Overview
Following the successful outcome of the joint bid to the Heritage
Lottery Fund by the Norfolk Record Office and the East Anglian Film
Archive, for a new Archive Centre at County Hall, building work began
on the site in August 2001 and was well advanced by the end of the
year. Record Office staff have been engaged in planning for the
service in the new facility and the Archive Education and Outreach
Service, in particular, is building fresh opportunities for learning
and outreach on the Norfolk Record Office’s long-standing commitment
to public access. Substantial progress has been made in the conversion
of catalogues to electronic format and in preparation for the
digitisation of key series of documents, in part through regional and
national partnerships. The Norfolk Heritage Centre, offering duplicate
sources from the Record Office as well as the Norfolk Studies Library,
opened in the Norfolk and Norwich Millennium Library on 1 November.
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The Archive Centre
In July, a final, revised, plan for the building was approved by
the Heritage Lottery Fund, and work began on the site in August. The
initial reshaping of the sloping ground to form a level platform was
followed by piling work in October and the casting of the repository
floor was completed in January. The construction of the steel
framework followed and part of the structure was at its full height by
the end of March.
A Programme Board has been in place to direct the project since
July 2001, while a Project Team and joint Sub-Groups made up from
Norfolk Record Office and East Anglian Film Archive (EAFA) staff have
been carrying out detailed planning work on the new building and its
internal fittings.
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Gildengate House
The removal of Library stock from Gildengate House to The Forum
began at the end of August and the temporary Reference and Norfolk
Studies Library closed at Gildengate House on 29 September.
Fortunately, there was no significant disruption to searchroom
document deliveries as a result. A refreshment area was set up in the
main foyer in response to public demand.
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Accessions
357 deposits, gifts or purchases of documents were made during the
year, compared with 326 the previous year.
The accession which attracted most attention was of notebooks kept
by K. J. P. Barraclough, defence counsel for the Revd H. Davidson, the
notorious Rector of Stiffkey, 1932. They complement the papers
relating to the case already held by the Record Office among the
Consistory Court records.
Manorial court books were received for Intwood, 1557-1705, and Long
Stratton, 1693-1892. The earliest among the usual variety of deeds and
estate papers was a Cringleford deed, 1288. As one of the
beneficiaries of an arrangement whereby a deeds from a collection held
by the Library of Congress in Washington, DC, since the 1930s were
transferred from the USA to the relevant UK repositories, the Record
Office also received 17th-19th century deeds relating to over forty
Norfolk parishes.
A letter from Sir Thomas Holland to Framlingham Gawdy, concerning
the Thetford Parliamentary seat, 1625, was among miscellaneous letters
acquired, as was a manuscript of the historian, Francis Blomefield,
1726, containing genealogical notes. Personal and family papers
included correspondence of the Copemans of Norwich, 1833-1937, a
chronicle kept by Edward Dow at Lynn of family, local and national
events, 1851-1857, and Brereton family papers, 19th-20th centuries.
The latter include correspondence of the Revd Joseph Lloyd Brereton of
Little Massingham (1822-1901), who was instrumental in setting up the
national network of County Schools.
There were several substantial accessions of hospital and other
health authority records. From King’s Lynn came records of West
Norfolk and King's Lynn Hospital and St James's Hospital, 1861-1992.
In Norwich, the imminent move to a new hospital site prompted further
transfers of records for the Norfolk and Norwich Hospital, 1856-1980,
and Hellesdon Hospital, 1906-1951, while around 500 maps and plans of
the 19th and 20th centuries were received for St Andrew's Hospital at
Thorpe.
Business archives included records of Lacon's Brewery, Great
Yarmouth, 1802-1973, and of Jarrolds of Norwich printing business,
19th-20th centuries. Among societies and voluntary organisations
represented are Norwich Medico-Chirurgical Society, 1849-1980, the
Norfolk and Norwich Branch of the Second East Anglian Field Ambulance
Old Comrades’ Association, 1932-1964, the Moore Family Chess Club,
1933-1983, and Fakenham Little Theatre, 1954-1995.
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Cataloguing and
Stocktaking
Backlog cataloguing completed included deeds and papers relating to
Bodham family estates in Swaffham and Mattishall, 1499-1921, deeds and
papers of the Barnard family of Great Ellingham, 1605-1892,
inventories of scenery and costumes at the Theatre Royal, Norwich,
1785-1786, manuscript music of W. Hatherill Perry, 1880-early 20th
century, nominal registers of Norwich Prison, 1879-1937, letters
written to James Hooper of Norwich from or concerning Sir Alfred
Munnings and other papers, 1894-1933, and records of Norwich Labour
Party, 1892-1998.
Over 100 Norfolk Record Office catalogues submitted as
part of national and regional A2A (Access to Archives) projects have
so far been mounted on the A2A website (http://www.a2a.org.uk). They include
lists of Quarter Sessions records, the Le Strange, Hare, Meade, Hamond
and Kimberley estate and family archives, Boardman plans, Yarmouth
Port and Haven records and records of Parish and District Councils.
A team of three Norfolk Record Office A2A-trained Project
Assistants were engaged from the beginning of January in marking-up
catalogues for re-keying and conversion to electronic format. The
lists relate to ecclesiastical and civil parishes, Norfolk County
Council, Norwich City (post 1835), Great Yarmouth and King’s Lynn
boroughs, free churches, businesses and private archives including the
Ketton-Cremer and Bolingbroke collections.
During the two weeks’ closure for stocktaking in
November-December, 850 linear metres of records were checked. The
ongoing programme of boxing, relabelling and other storage
improvements has also continued, and exceptional progress has been
made in the past year. Series wholly or partly dealt with include
parish records, Norfolk and Norwich Hospital records, County road
orders, Petty Sessions, Norwich City Engineer's plans the 2nd Air
Division USAAF Memorial Trust archives and a series of 1,000 linear
metres of boxes containing miscellaneous non-official archives.
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Public Services
12,246 visits were made to the searchroom compared with 13,646 in
2000-2001. 32,679 original documents were produced compared with
36,383 in 2000-2001: 10,068 postal, telephone and e-mail enquiries
were answered, compared with 10,114 in 2000-2001. The NRO's website
received over 125,000 hits.
Over 1,500 reels of microfilm, including parish registers and
records, wills, electoral registers and manorial records, over 1,300
microfiches and most of the searchroom lists were duplicated to
provide NRO stock for the Norfolk Heritage Centre in the new Norfolk
and Norwich Millennium Library in Norwich. As expected, parish
registers proved to the most popular NRO sources there, although
electoral registers, marriage licence bonds, Norwich cemetery
registers and post 1858 wills are also being well used in the Centre,
which opened on 1 November.
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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
Documents treated by the Record Office conservation section
included a Quarter Sessions file of 1655, a 17th-century extent of Old
Buckenham, and four volumes which were severely water damaged in 1994.
These were Necton manor court books, 1697-1848, and a Hardley
overseers’ account book, 1796-1836.
Maps repaired included one of Melton Constable estate, 1732, which
was cleaned and flattened without affecting its vivid colouring.
Preparatory treatment has been carried out on a number of tithe maps
which are to be included in a digitisation project supported by the
New Opportunities-Fund. A fragile book of photographs of Norwich
Prison inmates, 1907-1935, which had generated much interest after it
was featured in the press the previous year, was prepared for
microfilming.
Volumes passed to contractors have included items from the Bradfer-Lawrence
collection (among them a Gaywood estate survey, 1827, and a book of
drawings of Lynn by Ann Munford), Norwich Consistory Court will
registers, county inclosure awards with maps, county Guardians of the
Poor records and some business records.
Over half of the documents which were damaged by water after the
fire at Norwich Central Library in 1994 have now been treated either
in-house or by outside contractors to Record Office specifications.
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Education and Outreach
The Archive Education and Outreach staff have established channels
of communication with schools and colleges throughout Norfolk by means
of newsletters and regular meetings with groups of school teachers at
Key Stages 1, 2 and 3. Local history resource packs, offered for the
first time in January 2002, and produced in partnership with the
Norfolk Heritage Centre, have proved immensely popular Each is
tailor-made for the school’s local area. Themed resource packs which
link in with National Curriculum Study Units, were also made
available. These range from ‘Seaside Holidays’ at Key Stage 1 to
‘Twentieth-Century Conflicts’ at Key Stage 3.
The Record Office has continued to welcome visiting groups
to Gildengate House. Their interest may be in archives in general or
related to a particular field of enquiry, such as family or local
history, while some are engaged in formal programmes of education. Two
Day Schools have been held: one on Conservation, the other an
introductory guide to the Norfolk Record Office. The staff have also
visited groups off-site for talks about the work of the Norfolk Record
Office. The County Archivist, for example, delivered several lectures
on the work of the Record Office in Aylsham, Hingham and elsewhere in
the county.
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Exhibitions
and Publications
The Past is a Foreign Country, an exhibition to mark the
Public Record Office's pilot digitisation project using the 1891
Norfolk census, was on displayed in Gildengate House from April to
June 2001. Exhibitions in the Record Office’s reception area were Moats
and Monks - a view of Ingham Parish Church, The Martineaus and
Taylors of Norwich, and Not of this World: Norfolk’s monastic
houses.
A range of Norfolk Record Office bookmarks and greetings cards was
launched in November. Seven further issues of the NRO Newsletter have
been published, and the first two of the quarterly Archive Centre
Project News, a joint NRO and EAFA publication.
New editions have been produced of a general information leaflet
for Record Office users and of Caring for your books and documents
at home. A new NRO poster was printed and distributed around the
county in September
Additions to the NRO website (http://archives.norfolk.gov.uk)
include the list of Parish Registers and Transcripts in the Norfolk
Record Office, and new pages about the Education and Outreach
service. There is also a link to the Archive Centre website.
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Publicity
