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Borthwick Newsletter - November 2025

Posted on 31 October 2025

Welcome to the Borthwick's November newsletter.

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

Grant from Thomas son of Henry son of Michael of York, to Gaudin the goldsmith of York, an annual rent of 10 shillings in that land which Adam de Pokelyngton, merchant, holds of him in Glovergail; rendering a rose each year for the first 20 years and thereafter one mark a year.  Witnessed: John Sampson, mayor, Roger de Carletona, Hugh de Sutton, Clement de Pontefract, bailiffs of York, Thomas de Benigburuth, Henry de Rydale, Thomas de Stoketon, Richard de Craven, Geoffrey de Pokelington, William de Suttona, Gilbert de Hugate. Date: York, the eve of St Martin [10 November] 1285 [Company of Merchant Adventurers of the City of York Archive, CMAY/3/3/6/5/2]

What’s New?

The nights may be getting darker but campus is currently full of autumn colour.  We’re marking the start of another academic year with a whole host of new online resources.  On the updated Discover York Digital Library we are very pleased to announce you can now find colour scans of records from the archives of Clifton, Bootham Park and The Retreat psychiatric hospitals.  

These include admission forms and the all-important case notes for thousands of patients who were admitted between the late 18th and early 20th centuries.  The records are freely available to all and we hope they’ll be a valuable resource for family historians and those interested in the history of mental health and its treatment in England.  And don’t forget you can also find some of our other digitised records on Discover, including York Visitation Court Books from the Diocesan Archive, dated between 1598 and 1690, and some wonderful Chapbooks from our Special Collections. 

New Accessions

We accepted 8 accessions in October.  Five of these were additions to the University of York Archive, including posters for events held at Derwent College in the 1970s and student photographs of campus in the 1970s and 1980s, as well as a book on the history of the Department of Chemistry from 1965 to 2015.  We also added 7 letters to the archive of anti-apartheid activist and journalist Patrick Duncan, and some photographs and a copy of the play 'Stalemate or The Head of a King' to the archive of the Society of the Sacred Mission.  The play was written by Brother George Every when he was a member of the Society in the 1930s and it takes place in 1646, during the nighttime visit of King Charles I to the religious community at Little Gidding, Huntingdonshire, following the Battle of Naseby.  Every went on to share the manuscript with his friend, the poet T.S. Eliot, who was a regular visitor to the Society’s home at Kelham in this period, and the choice of setting is thought to have influenced Eliot’s poem ‘Little Gidding’ in his ‘Four Quartets’ of 1940-1943.

New Catalogues

Number of archival descriptions on Borthcat on 1st November 2025: 146,908

You might remember from previous newsletters that we have been raising funds to secure the extensive archive of comedy giants Ray Galton and Alan Simpson for our collections.  We are thrilled to say that we have not only raised the required amount to purchase the entire archive, but you now browse a list of nearly 700 scripts written by the duo between 1951 and 2009.  These include their most famous creation Steptoe and Son, broadcast on the BBC from 1962, as well as episodes of Hancock’s Half Hour, The Frankie Howerd Show, and a host of sketches written for radio and television featuring performers such as David Frost, Peter Sellers and Les Dawson.  This is the first part of the archive to be catalogued but we hope to have more for you soon!

Borthwick Out and About

Another month and another new podcast for you to enjoy.  A few weeks ago York Hospital Radio’s Steve Eccles met our very own Keeper of Archives Gary Brannan to talk about the role of the Borthwick and why it matters, with a particular focus on our growing collection of unique comedy archives (and don’t forget you can still listen to our new October podcast on Hannah Beswick, the so-called Manchester Mummy).

Gary speaking at the Barcelona ICA conference.

Gary also represented the Borthwick at the International Council on Archives’ conference in Barcelona in October, presenting a paper entitled ‘Everyone Expects Us To Do Our Duty: Conserving the Stories of Nevis’.  The paper focused on our work conserving the parish register of St John Figtree on Nevis and the community project to transcribe and research its contents.  You can watch an earlier video about the project on our YouTube channel.

On World Mental Health Day, 10th October, we welcomed 45 attendees to two arts-based workshops at The Retreat Recreation Room. The workshops also allowed attendees a first look at a new exhibition inspired by records created by patients at The Retreat in the 19th century. The artworks were created by people across the city, facilitated by artists Stephen Lee Hodgkins and Griselda Goldsbrough, as part of our Mentally Fit York funded project, Stories of Mental Health from York: Past, Present and Future. 

An example of artwork based on The Retreat archive.

On the same day, our Art Curator Helena Cox led an online workshop entitled 'Mindfulness and Art: Exploring the University of York Art Collection through mindfulness'. Over 100 people attended the session, where Helena taught them the art of 'long looking' at every aspect of artwork as a way of practicing mindfulness. 

Records from our Rowntree archives were also featured in two new publications in October.  Richard Hornsey looked at visitors to the Rowntree’s Cocoa Works factory in York in his article on ‘Factory Tourism in inter-war Britain: the spectacular construction of social-democratic mass production,’ in the Modern British History Journal.  

Just a few miles away in New Earswick, several of our Rowntree cocoa adverts from the Second World War were included in a new charity recipe book created by residents of the continuing care community at Hartrigg Oaks.  The book was made to mark the 100 years since the death of the founder of New Earswick, Joseph Rowntree, and its currently on sale for £10 at Make it York in Parliament Street, the Bar Convent in Blossom Street, Cafe Coco in New Earswick and Cafe Cavo opposite the Joseph Rowntree Theatre.  You can also read about it in the York Press.

Looking ahead, on Saturday 1st November our Access and Digital Engagement Archivist, Laura Yeoman, will be running a Borthwick Institute stand at the Yorkshire History Conference 'New Light on Yorkshire's Past', at the Friends Meeting House in Friargate, York city centre. If you're attending the conference make sure you say hi! 

On the 6th November the Rowntree Society will be hosting an evening discussion on Rowntree newspaper ownership in the early 20th century on the 6th November, drawing on records from our Joseph Rowntree Reform Trust and Rowntree Family archives. Free tickets are available via Eventbrite.

A poster for a social event, from the archives of Derwent College

And if you’re on campus or planning a visit, a student-curated archival exhibition celebrating the 60th anniversary of the opening of Derwent and Langwith colleges in October 1965 is currently showing in the Norman Rea Gallery on campus. Curated by college student committees and drawing on material from the University Archive the exhibition will run to the 8th November and features memories, photographs and more from across the decades, providing insights into the development of the colleges, student life and legacy across the decades. 

Archive of the Month: Alfred Peacock Archive

What is it?  The research papers and original sources collected by local historian Dr Alfred Peacock relating mainly to the First World War.

Where can I find it? The archive has been fully catalogued on Borthcat.

Why is it Archive of the Month?

The 11th November every year is Remembrance Day, the date that marked the end of the First World War in 1918.  Today the events of 1914-1918 have passed out of living memory, but the words and images of those who fought remain, thanks to historians like Alfred Peacock who spent many decades researching and writing about the events of the so-called ‘war to end all wars’.

Photographs of soldiers from the collection of Gunner Herbert Williams

In 2004 Dr Peacock bequeathed the Borthwick a rich collection of his notes, essays, and scrapbooks filled with press cuttings, photographs and extracts from published books and articles about the war, but perhaps the most valuable and poignant part of his archive are the many original records of serving soldiers and their families he collected during his career. These often very personal records survive for some 30 soldiers, ranging from the single fragment of a German aeroplane’s camouflage picked up by Captain F.G. Armitage on the battlefield of Amiens on 9th August 1918, to the embroidered cards sent by Gunner Herbert Williams to his sweetheart Eva Hill, and the many hundreds of letters, postcards and photographs kept by Bradford-born Private Clarence Long of the 16th Middlesex regiment.  Clarence was captured on the first day of the Battle of the Somme and spent the next three years as a German prisoner of war in Heuberg prison camp, using his administrative work in the commandant’s office as a cover to assist the escape of his fellow prisoners.

Cards sent by Herbert Williams to his sweetheart Eva Hill

We are able to follow Clarence from imprisonment to release and his post-war life, but others were not so lucky.  The small cache of letters and documents relating to Private Thomas 2John Morgan of Llanfairfechan in North Wales tell the story of his short career with the Royal Welsh Fusiliers; he enlisted in November 1915, giving his age as 19 when he was in fact only 17, and died less than a year later at the Battle of Mametz Wood.  His mother Margaret spent years trying to find the location of his grave, without success.  

Far from being the ‘war to end all wars’, the 1914-1918 conflict was one of many across the 20th century, albeit on a scale never before imagined.  The array of original records collected by Dr Peacock, together with his decades of research, serve to remind us of the very human stories behind the names in battalion lists and on war memorials, helping to ensure that the sacrifice of the men and their families will not be forgotten.

We’ll be back in December for more news and events from the archive!