Table Of ContentBritish Archives
fourth edition
British Archives
fourth edition
A Guide to Archive Resources
in the United Kingdom
Editors
Janet Foster and Julia Sheppard
Consultant Editor
Richard Storey
* © Palgrave Publishers Ltd 2002
Softcover reprint ofthe hardcover 4th edition 2002 978-0-333-73536-7
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Contents
Acknowledgements VI
Foreword Vll
Introduction IX
How to Use this Book XV
U seful Organisations and Websites XVll
Useful Publications XXIX
Entries
Appendix I: institutions which have transferred their archives 701
Appendix II: institutions which reported having no archives 704
Appendix III: institutions which did not respond; requested not to be included;
or supplied insufficient information 705
Main Index 707
Key Subject Guide 807
V
Acknowledgements
We are again indebted to our many colleagues and friends for their support and assistance during
the compilation of this edition. Their encouragement has helped us immensely.
For this edition we enjoyed the benefit of Richard Storey's 'retirement', which enabled hirn to join
us as consulting editor providing an extensive knowledge of the archive scene, important assistance
with checking copy and proofs, and a constant source of sound advice.
Revision of the Useful Publications section was considerably helped by suggestions and contribu
tions from the following: Sally Brown, Heather Creaton, Simon Fowler, Jenny Haynes, Serena
Kelly, David Lee, Alexandra Nicol, Richard Olney, Jonathan Pepler, Lesley Richmond, Anthony
Richards and Rosemary Seton.
The Wellcome Trust has again made this work possible through generously allowing us the use of
its facilities and services. Tracy Tillotson patiently dealt with the endless correspondence and revi
sions and thus we owe her a huge debt of gratitude. Other staff at the Wellcome Library have been
very tolerant of the effects of the burdens imposed, particularly during the latter stages of produc
tion. Michael Clark, of the IT Department, resolved a number of problems with the original data
base. The Librarian, David Pearson, has always recognised the importance of the book and took
practical measures to enable its completion.
Assistance with the database was given by Christine Kane and, at Alpha Index, Stuart Martin and
Philip Meldrum. Anna Lloyd, Sophie Lucas and Christi Daugherty undertook the laborious data
entry corrections at proof stage. Ruth Austin gave careful attention to the final proofreading.
Excellent copy-editing and advice was supplied by Caroline Richmond, whose knowledge of the
book and attention to detail have, yet again, proved invaluable. Chris Boulter worked hard as our
production manager at Macmillan du ring the early stages, while latterly, with the change to
Palgrave, we have been fortunate to work with AlisonJones, who pulled out all the stops to help us
in the final stages.
Finally, for their amazing and never-failing support, Janet would particularly like to thank her life
partner Jessamy Harvey, in addition to Margaret Crockett, her business partner and friend of us
both, and J ulia would like to thank Jo hn Orbell and her friends.
vi
Foreword
British Archives was first published in 1982. It remains the only book providing a general guide to
archives throughout the United Kingdom and is recognised as the principal reference work in its
field.
For this fourth edition the book has again expanded. It now has 1,231 entries and a total of 478
institutions were contacted for possible inclusion as new entries. There has been a large amount of
revision within existing entries - partly this involved introducing details of e-mail and website
addresses. Even more time-consuming has been the keeping track of changes consequent upon yet
another round of local authority reorganisation in addition to the funding initiatives for special
collections within the higher education sector. A major development has been the decision,
reached in agreement with the Business Archives Council, to include business archives for the first
t~me, which are if anything even more prone to constant change than the local authority reposito
nes.
The archive scene in the United Kingdom, as elsewhere, has been transformed by the explosion in
electronic access to information. A huge number of projects have made possible access to cata
logues, lists and guides on the Internet. In addition, the archival networking projects provide alter
native subject and regional access for researchers, and these are included in the list of Useful
Organisations and Websites. British Archives, as stated in all editions, is not a comprehensive list
ing of all collections, but a first step to locating the whereabouts of archives, and readers are
advised to use Internet resources as weil as this reference work. The Useful Publications list has
?een expanded and revised into sections arranged by topie and type of material to facilitate search
mg.
In response to comments indicating that there was confusion ab out which index to use, for this
edition we have merged the former Alphabetical Listing and Collections Index to provide a con
solidated Main Index which appears at the back of the book. Also, in view of the changing status of
counties and the expansion of unitary authorities, we have decided, following consultation with
the profession, that the List of Entries by County was no longer viable.
Work on this fourth edition took far longer than anticipated, partly as a result of the wide spread of
new approaches, partly as a result of problems with our new database, and also as a result of the
huge amount of revision required for most of the entries. This was exacerbated by the number of
poor-quality or illegible returns. The editors have done their utmost to ensure that the information
presented is as eorreet as possible, but inevitably a published work of this seale, whieh includes
eontact details that are changing daily, cannot help but be out of date in some instanees.
Nevertheless, we are confident that this fourth edition continues to give a useful overall view of the
archives distributed throughout the United Kingdom, and thus information will be colleeted
towards a fifth edition, whatever format that may have. We would therefore welcome any addi
tions or suggestions and invite eomments to be sent to us c/o the Wellcome Library, 183 Euston
Road, London NW1 2BE.
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 institu
tion 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 and
format whatever its origin (hence including documents, photographs, audio-visual, electronic
records 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 pro
fessional archivists are involved in their preservation. Many such bodies, however, have decided
that they are neither able satisfactorily to house their old re cords nor adequately to make them
available for historians to consult, hence there is also a steady transfer of such archives to estab
lished collecting repositories.
Researchers should be aware that consulting archives is not the same as looking up information in a
book. Archives are unique: the reader cannot assurne that they are freely available or easily accessi
ble, or even that the originals can be consulted. They are never 'loaned', and co pies are not neces
sarily obtainable. Finding aids - catalogues, lists and indexes - vary greatly in style and detail. The
emergence of standards in archival description is leading to greater consistency in cataloguing
although there is no single archive classification system, and in some places finding aids may not
exist although, at the least, guides to overall holdings may increasingly be found on the web. A
great deal depends greatly on the type of institution - the facilities and services of, for example, a
large and well-staffed county record office cannot be expected everywhere, even in other local
authority repositories. However, there is a general commitment to raise standards within the pro
fession, assisted by a variety of organisations and publications noted in the relevant sections of this
book.
It will be obvious from consulting the entries in this book that a number of the archives are admin
istered by librarians, clerks, secretaries, honorary archivists or other individuals whose chief prior
ities 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, to~, certain categories of
records, e.g. parish registers, particularly in local authority record offices, may only be consulted
on microfilmlfiche, and there may be heavy demand for use of the filmlfiche reader. For all these
reasons it is therefore always advisable to contact the repository in advance and/or check the
website to confirm access arrangements and to make a prior appointment. Background preparation
and reading are also essential if the reader is to grasp the significance of the archives and the types
of documentation likely to be encountered. lt 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. Although archivists are not necessarily
authorities on all that their holdings contain, they will do everything possible to direct the
researcher towards the relevant material. If any enquiry is lengthy and a personal visit to the
archive is impossible, some offices now offer a paid research service or may be able to give details
of a professional researcher in the area. See Useful Organisations and Websites for relevant organi
sations.
ix
Methodology
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 as possi
ble where archives, in the widest sense of the word, are held and are relatively accessible.
As with the third edition, restrietions on time and finance made it impossible to visit repositories.
Therefore we have again relied mainly on questionnaires, which were sent out accompanied by
sampie entries and a slightly revised key subject word list. We are indebted to all those who so
kindly took the time and trouble to complete and return the questionnaires.
Sources
Wehave drawn on a number of reference works in order to locate archives, in addition to monitor
ing professional archival publications and historical and other general works where primary
sources were quoted. Approaches were also made to organisations which had advertised for archi
vists or whose existence was drawn to our attention by historians and colleagues. In addition, a
number of organisations requested to be included and the Historical Manuscript Commission's
ARCHON web pages were consulted.
Additions and exclusions
Following discussions with the Business Archives Council, business es have been included for the
first time although we have concentrated on those previously covered by the Business Archive
Council's Directory oi Corporate Archives rather than attempting to contact every major business
in the United Kingdom. We have also made a concerted effort to contact all new universities and
more voluntary organisations including charities and religious organisations.
Privately held collections of estate and family papers have not been extensively covered, although
we have included several of the most well-known collections, particularly if an archivist is
employed. Further information about these collections is available from the Historical Manu
scripts Commission (see p.xxi) and in their two-volume guide Principal Family and Estate Collec
tions (see U seful Publications, p.xxxiii ).
National museums and a limited number of other museums are included. However, no compre
hensive coverage of all the museums in Britain has been attempted, although most will have main
tained some records of their administration and collections, management and some have accepted
collections of archives and manuscripts.
Similarly, the many local history, archaeological, literary and philosophical societies have not been
systematically listed, both because of the numbers involved and because information about them is
normally available from the relevant local authority re cord offices. The latter may indeed hold
these archives or have an agreement to administer them on behalf of the societies. Borough records
outside of established repositories have also not been systematically covered; local authority
record offices should be able to advise on their whereabouts if they have not been deposited.
Information collection
On the whole we have relied on questionnaires, supplemented by telephone calls, e-mails, and
website consultations, to clarify queries or to confirm the current situation with those repositories
which failed to respond. In 1998 we started to send our questionnaires and key subject lists for new
entries. This was followed in 1999 by circulating those institutions having existing entries with
their third edition entry, annotated where we considered more information could helpfully be
forthcoming. We tried to encourage fuller responses where appropriate, and many organisations
took the opportunity to revise their existing entry completely. For the first time, information was
requested ab out e-mail and website addresses.
x
Updating has been a continuous process up to proof stage (October 2001). Contact details, partic
ularly for electronic communication, are continually changing, and where our information is no
longer accurate we apologise for any inconvenience caused.
It will be appreciated that the quality and details of returns is not consistent. Although editorial
persistence and research achieve a substantial measure of improvement in many cases, the guide is
primarily based on information received and there is still considerable variation in the entries.
Inevitably, returns from some of the larger repositories will be more general and in these cases the
reader is particularly advised to consult the published and electronic finding aids available.
Information was sought under the headings detailed below. Where any section is not included in
an entry, this indicates that no information of relevance was supplied. In some instances, where it
was impossible or inappropriate to have a full entry, information ab out the institution and its hold
ings were summarised into a brief statement or minimal entry.
Entry headings
Name 0/ repository: In some cases related repositories under one parent body have been given the
same entry number with subsections 'A', 'B' etc, e.g. entry 561 British Library.
Parent Organisation: This is included if applicable, although the historical background section
mayaIso yield relevant information.
Address: In a few cases the postal address is different from the address at which the archives are
stored.
Telephone: New telephone codes continue to be introduced and British Telecom is liable to change
codes yet again, so if a number is unobtainable for long periods it is worth checking that the code
and/or number remain correct.
Fax: These numbers have been included where supplied.
E-mail: These may be general enquiry addresses or the personal address of the archivist/custodian.
Website: Many repositories already have a web presence but many are in the process of being
mounted; in addition, we have not always included those sites which did not have relevant infor
mation.
Enquiries: Both tide and name were requested but were not always given. Qualifications have not
been included. A contact address is given if different from the main address.
Open: This normally states opening arrangements, i.e. days and hours of opening and any regular
annual closures apart from bank and other public holidays. Academic institutions are normally
closed for longer periods over Easter and Christmas. Many smaller places are closed for lunch.
So me places are open by arrangement only.
Access: This gives information ab out persons who may consult the records and whether there are
restrictions such as closure periods. Where an appointment is necessary this is also indicated. A
very few repositories charge for access: rates of charges are liable to change and have not been
included. Some local authority record offices operate the County Archives Research Network
(CARN) system of issuing readers' tickets. Information about availability of a paid research ser
vice is included here.
Historical background: An outline administrative history of the organisation is supplied, including
details of predecessor bodies where appropriate and, if relevant, the development of the repository
and/or collections. It is also noted if the repository gives assistance to local societies and landed
estates, and whether it is a Diocesan Record Office and/or recognised as a place of deposit for
public records.
Acquisitions policy: The aims of the collecting policy and/or major subject areas may be given.
Archives 0/ organisation: Oudine details are provided, including dates if known. Where the for
mula 'usuallocal authority record holdings' has been used for local authority record offices, see the
fuller description below (p.xii )
xi
