Around Britain
A complete guide to finding kin in the East Midlands
Leicestershire, Leicester and Rutland Record Office is home to some extraordinary items. The only known letter from Leicester-born Joseph Merrick, better known as the Elephant Man, survives here. This sits alongside letters by Oliver Cromwell, facing certain defeat and then elated at his astonishing triumph over the Scots at Dunbar in 1650, and correspondence between George Washington and the historian and political thinker Catherine Macaulay Graham.
The earliest Loughborough parish register includes a number of curious entries, highlighted with a tiny hand drawn in the margin. A melancholy entry from the summer of 1579 reads: “Roger Sheppard, son in law to Nicholas Wollandes, was slain by a Lioness – which was brought into the town, to be seen of such as would give money to see her. He was sore wounded in sundry
places and was buried the xxi day of august 1579.”
Thanks to a partnership with Findmypast ( findmypast.co.uk), almost all of the parish registers here are online, alongside wills and inventories of the Leicester diocese and peculiar courts.
Senior archivist Robin Jenkins says, “Our largest document is a vast pedigree of the Shirley family of Staunton Harold created in the 1630s and decorated with paintings of personalities, tombs and sealed documents. It took the skins of 55 sheep to make, and is almost too large to unroll in the record office!”
‘The council’s commitment to local heritage and in particular improved archival provision is exciting’
There are also all kinds of new collections that have been added since our last visit five years ago.
“We have recently taken in a variety of souvenirs from Leicester City Football Club,” says Robin, “ranging from the expected tickets and programmes, to clap-banners, doughnut boxes and even special-edition Walkers crisp packets.”
The record office was awarded ‘Accredited’ status through The National Archives’ scheme last year, on top of celebrating its 70th birthday. “We do not see ourselves as in stately old age, however,” says Robin. “We’re at the forefront of modern archives – pioneering new methods of reaching new audiences, and making our written heritage accessible and relevant to all.”
Change For The Better
The council has just approved funding for a new record office building beside the County Hall in Glenfield. The development, which will open to visitors in 2023, will include strongrooms with capacity for 25 years’ growth. “The intention would be to provide up-to-date and improved storage for collections
and facilities for users. The commitment to local heritage and in particular improved archival provision is exciting.”
Leicestershire’s industrial past is well represented here. This means that alongside the parish material, Poor Law records, records of taxes and property, and records of hospitals and schools, you will also find the world-famous Newton Collection of railway photographs. These were taken by professional Leicester photographer Sydney Newton at the turn of the 20th century, and meticulously record the construction and early operation of the Great Central Railway.
Robin adds, “Loughborough’s Brush Electrical trams and trains rattled along the world’s rails, and Herbert Morris cranes lifted the world’s goods. Following a merger in the 1930s Herbert Morris acquired Royce Ltd (and the company records), so we care for the first order from Charles Rolls for a Royce car.”
The archive also has records of the Symington company of Market Harborough, famed for its corsets and the Liberty Bodice.
Happily, there is a community of volunteers who have produced indexes and guides to Leicester’s building plans, workhouse records, criminals’ and coroners’ records, and much else besides.
Other recent deposits include archive material from the Gujarati community in Leicester, and the four-year commemoration of the First World War resulted in the creation of a Great War
Archive. As we went to press, staff were gearing up to launch a revamped website incorporating the Century of Stories material gathered over the past five years to tell the story of Leicestershire in the Great War, while support from the National Lottery Heritage Fund has enabled work on the local fight for women’s suffrage to be extended to schools in the area.
Robin adds, “We have nearly completed a project in collaboration with The National Archives to bring our local Manorial Documents Register entries up-to-date. This will be the subject of a major exhibition.” Another very useful resource is part of the University of Leicester’s website Special Collections Online. My Leicestershire History is a free and fully searchable collection containing photographs, films, sound recordings and books ( specialcollections.le.ac. uk/cdm/myleicestershirehistory). This includes the East Midlands Oral History Archive (EMOHA); Ghost Signs of Leicestershire, with details of vintage advertisements painted on the side of buildings; the political memorabilia of Archibald Gorrie (c1885–1941) relating to the Labour movement in Leicestershire; items from the archives of the Leicestershire Industrial History Society; and Manufacturing Pasts, a collection of resources relating to the manufacturing history of Leicester, including firms such as Liberty Shoes and the clothing manufacturer N Corah and Sons.
Of more immediate use is the collection of approximately 50 digitised trade and street directories for Leicester and Leicestershire, dating from the 1790s to the 1910s. And if the building where your family lived doesn’t appear on modern maps, Vanished Leicester collects more than 1,000 photos of streets and buildings that were demolished in slum clearances.