North Yorkshire County Record Office





The North Yorkshire County Record Office was established in 1949 and now occupies purpose-adapted premises, storing millions of documents in line with British Standard 5454, and making them available for a wide range of uses, from legal enquiries, to education and enjoyment. The Record Office offers a source of expertise in record keeping for the County Council and the people of North Yorkshire.
Venue Type:
Archive
Additional info
Large public searchroom
Microfilm readers and reader printers
Electronic document magnifier
WiFi Internet access
Exhibition area
Tea room for visitors' use
Meeting room for hire
We hold millions of documents from the 12th century to the present. They include the written records of great houses, families and estates, local government and courts of law, businesses, churches, schools, charities, societies and individuals. These comprise maps, photographs, diaries, letters, accounts, manuscripts of all kinds, and a growing amount of material in digital format.
Collection details
World Cultures, Trade and Commerce, Sport, Social History, Religion, Maritime, Law and Order, Land Transport, Inland Waterways, Industry, Archives, Architecture, Archaeology, Agriculture
Key artists and exhibits
- Parish registers
- Quarter sessions records
- North Yorkshire
- North Riding
- Lead mining
- Manorial documents
- Maps
- Cartularies

Archives at Dusk
- 17 May 2018 From 6pm
This year we are looking at some of our earliest documents from the medieval and early modern periods, two of the most exciting, turbulent and transformative eras in history, and showing what they reveal about life in North Yorkshire for the nobility, religious communities and ordinary people. We’ll be looking at castles & abbeys, domestic life, music, hunting, law making, lost villages, crafts and calligraphy.
To bring the archive alive we’ll be inviting handlers from the North Yorkshire Moors Birds of Prey centre with a display of falcons commonly used for hunting in medieval times. They will expand on some amazing references found in the Richard Cholmeley’s note book, 1600, reflecting his passion for the care, training and handling of birds of prey.
The evening will provide a rare opportunity to view the Whitby Abbot’s Book. This fascinating record of the Abbey was begun in the 12th century and continued until the early 16th century. Susan Harrison from English Heritage will be here to talk about the newly planned visitor centre for Whitby Abbey to which the Abbot’s Book will be loaned for display later this year.
Medieval sheet music can survive because of its re-use in later bindings. Rare examples of this showing the development of early plainsong will be displayed and brought to life by members of the All Saints Choir, Northallerton.
The plague was one of the biggest killers of the Middle Ages – it had a devastating effect on the population of Europe in the 14th and 15th centuries. We will see examples of early home medicine in the form of recipes for plague pomanders and remedies.
We’ll also be looking at the medieval clothier, the cloth making industry in Yorkshire & how medieval citizens dressed. A demonstration of spinning on the Great Wheel with fleece & textile tools will bring the important industry of cloth production to life. Come along and try on a medieval costume!
The skills needed to produce the many medieval documents found in the archive will be explored from the production of parchment and writing pigments to the illumination of manuscripts and creation and meaning of wax seals. We’ll be holding lessons in calligraphy and a quiz in the development of the written word.
Discover a cultural gem on your doorstep and immerse yourself in medieval history for two and a half hours . . . .
Suitable for
- Any age
Changes in Society - Managing an Exhibition
http://www.mylearning.org/overview.asp?journeyid=511
Students from a Young Offenders' Institute learn howe to plan, run and evauluate an exhibition about changes in the prison system in the 19th and 20th Centuries. The resource has video clips showing how the young people planned the project.
Publisher
- This resource was produced as part of the MLA-funded My Learning project.
Crime & Punishment - Sophia Constable
http://www.mylearning.org/overview.asp?journeyid=512
The life of Sophia Constable, an 11 year old girl who was given a sentence of three months hard labour in Northallerton Gaol in the late 19th Century for stealing a loaf of bread.
Publisher
- This resource was produced as part of the MLA-funded My Learning project.
Food and Diet in World War II
http://www.mylearning.org/overview.asp?journeyid=175
Looking at food, diet and rationing in WWII through the propaganda issued by the Ministry of Food in past editions of local newspapers.
Publisher
- This resource was produced as part of the MLA-funded My Learning project.
Food Photographs of post war Britain
http://www.mylearning.org/overview.asp?journeyid=232
Looking at daily life associated with shopping, family meals and food in post war Britain through British Council Photographs of Richmond, North Yorkshire from about 1945.
Publisher
- This resource was produced as part of the MLA-funded My Learning project.
Investigating the history of a house
http://www.mylearning.org/overview.asp?journeyid=500
The private life of Victorian Britain explored through a series of visual sources focusing on the house of the Beresford Peirse family who lived at Bedale Hall in North Yorkshire.
Publisher
- This resource was produced as part of the MLA-funded My Learning project.
Painters and Decorators 19th & 20th Century Bedale
http://www.mylearning.org/overview.asp?journeyid=501
Examining the Bucktrout and Firth painting aand decoratiing businesses of the 19th and early 20th centuries through a number of documents, such as photographs, census records, accounts and inventories.
Publisher
- This resource was produced as part of the MLA-funded My Learning project.
Snapshot 1900: The Changing Picture of Class
http://www.mylearning.org/overview.asp?journeyid=233
Using different types of 19th Century source archive material from North Yorkshire to learn more about social class, civic pride, the Boer War, football, motorcycling, brass bands, cycling, and clubs and women at the the turn of the century.
Publisher
- This resource was produced as part of the MLA-funded My Learning project.
Tea for the Tea House
http://www.mylearning.org/overview.asp?journeyid=146
Tea and tea houses in the Edwardian era and how people used their leisure time in the early 20th Century compared to the early 21st Century.
Publisher
- This resource was produced as part of the MLA-funded My Learning project.
Yorkshire Puddings
http://www.mylearning.org/overview.asp?journeyid=230
Historical recipes for Yorkshire Puddings.
Publisher
- This resource was produced as part of the MLA-funded My Learning project.
North Yorkshire County Record Office
Malpas Road
Northallerton
North Yorkshire
DL7 8TB
England
Website
www.northyorks.gov.uk/archives
Telephone
01609-777585
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