Topcliffe Parish Records

The collection of records for the parish of Topcliffe is a particularly extensive and varied one. Parish registers of baptisms, marriages and burials exist from 1570 onwards for the church of St Columba. This blog features many of the other types of records you might hope to find for a parish, which survive for Topcliffe but, in many cases, do not survive for parishes elsewhere. … Read More Topcliffe Parish Records

Medieval music: examples of manuscript fragments from our collections

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

The building of Sion Hill, North Yorkshire: a late-Edwardian country house

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