Borthwick Newsletter - May 2025

Posted on 30 April 2025

Welcome to the Borthwick's May newsletter.

May in the Archives - delve into our catalogues with this month’s featured description

Printed certificate of the appearance of Lucy, wife of John Smith, before John Wood and George Hicks, two of the Commissioners for the city of York and Ainsty for taking the acknowledgement of Deeds by Married Women; she certified the validity of an indenture of release dated 4 May 1838, made between William Lockey of the first part, John Smith and Lucy, his wife, of the second part, and Nicholas Edmund Yarburgh of the third part, 7 May 1838 [Yarburgh Muniments, YM/D/FULF/VII/11].

What’s New?

The cold days seem to be behind us now as we enter May. The campus is starting to look very green and there are plenty of flowers, as well as rabbits, squirrels, foxes and ducklings in abundance.

A heron captured on campus by university photographer Paul Shields

We’ve continued to have a steady stream of visitors to the searchroom and enquiries in the inbox, with our searchroom team answering nearly 500 emails, letters and phone calls in April, as well as fetching records for our researchers and volunteers and supporting academic classes that give students the chance to get ‘hands on’ with the archives. Behind the scenes, cataloguing projects are underway, from the archive of Terry’s of York, the famous confectioners, to the architectural plans of Ferrey and Mennim and our Southern African collections, and we look forward to sharing the results with you in the future. In the meantime we have 12 new accessions, 3 new catalogues, a new exhibition, a new podcast, and a glimpse into the private life of a 19th century Archbishop for you to enjoy!

New Accessions

We took in 12 accessions in April, almost all of which were additions to existing archives. These included new compositional notes, costumes and recordings for the archive of composer Trevor Wishart dating from 1971-2025; and a new audio recording for the archive of composer Vic Hoyland from 1979. To the University of York archive, we added files relating to the 2006-2007 public enquiry into the planning application for the development of the Heslington East campus, as well as a 2024 flyer for the university Science Fiction and Fantasy Society and DVDs and newsletters for the Douglas Adams Society. We also added a box of theatre programmes and promotional materials dating from the 1970s to the present day to the archive of the Joseph Rowntree Theatre Trust.

Even our brand new accessions in April had links to existing archives. We received the transcript of an interview documenting the process of securing the correspondence and papers of anti-apartheid activist and journalist Patrick Duncan in the 1960s. These eventually made their way to the University of York in 1976 and then to the Borthwick where they form an important part of our Southern African collection. We also accepted the papers of David Kennard relating to his work as Head of Psychology and Psychotherapy at The Retreat and Director of the associated Tuke Centre for Psychotherapy and Counselling, as well as an MA dissertation examining the institutional architecture of Clifton Hospital. You can search the catalogues for The Retreat Archive and Clifton Hospital Archive on Borthcat.

New Catalogues

Number of archival descriptions on Borthcat on 1st May 2025: 141,035

In April we added the catalogue for the research papers and manuscripts of Professor Elizabeth Salter, a noted medievalist and literary scholar. Professor Salter joined the new University of York in 1963 and made a significant contribution to the development of the Department of English and Related Literature, teaching medieval English studies. She was also instrumental in the creation of the university’s Centre for Medieval Studies in 1972. Her papers, comprising correspondence, notes and manuscripts relating to publications on medieval literature, were formerly held at King’s Manor but have now found a permanent home in our strongrooms as part of the University Library manuscript collection. Another recent addition to the collection is the Newbold Stained Glass Images, a group of 271 colour photographs of stained glass windows and panels from English churches taken by Peter Newbold in the early 1990s. The catalogue can be viewed on Borthcat, as can our other stained glass archives.

We are continuing to convert and expand the original paper finding aids for our parish archives so that they can be added in full to Borthcat and you can now find the catalogue for Thorpe Bassett online. The parish church of All Saints dates to the 12th century and the living had an eventful history, being first given to the Abbot and Convent of St Albans and then to the Greystoke family through whom it passed to the Dacres and from them to the Earls of Carlisle. The earliest surviving parish record is the 1656 register of baptisms, marriages and burials, a volume that underwent some well-meaning ‘improvements’ at the hands of a 19th century vicar. Finding the early entries to be very faint, in 1846 the Reverend Wrangham traced over them ‘with good ink’.

The first page of the surviving Thorpe Bassett parish register showing the traced entries

To quote the original parish finding aid: ‘the result is not altogether a happy one.’ Fortunately for modern eyes a contemporary copy of many, although sadly not all, of the entries survive in the form of the annual Bishops Transcripts. They start in 1604 and can be viewed on Find My Past or on microfilm here at the Borthwick.

News from Conservation

April has been a full but bitty month for our Conservation team. Our staff have been settling into new rhythms and routines, now that the register from Nevis has been returned home. We’ve caught up on some pest monitoring around the building, assessing pest traps and identifying what insects we have in the building. We’ve also prepped some materials for a digitisation project that is underway, cleaning records that are mouldy and separating pages that are stuck together. Packaging has also been an underlying trend of the month: an octopus of a document with many seals requiring a padded bag, a fragment of bomb needing a box, some photographs that are much safer with a range of photographic paper envelopes and some bespoke boxes for a collection of music manuscripts that do not fit in our standard boxes. We have also been experimenting with designs for art transport packs, to ensure our artworks can be moved safely and sustainably around campus.

Borthwick Out and About

If you were visiting York as (or with) a prospective student in April you may have spotted us at one of the university’s two Post Offer Visit Days. Our recent accession of Terry family letters and photographs also featured at the Sheldon Memorial Lecture on the 9th April, when Stan Young examined the life of Noel Terry and the legacy of the family and their confectionery company.

On the 16th April Access and Digital Engagement Archivist Laura Yeoman made a trip to Malton to speak to Friends of Malton Museum to talk about our guild records, including the recently catalogued archive of the Company of Merchant Adventurers of the City of York. Laura was also a guest on the newest episode of the Curator and Keeper podcast hosted by Art Curator Helena Cox and Keeper of Archives Gary Brannan, discussing access to archives and her love of Scottish artist Joan Eardley. The episode is available on Spotify and Apple podcasts.

Looking ahead to May, we are excited to welcome into the Burton foyer a new display of previously unexhibited ceramics from the University of York Art Collection. The University Art Collection includes over 900 artworks of various media, from paintings, drawing and photographs to sculptures and ceramics. The collection has formed organically over the last 60 years of the University’s existence, but it is only in recent years that the collection is going through an in-depth re-cataloguing. This process enables us to uncover many hidden stories behind the objects. We are actively working on developing further display spaces across the campus to make our Art Collection accessible to everyone.

Archive of the Month: The Goodwyn Collection

What is it? The papers and photographs of the Goodwyn and Thomson families, both active in the 19th century Church of England.

Where can I find it? The full catalogue is available on Borthcat.

Why is it Archive of the Month?

As the home of the York Diocesan Archive since 1953, the Borthwick has its fair share of church-adjacent collections. These are often the surviving papers of clergymen and, if we’re lucky, their families as well. Examples include the Account Book of the Reverend Philemon Marsh in our Miscellaneous Documents, or the Records of Reverend Arthur Francis Mann and Family. The Goodwyn Collection is another such archive, chronicling the life and career of Thomas Wildman Goodman. The records include a diary written during his time in the Indian Civil Service in 1832-1833 and letters to his mother from the same period, as well as his academic notebooks from Brasenose College, Oxford, and press cuttings from his time as curate of Doncaster and vicar of Sheffield, St Andrew.

But what really marks out this collection are the number of photographs. In most cases we’re fortunate to have two or maybe three pictures of a 19th century clergyman and their family, but the Goodwyn Collection gives us six full albums, showing Thomas and his friends at college and university, Thomas and his parishioners at Exeter in the 1870s, and, most unusually, the home life of his in-laws, who just happened to be William Thomson, Archbishop of York, and his wife Zoë. Thomas married Ethel Thomson in 1887 and it is through her that we come to have three albums of photographs taken by Archbishop Thomson. The Archbishop seems to have shared his son in law’s enthusiasm for photography, he took pictures of his children and their pets; family activities like tennis, cricket, bicycling, sailing and riding; and Bishopthorpe Palace itself, both inside and out, and in all seasons.

Photograph of Ita Thomson with her dog Scamp (Goodwyn//8)

Photograph of children identified only as Tom and Chloe at Bishopthorpe (Goodwyn/8)

Photograph of family dogs Glen and Scamp waiting for a treat (Goodwyn/8)

The York Diocesan Archive is extensive but it does not include many records of the private lives of the men who served as Archbishop. The Goodwyn Collection offers us a rare and informal glimpse of the Thomsons and their son in law at home and on holiday, and it is all the more valuable for it.

We’ll be back in June with more news and events from the archives!