Northamptonshire Archives And Heritage Service

To mark the 200th anniversary of the birth of Queen Victoria, we'll be hosting a day dedicated to all things Victorian. See some of the photographs and documents from the archives and get advice on researching the people and places of the period - it's all free and families are very welcome.

IMPORTANT NOTICE FOR THURSDAY 4TH APRIL: Due to Staffing levels this is a ‘reduced service’ day and only documents that have been pre-ordered can be viewed. We apologise for any inconvenience caused. Please do not travel if you haven't pre-ordered.

Job opportunity is live online: Customer Advisor posts at the Northamptonshire Record Office. Please spread the word to anyone who might be interested in working with the public and with the county's documentary history.

IMPORTANT NOTICE FOR WEDNESDAY 3rd APRIL: Due to Staffing levels this is a ‘reduced service’ day and only documents that have been pre-ordered can be viewed. We apologise for any inconvenience caused. Please do not travel if you haven't pre-ordered.

Due to Staffing levels during April and May 2019, the Northamptonshire Records Office may be required to provide a reduced service at short notice. Please note that on ‘reduced service’ days only documents that have been pre-ordered can be viewed. In order to avoid disappointment, we therefore encourage you to pre-order documents five working days before your intended visit (up to a maximum of eight documents per visit).
Those travelling to visit the Records Office are advised to check the Service’s Facebook page. If the Office needs to provide a reduced service a notice will be posted on the Facebook page by 8:45am that morning. We apologise for any inconvenience this may cause.

Please note our revised Fees and Charges for the new financial year. These are effective immediately.

*fanfare* This is the first digitised image of one of the glass plate negatives that we hold. With a "can do" attitude and some ingenuity, our Digitisation Assistant came with the set-up in the 2nd image. We are pretty excited about this!

You may have seen a piece on BBC Breakfast News today about making sure that historic paths are recorded on the official map. A law passed in 2015 means that any paths not on the map by 1st January 2026 will not be recorded subsequently.
The public can offer evidence for paths that are not currently on the definitive map - but you'll need to provide evidence, such as enclosure or tithe maps. This guide from the Ramblers explains more. https://www.ramblers.org.uk/…/…/dont- lose-your-way-2026.aspx

One of our fabulous volunteers, Wendy, was working with this little beauty last week. It's an almanack from 1731 and has all sorts of curiosities in it.
For each month of the year it gives advice about agricultural practice, as well as diet and health. There's a diagram of which astrological signs are associated with which parts of the body.
There is a world chronology, starting with the creation, dated at 5680 years previous. The final example here is a page describing different areas of the world, using terms that are quite unfamiliar today. Ref E(S)1466

Our last entry for International Womens Day (showing the women who weren't famous or rich or heroic) is a marvellous photo of a women's brass band from 1928.

Our 2nd post for International Womens Day is correspondence from a Baptist Church in 1834, explaining that several members were leaving the church because they did not agree that female members should be able to vote on church matters.

For International Women's Day we look at the women who weren't famous, or rich or heroes. First, a prison register from 1858, where female vagrancy seems to have been a big issue, punished by hard labour.

A bumper crop of interesting people today, all from the MP (Miscellaneaous prints) collection. Click on each image to find out more.

These delightful photographs of cats and kittens come from the archive of Alice Marcon (nee Dryden) of Canons Ashby (references: M(CA)/107-109). We’ve chosen these photographs to highlight this small but fascinating collection of 526 items, which can be searched via our online catalogue, though not all of the documents are about cats! (We also chose these photographs as many of our team like anything cat related in the archives!) You can search our online catalogue via this link: http://nro.adlibhosting.com/search/simple

Just a reminder that we are open tomorrow (Saturday 2 March 2019) between 9am and 1pm. The Family History Society will also be at the Record Office providing free help desks.

Happy St David’s Day! There are various documents in the archives that have a Welsh connection, including an image of a lady wearing traditional Welsh costume, dated c1910 (reference: ZB 478/15/198). The archive also holds a hymn book, written in Welsh, dated 1904 (reference: ZB/999/5), and two of today’s images are taken from this book. To celebrate St David’s day, one of our team has brought in some Welsh cakes for everyone to try, which we’re all looking forward to doing later!

This photo of the Record Office in glorious sunshine was taken earlier today. It was only a few weeks ago we posted a photo of the office in the snow!

Today’s document is a character reference for Ann Preston, who ‘behaved herself as an honest sober servant.’ The short character reference, written in 1795, reads: ‘Lady Godolphin presents her compliments to Lady Downshire according to her ladyships desire this is to inform her that Anne Preston lived with her as a house maid almost sixteen months, in which time she behaved herself as an honest sober servant, and left her place at her own desire. February 21st 1795.’ The docu...ment comes from the Fitzwilliam (Milton) collection (Godolphin Papers), reference F(M)G/957.
It’s often interesting to put archival documents into a wider context, and while Lady Godolphin and Lady Downshire were corresponding about the character of their servants, across the channel France was in upheaval due to the revolution. Their king, Louis XVI, and queen, Marie-Antoinette, had both been executed two years previously.
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