When you visit us here at Northumberland Archives you may wish to request one of the documents that we hold. Documents come to us from a variety of sources. We may receive minutes from the County Council, historic family documents, manorial records, records relating to hospitals or the police – the list is pretty much endless.
This blog will take you on a journey with a document to follow the process and hopefully help you to request a document for yourself. Let’s start with an accession we received recently, namely Cambo First School’s diverse and interesting records. Amongst other things, this accession included logbooks, some exercise books from the 1800’s, along with more recent photographs of the pupils, even a Festival of Britain school project from the 1950’s, and this rather bonny timetable.
After receiving the documents and completing the relevant paperwork, the first thing we do is to assess the condition of the documents to make sure that they can be cared for appropriately. This may entail some conservation work to stabilise any deterioration.
Then we decide on the best way to store the material – we use archive grade, acid free papers and cardboard boxes.
Next comes the cataloguing process. Each item is given a unique reference number and location to allow us to find the item when it is requested. As we hold many thousands of documents this process is especially important.
The Cambo First School collection is joining other records from that school that have previously been deposited here. We often receive documents in waves and often in bundles of several at a time. So, they can’t always be catalogued straight away. Some of the items are subject to a closure period to protect individuals who may still be alive, and this closure period is subject to change depending on current legislation. For example, school records are subject to the following closure periods:
Admission registers: 100 years
Logbooks: 100 years
Manager’s minute books: 30 years
Punishment Books: 100 years
If this collection is something you are interested in and you would like to take a look at it go to our website-www.northumberlandarchives.com click on the online catalogue, click on the advance search facility and in the ref no box type in CES 88* this will bring up all the items in the collection that have been catalogued so far.
Now you know the process for finding a document, why not try it for yourself – you may be lucky and find something about your village, town or even family that you didn’t know existed.
Happy searching!