One of the most varied and interesting roles that Northumberland Archives staff fulfil is that of visiting sites to view material that the archive would potentially like to take into its care. Historically significant documents can find their way to the archive from many different sources; from an interesting scrap of paper being found in the back of a cupboard, to the closure of a business resulting in the wholescale clearance of the organisation’s offices. Having the opportunity to visit places and view archives in situ can be incredibly useful for archivists, whose role also includes making sense of the material so that it can be accurately catalogued and made available to researchers in as obvious and logical order as possible. This process can also vary in difficulty; for every site that contains well-organised, clearly labelled, and boxed collections of records, there is the prospect of piles of unsorted papers dumped on desks or the floor. Happily, on a recent visit to view material from Hexham Racecourse, the former was very much the case.
Earlier this year, Northumberland Archives were contacted by Major Charles Enderby, the previous owner of Hexham Racecourse, to ask whether we would be interested in the course’s archive. Hexham Racecourse was established by Major Enderby’s great grandfather, Charles William Chipchase Henderson in 1890, and the majority shareholding remained in the family until it was sold to its current owner in 2015. The racecourse is known as one of Britain’s most scenic and is positioned amongst stunning Northumbrian countryside, two miles outside of Hexham.
The racecourse archive contains swathes of interesting material that show the development of the site and the business from the early twentieth century up to the 2010s. Accounts, plans, minute books and correspondence all feature, which give an intriguing picture of the development of an important local sporting institution over the century. The archive also includes a comprehensive collection of race cards from the 1980s onwards and several photograph collections, providing an excellent resource for both local and sporting historians.
The process of selecting material for transfer to the archive is an important and not always straightforward one. Archivists must often make informed decisions on what material should be permanently preserved and what can be housed elsewhere or discarded. In most cases we look for unique material of historical significance that shows how a business, individual or organisation functioned and operated. Luckily in the case of Hexham Racecourse’s records, it was straightforward to make these decisions and we were able to ensure that all the appropriate material could be taken to form the racecourse archive. By the end of our visit, roughly 32 boxes were ready to be transported back to Woodhorn. Once this material has been processed and catalogued by archives staff, it will be made available for consultation in our Searchroom. We look forward to sharing interesting stories from within this collection as they are uncovered during cataloguing.
