Seven centuries of history on the move
Posted on 15 November 2004
Documents, ranging from Lord Halifax’s family archives and Charlotte Bronte’s will to humble title deeds, are being moved to the Borthwick Institute’s £6.5 million new building. It was constructed with the help of a £4.415 million grant from the Heritage Lottery Fund.
Specially designed to ensure the collection is kept in optimum conditions, the new premises will provide a huge family history archive containing details of baptisms, marriages and burials stretching back centuries. It also has more than 500,000 wills dating from 1320 to 1858.
The Institute, one of Britain’s most important collections of historical documents, is moving two miles from St Anthony’s Hall, the 15th-century former religious guild hall in York city centre which has been its home for more than 50 years.
A 12-week operation is under way to move the collection into the new building which has strong rooms with concrete walls 300mm thick designed to maintain a constant temperature and humidity. Every window is UV-filtered. Facilities for researchers will be increased from 16 to 40 spaces, plus a lifelong-learning suite accommodating 30 people and school visits will be encouraged.
Now more people will be able to use the archives in different ways
Chris Webb
The Borthwick’s collection, based originally on the Archive of the Archbishopric of York, now includes a huge range of items including thousands donated by individuals, companies and organisations, as well as the biggest inventory of wills outside The National Archives.
The Institute has outgrown St Anthony’s Hall where the accommodation even in 1953, was described as "not very suitable" by the then Deputy Keeper of the Public Records, Sir Hilary Jenkinson.
The Archive of the Archbishopric had been moved from York Minster as part of a campaign to attract a university to the city. Using a bequest from William Borthwick, a Bridlington perfumier, a research institute based on the Archive was established at St Anthony’s Hall.
Chris Webb, Keeper of Archives at the Borthwick Institute, said: "We had to move because we were full and we had all this material waiting to come in as well as our regular accruals. It was a case of 'where are we going to put it all?'
"We had outgrown the public facilities many years ago. When I came here in the 1980s we had a waiting list to use the archives simply because there was a lack of accommodation for the public. It was very difficult for anyone with any sort of disability to use St Anthony’s Hall.
"Now more people will be able to use the archives in different ways. This is a public institution, not just a university institution. One of the great things about us moving here is that it will bring to the campus many people who have never had any contact with a University.
"The Borthwick Institute is one of the biggest family history archives in the North of England. Our new building provides full disabled access and we encourage school visits. We are open to everyone not just scholars."
Notes to editors:
- The new Borthwick strong rooms are proofed against fire for four hours and are windowless. They will maintain the temperature at a constant point between 13C and 19C, plus or minus one degree and the relative humidity will be at a constant point between 45 and 60 per cent, plus or minus five per cent.
- The Borthwick Institute holds the wills of the explorer Martin Frobisher, experimental chemist John Dalton and the family archives of Lord Halifax and the Yarburgh family who used to own Heslington Hall.
- It will have free access during permitted opening hours. It will be open 9am-5pm plus two evenings a week. The extensive microfilm records will be open until 10pm during term time and all day on Saturdays and Sundays. Previously this was by appointment.