The Record Office holds a large number of historic maps and plans, which can be found in a variety of collections. This post looks at a range of maps and plans of Easingwold, dating from the late-18th to the early-20th century.… Read More Easingwold: historic maps and plans
Yorkshire gentlewoman, Alice Thornton, née Wandesford (1626-1707), lived in North Yorkshire for much of her life. This collaborative blog with the ‘Alice Thornton’s Books’ project traces her life from baptism to burial through a series of 17th- and 18th-century documents held in Record Office collections.… Read More The life and times of Alice Thornton: an archive exploration
This second and concluding instalment of Crompton and Blane’s travels in Sicily follows them on the latter half of their journey down the east coast. From their daily journal entries, we can share their experiences of an exhausting climb of Mount Etna to view the crater of the volcano and their tour of Syracuse to see the ancient sites, including the remains of Greek temples and the Greek theatre. … Read More Joshua Crompton’s travels through Sicily, 1825 – Part 2: Nicolosi to Syracuse
In this first of a two-part series, using contemporary journal extracts, we follow Joshua Samuel Crompton and his travel companion William Blane on their journey down the east coast of Sicily in February 1825. Their ultimate destination was Malta, but en route they visited the ancient Greek and Roman sites of Catania and Taormina.… Read More Joshua Crompton’s travels through Sicily, 1825 – Part 1: Naples to Catania
Descriptions of the weather can be found in a wide variety of records held in the Record Office collections. In this blog, you can see examples from the past 350 years, ranging from impromptu remarks made in early diaries, travel journals and parish registers, through to the methodical, late-19th-century daily observations of lighthouse keepers and a 1920s sunshine recorder.… Read More Whether the weather be fine, or whether the weather be not…
An early-19th-century account book from the records of the Stapylton family of Myton Hall provides a fascinating insight into household expenditure from 1807-1814. In this blog, you can read about the types of payments that were being made for the running of the garden and stables, for food items such as fish and cheese, and other assorted purchases such as shaving soap, tobacco and hair cuts, as well as more unusual items including four goldfinches.… Read More Stapylton of Myton records: estate account books and rentals
Estate records within our collections often contain fascinating details about the lives of family members, who travelled and worked overseas. In this blog, we take a look at the papers of Lawrence Dundas, which shed light on travels and his career in India between 1917 and 1940. … Read More The papers of Lawrence Dundas, 2nd Marquess of Zetland
Fragments of medieval music manuscripts have been found reused as the covers or linings of later books held in parish and estate collections here at the County Record Office. In this blog, you can find out more about the manuscripts themselves and the different types of notation and rubrics upon them.… Read More Medieval music: examples of manuscript fragments from our collections
Sion Hill was one of the latest country houses to be built in England at the beginning of the 20th century, designed by renowned York architect Walter H. Brierley and completed just before the outbreak of the First World War. Told through correspondence and plans within the Stancliffe family archive held at the County Record Office, read the fascinating story of the purchase of the Sion Hill Estate and the building of the new house for Percy and Ethel Stancliffe between 1911 and 1914.… Read More The building of Sion Hill, North Yorkshire: a late-Edwardian country house
Have you ever held an historic document up to the light, noticed an image or pattern within the paper and wondered how it got there and why? These images can tell us a great deal about the manufacture and date of the paper and much more. In this blog, using examples from documents within our collections, you can see a fascinating range of the designs that were used and some of the stories they can tell. … Read More Patterns in paper: an introduction to watermarks found within Record Office collections
North Yorkshire Archives Blog 