One of the pleasures of working on the Attics and Acres project was meeting and working alongside all the wonderful volunteers who contributed their valuable time to work on the archive of the Graham Family of Norton Conyers.

There were over forty people involved, who came in on a weekly or bi-weekly basis, or worked remotely from their own home. The furthest remotely-based volunteer lived in Somerset, but his family hails from North Yorkshire.

The papers not only relate to the North Yorkshire estates of Norton Conyers (including Wath and Melmerby) and Nunnington, but also further afield in Kippax, West Yorkshire plus Cambridgeshire, Cumbria, Lincolnshire and London amongst others. The types of records range from letters and financial papers, such as vouchers, to medieval court rolls and deeds with some intriguing seals, one of which dates to the short five year reign of Bloody Mary (1553-1558), together with diaries and photographs as well as small square packets containing locks of hair and baby teeth, and a fragment of Charlotte Brontë’s dress!

Project volunteers Barrie and Ann transcribe an inventory of Temple Newsam

The volunteers were involved in a variety of tasks such as document cleaning, arranging, listing, seal-pocket making, re-housing, digitisation, leaflet dropping and transcribing, as well as one volunteer dressing up as Mrs Elizabeth Cage of Kippax Hall for the record Office’s ‘Archives at Dusk’ event. Between September 2015 and the end of August 2016, the volunteers worked for 2092 hours, which equates to 56½ working weeks – a phenomenal achievement, which highlights how valuable their contribution was.

Project volunteers Denise and Moira making seal pockets

During that time, we were able to clean, re-house and catalogue the personal papers of the Grahams and associated families (Musgrave, Baronets Esk, Baildon, Slingsby and Cage), as well as make good inroads into cleaning, listing and re-housing title deeds and estate papers.

Project volunteers Lizzie and Sarah reading an 18th-century deed

The project launch featured a talk by Stephen Moorhouse, a landscape historian with over ten years’ knowledge of the Norton Conyers estate. There was also an opportunity to view the travelling exhibition, plus a few items from the collection itself. Images of the travelling exhibition banners are available to view here.

The Record Office would like to extend a huge thank you to everyone involved with this project, and for the most generous support of all concerned.