BRITISH ARCHIVES SECOND EDITION SECOND EDmON AGuide to Archive Resources in the United Kingdom JANET FOSTER &JUIlA SHEPPARD M stockton press © Macmillan Publishers Ltd, 1982, 1989 Softcover reprint ofthe hardcover 2nd edition 1989 978-0-333-44347-7 All rights reserved. No part of the publication may be reproduced or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without permission. Published in the United States and Canada by STOCKTON PRESS 1989 15 East 26th Street, New York, N.Y. 10010. Library of Congress Cataloging-In-Publication Data Foster, Janet. British archives/by Janet Foster and Julia Sheppard. - 2nd ed. p. cm. Bibliography: p. Includes indexes. ISBN 978-0-935859-74-4 1. Archives - Great Britain - Directories. I. Sheppard, Julia. II. Title. CD1040.F67 1989 027.541- dc20 89-4603 CIP Published in the United Kingdom by MACMILLAN PUBLISHERS LTD aournals Division), 1989 Distributed by Globe Book Services Ltd BruneI Road, Houndmills Basingstoke, Hants RG21 2XS British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data Foster, Janet, 1948- British archives. - 2nd ed. 1. Great Britain. Record repositories - Directories I. Title II. Sheppard, Julia 027.041 ISBN 978-1-349-09567-4 ISBN 978-1-349-09565-0 (eBook) DOI 10.1007/978-1-349-09565-0 Contents Acknowledgements VI Introduction Vll How to Use this Book XIV Alphabetical Listing xv List of Entries by County XXXI Useful Addresses xlvi Useful Publications Iii Entries 1 Appendix I: Institutions which have placed their archives elsewhere 791 Appendix II: Institutions which reported having no archives 793 Appendix III: Institutions which did not respond to questionnaire 796 Index to Collections 797 Guide to Key Subjects 829 Acknowledgements We acknowledge and thank the contributors to British Archives, without whom the book would not exist. Many went out of their way to help us and we are indebted, also, to the many archivists whose words of encouragement spurred us to complete this second edition. Weare particularly grateful to Richard Storey for a constant flow of suggestions and to Alexandra Nicol and lain Flett for similarly helpful suggestions and information for entries. Geoffrey Martin generously gave us his copious review notes which helped to clarify our thoughts for this edition. Elizabeth Bennett, Elizabeth Leedham-Green and Vic Morgan gave invaluable help with the Cambridge college entries and our thanks go also to Adrian Allen, Emma Hall, Patricia Methven, Jack Morrell, Joan Pin combe, Rosemary Seton, David Vaisey, Rowan Watson, Oliver Harris of the British Records Association, and the staff at the National Register of Archives. We are most grateful to the Wellcome Trust and the staff of the Wellcome Institute for the History of Medicine for their continued support. We owe an overwhelming debt to Tracy Tillotson for her ability to decipher the manuscript and apply her word-processing skills to it. Thanks also are due to our colleagues Marion Bowman and Lesley Hall who have shown the utmost patience during many months of feverish activity, to John Davies for advice freely given and to Andy Foley who staunchly helped with technical services. More recently at Macmillan, we were very fortunate to have Caroline Richmond's skilful copy editing of the manuscript and proofs and Stephen Benaim as an efficient production manager. Finally, our thanks go to our many colleagues and friends whose unfailing encouragement made the book possible, in particular to Bill Bynum, J an Fordham, Stevie Holland, Kitty Inglis, Bob Lamb and Bronwen Manning. VI Introduction The first edition of British Archives was published in 1982 and was given a commendation for the Library Association's McColvin medal in that year. It was reprinted in the year of publication and a paperback edition appeared in 1984. The guide is now out of print and the editors are aware that a new edition is well overdue since it remains the only general reference work describing archives in Britain. Monitoring of the archive scene for changes and additions has been an ongoing process, but work for this edition effectively began in 1986. The opponunity has been taken to make a number of changes to the contents and substantially to enlarge the book, increasing the number of entries by 50%. The original concept of the guide remains - it aims to consolidate information for the historian and archivist and provide a starting point for the first-time user of archives. Archival holdings available for research of all kinds in the UK are among the most rich and extensive in the world. They range over the records of medieval and modern government, both central and local, the archives of the Church and universities, the papers of great dynastic landed families, and collections made from various sources by scholars or antiquarians, collections which often form the basis of the modern national libraries of England, Scotland and Wales. The wealth and scope of these archives are frequently underestimated and even overlooked because their existence is not generally known about. In addition in the recent past a growing interest has been shown by historians and others in the preservation of a wider range of primary source material. This in turn has led to the rescue of much 19th- and 20th-century archival material, usually on a subject basis, in some cases by recently established specialist repositories. In this guide local authority record offices (county and city record offices), local government libraries, national university and polytechnic libraries, major public and private institutions, societies and associations, including the so-called specialist repositories, have all been included. Archives are not normally arranged or catalogued on a subject basis; for this reason it can be difficult to trace records or collections held in unlikely or lesser-known repositories. Therefore, another primary aim was to give a subject approach to the information in the book by means of a guide to key subjects. A general index to the names of individuals, bodies and collections appearing in the entries provides a further point of access to the information. What are archives? 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 'anificial' 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. Vll Vlll Introduction Methods British Archives is not a commercial directory and no charge is made for an entry. Inevitably it cannot be comprehensive, since any organisation holding its own non-current records selected for preservation can claim to have an archive. Our approach has been to cover as many places of which we could learn where archives, in the widest sense of the word, are held and are relatively accessible. As with the first edition, restrictions on time and finance made it impossible to visit repositories. Therefore, we have again relied on questionnaires, modified with explanatory notes, which we sent out accompanied by sample entries and a key subject word list. We are indebted to all those who so kindly took the time and trouble to complete and return the questionnaires. After compiling a list of possible new entries from the sources outlined below, approximately 700 'new entry' questionnaires were sent out in batches from late 1986 onwards. The replies were processed over the next eight months. A deadline for return was given and when this had passed without reply a reminder postcard was sent. By April 1987, approximately 75% of the original mailing had responded. A proportion of these had to be telephoned to clarify information or confirm that no archives were held. Those who had not replied were also pursued by telephone and/or sent duplicate forms to elicit information. Where these endeavours did not result in an entry (either because the archives had been deposited elsewhere, no archives were held or no response was forthcoming), the institutions concerned will be found listed in Appendices I-III (pp. 791-6). An asterisk indicates that the entry has been compiled mainly by the editors. From March 1988 those places which had appeared in the first edition were circulated with an annotated copy of their entry and a request for any further updating or additional information. This led to a large number of revisions, including a few deletions and some changes to repository titles and addresses: the most consistent change has been to telephone numbers. All original entries stating 'archives held elsewhere' or 'no archives held' were removed to Appendix I and Appendix II respectively. The information sought was as follows: Name of repository In some cases related repositories under one parent body have been given the same entry number, with 'A', 'B', and 'C' subsections. (e.g., Entry 174 National Museum of Wales: A Library; B Welsh Folk Museum; C Welsh Industrial and Maritime Museum).