Court Records Until 1971, courts of Quarter Sessions met four times a year to hear cases relating to all but the most serious crimes. The County Record Office holds the surviving records of the North Riding of Yorkshire Quarter Sessions, with minute and order books dating from 1605 onwards. The sessions were originally heard in… Read More Focus on Whitby Records – Part 3
The Abbey and Cholmley Estate The earliest Whitby records held by the Record Office date back to the medieval period, when the Abbey held substantial power and extensive land holdings in the local area. The Whitby Abbey cartulary, which is on display at the Abbey Visitor Centre, contains copies of title deeds, charters of privilege… Read More Focus on Whitby Records – Part 2
Parish registers The County Record Office hold the parish registers from nearly 300 different Anglican parish churches in North Yorkshire, including those for Whitby and its surrounding parishes. Registers of baptisms, marriages and burials began to be compiled by every church in 1538 and continue to the present day. Parish registers provide a wealth of… Read More Focus on Whitby records – Part 1
It is likely that the Covid-19 (Coronavirus) pandemic of 2020 will be remembered as one of the greatest plagues of the 21st century. As we live through this, we can reflect that it is not the first time the world has faced the widespread outbreak of a new and daunting disease. Plagues were common in… Read More Surviving the pandemic
We are delighted to welcome you to our new blog. We’ll be sharing some of the amazing stories from North Yorkshire’s past to be found amongst the five miles of archive collections that we hold. We’ll give you an insight into those collections; how we look after them, with the help of our dedicated team… Read More Welcome to our blog
North Yorkshire Archives Blog 