British Fvchives

British fVchives THIRD EDITION To Tracy Tillotson ritish THIRD EDITION A Guide to Archive Resources in the United Kingdom JANET FOSTER & JULIA SHEPPARD ©Macmillan Press Ltd 1995 Softcover reprint of the hardcover 3rd edition 1995 978-0-333-53255-3 All rights reserved. No reproduction, copy or transmission of the publication may be made without written permission. No paragraph of this publication may be reproduced, copied, or transmitted save with written permission or in accordance with the provisions of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, or under the terms of any licence permitting any limited copying issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency, 90 Tottenham Court Road, London W1P9HE. Any person who does any unauthorised act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages. First published in Great Britain 1995 by MACMILLAN PRESS LTD 25 Eccleston Place, London SW1W 9NF and Basingstoke Reprinted 1996, 1997 Companies and representatives throughout the world. ISBN 978-1-349-11814-4 ISBN 978-1-349-11812-0 (eBook) DOI 10.1007/978-1-349-11812-0 A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. Published in the United States and Canada by STOCKTON PRESS, 1995 345 Park Avenue South, lOth Floor, New York N.Y. 10010-1707 ISBN 978-1-56159-172-5 Contents Acknowledgements VI Foreword Vll Introduction IX How to Use this Book XV Alphabetical Listing XVI List of Entries by County xxxu Useful Addresses xlviii Useful Publications lv Entries 1 Appendix I: Institutions which have placed their archives elsewhere 569 Appendix II: Institutions which reported having no archives 571 Appendix III: Institutions which did not respond to the questionnaire 572 Index to Collections 574 Guide to Key Subjects 621 v Acknowledgements As always this book would not have been possible without the help and contributions of the many archivists and custodians throughout the country who gave their time to supply us with information. In addition, we are very grateful to the Wellcome Institute for the History of Medicine and the Wellcome Trust for allowing us the use of their facilities and support services. Many colleagues expressed appreciation of the second edition and gave us their encouragement in what, at times, was a daunting task. Those who have been particularly helpful include, as previously, Richard Storey, who supplied endless suggestions for new entries and helped with the Useful Publications section, as did John Davies and Helen Young. The staff at the National Register of Archives were again extremely obliging, especially Dr Rosemary Hayes and Alex Ritchie. Staff in the Contemporary Medical Archives Centre have been very forbearing and we cannot thank them enough. Shirley Dixon, Lesley Hall, Isobel Hunter and jennifer Smith have been staunch supporters throughout. Also Caroline Overy, who kindly checked bibliographical queries for the Useful Publications. It is, however, to Tracy Tillotson that we owe yet again the greatest debt of gratitude for her patience and persistence with the word-processing. Quite simply the book would not have been possible without her. At Macmillan, we were fortunate to work with Grace Evans and Fiona Moffat, whilst Orlando Richards helped enthusiastically in telephoning recalcitrant and forgetful respondents. Again we benefited greatly from the meticulous and sensitive copy-editing of Caroline Richmond. Our families and friends have endured our complaints and sustained us when the labour seemed endless. Henceforth they can look forward to supper on time! vi Foreword British Archives was first published in 1982, with a reprint in the same year and a paperback edition in 1984. Since the publication of the second edition in 1989 the book has been recognised as the principal reference work in its field - in fact the only book providing a general guide to archives in Britain. The editors, with the valued assistance of colleagues and friends, have constantly monitored the archival scene in the UK for changes and additions, with substantive work for this new edition having begun in January 1994. Again the opportunity has been taken to expand the number and content of entries. A further 155 entirely new entries are included, although this is not reflected in the total (1109, from 1048 in the second edition) because a significant number of existing entries, principally institutions and local history libraries, indicated that they had transferred their archives to established archive repositories. It is to be hoped that this is an indication of a growing perception of the need for professional care of archives and a higher profile for archivists. Respondents were also actively encouraged to improve their entries with additional information. Local authority record offices in particular were urged to do this, and most responded enthusiastically to this request. The content of each entry has also been expanded by the addition of fax numbers and details of conservation arrangements. Because of the resultant general increase of information, the layout has been changed to a double column format to keep the book to a manageable size and the binding has been strengthened. It is worth noting that many local authority record offices have been moved within the administrative structures of their authorities, often becoming part of a general libraries, museums and archives section. This seems to be a reflection of the emphasis on 'heritage' which has developed in recent years and marks a significant departure from the traditional place of archives as part of the secretariat. Finally, it is appropriate to mention here the possible changes to archive provision which the proposed local government reorganisation may bring. Despite vigorous lobbying by the profession and its supporters, no guarantees have been given about the future of local authority archive services after reorganisation, and the experiences of 1974 show that any changes will by no means be uniform. Users of archives are therefore warned that information in the book about local authority record offices may be superseded by these events. Janet Foster and Julia Sheppard vii Introduction Archives: What they are and how to use them Strictly speaking, archives are the documents created in the normal course of the life of an institution or individual in order for them to function, and as such provide a historical record. Thus an archive is a cohesive body of original documents emanating from one source. However, the term is now used much more loosely to cover any primary source material in a variety of media whatever its origin (hence including documents, photographs, films and even printed material). Also it can be used to describe the physical place where records are held. Although the title of this book is British Archives we are taking the wider definition and including 'artificial' collections, so called because they have been consciously put together, usually around a subject area or a type of material, and have not accumulated naturally over the course of time. In many cases archives will remain in the institution that has created them, and increasingly professional archivists are involved in their preservation. Many such bodies, however, have decided that they are neither able satisfactorily to house their older records nor adequately to make them available for historians to consult, hence there is also a steady transfer of such archives to established record repositories. Researchers should bear in mind that consulting archives is not the same as looking up information in a book. Archives are unique: the reader cannot assume that they are freely available or easily accessible, or even that the originals can be consulted. They are never 'loaned', and copies are not necessarily obtainable. Finding aids -lists and indexes -vary greatly in style and detail in spite of recent moves to standardise listing; there is no single classification system, and in some places finding aids or guides may not exist. All this will depend greatly on the type of repository/library the reader visits, and the facilities and services of, for example, a large and well-staffed county record office cannot be expected everywhere. These larger or well-established repositories are actively involved in raising standards within repositories in general to meet the British Standard while the Royal Commission on Historical Manuscripts is in the process of implementing a policy of recognising repositories based upon its own published standard (see Useful Publications, p.lv). It will be obvious from consulting the entries in this guide that some of the archives are administered by librarians, clerks, secretaries, honorary archivists or other individuals whose chief priorities or duties may be elsewhere. Moreover the archives are frequently not stored readily to hand, or may be in use by others or being filmed or repaired. Increasingly, too, certain categories of records, especially in local authority record offices, may only be consulted on microfilm/fiche, and there may be heavy demand for use of the film/fiche reader. For all these reasons it is therefore always advisable to make a prior appointment. Background reading and preparation are also essential if the reader is to grasp the significance of the archives and the types of documentation likely to be encountered. It must be remembered that records were not normally created with the needs of historical research in mind. It is easy to fall into the trap of assuming that records will directly answer a specific query; rather it is necessary to understand how and why they were created before embarking on any research into them. Archivists, being primarily custodians, are not necessarily authorities on all that their holdings contain, although ix Introduction they will do everything possible to direct the researcher towards the relevant material. If an enquiry is lengthy and a personal visit to the archive is impossible, the services of a professional researcher may be recommended.

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