Our archives

We have a wide, and increasing, range of archival material relating to life in this area.

The jewel in our crown is probably the set of extraordinary personal diaries kept by the local farmer John White from 1841 to 1896. They've now been fully digitised and transcribed, and we'll be working over the next few months on how best to make them fully available. They tell a remarkable tale, not only of farming at a time of great difficulty but also of Victorian life. The page shown above, from the very wet June of 1882, is just one of the 2,500 pages which Mr White has left us.

We have much more, from many other local people and businesses - other diaries and personal letters, business records, a growing collection of oral history interviews, a wide range of maps as well as books and folders produced in very limited numbers or for limited purposes.

Some of this collection has been digitised, but much has not. We'll develop and present the list on these pages, but if you want to find out more about what we have and how you can refer to it, please contact us.