North Yorkshire County Record Office’s Attics and Acres project, which is opening up and cataloguing the previously unseen archive of the Graham family of Norton Conyers, is going on the road.
The project will be the subject of a one-day roadshow hosted by the Record Office at Samwaies Hall, Main Street, Wath, on Saturday, 16 July.
The 15-month Attics and Acres project began last summer. It is cataloguing and conserving the archive before opening it to people for study and taking it out to the public through events and exhibitions. It comprises 70 boxes of documents spanning 600 years.
The roadshow will enable visitors to discover more about the collection, including finding out who was poisoned and who the black sheep of the family was. Both Charles I and James II are said to have stayed at Norton Conyers, near Ripon, and Charlotte Bronté is reputed to have taken inspiration from this historic house as a model for Thornfield Hall and, in particular, Mrs Rochester’s room, in Jane Eyre.
Original documents will be on show as well as two separate exhibitions. Visitors can have fun playing a fortune-telling Victorian parlour game and take part in a practical conservation workshop that looks at how the autograph album, which includes signatures of Lord Byron and Queen Victoria, has been restored to its former glory; and how you can preserve your own family papers and photographic collections for future generations. Activities will also be made available for children.
County Councillor Chris Metcalfe, Executive Member for the Archive Service, said: “This roadshow offers a great opportunity for the public to see inside this fascinating archive and glimpse how the local gentry managed their estates and cared for their communities over the last 400 years. We hope it will also encourage people to learn about and celebrate their own local heritage and its wider relevance.”
The event on 16 July will run from 10am to 3pm. Entry is free and light refreshments will be served.
The Attics and Acres project is supported by the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF). Partnership funding has been supplied by the Friends of the National Libraries and Northallerton and District Local History Society.
More information is available from North Yorkshire County Record Office, in Malpas Road, Northallerton, on 01609 777585 or at archives@northyorks.gov.uk. People can also follow the Record Office on Twitter @nyccarchives.