Great Yarmouth, Archives and Ale, and
Strangers in Norwich. Another Yarmouth exhibition, Images of
Old Yarmouth, was on view at Great Yarmouth Town Hall from June to
September while The Norfolk People at Table was set up at the
Assembly House, Norwich, from October to January to accompany the
touring exhibition there, Eat, Drink and Be Merry: The
British at Table, 1600-2000. Parish records were loaned with
showcases for exhibitions in seventeen parishes.
A new information leaflet aimed at visitors to the
searchroom has been produced in a larger format and typeface than its
predecessor. The text of this and three of the Record Office's other
most popular free leaflets have been put onto audio tape. Additions to
the NRO website include a summary guide to the pre-1835 Borough
Archives of King’s Lynn. A bi-monthly Norfolk Record Office Newsletter
was launched in February.
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Publicity
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