Friday Update Number One

Posted on 26 March 2020

In our first full week working from home, we wanted to update you on what we've been doing...

While the Borthwick Institute remains closed for the time being, archives staff have fortunately been able to continue their work remotely, converting and updating paper finding aids so they can be added to our online catalogue Borthcat. Over the past week we’ve already added eight new catalogues consisting of 1,185 individual entries ranging in date from the late 12th century to 2013.

You can now find out more about the archive of York Charity Schools which oversaw the famous Blue Coat and Grey Coats schools in York, as well as its successor, the Blue and Grey Coat Children’s Home. You can find new descriptions for manorial records for the manors of Hemingbrough, Stillington, Nawton and Wombleton dating from as early as 1610 in the Ware archive, as well as extensive estate papers of the Lawley family, Barons Wenlock, beginning in the 12th century. We’ve also added the full catalogue for the wide ranging charities set up by the remarkable Lady Elizabeth Hastings of Ledstone Hall who funded schools in Yorkshire, London and even the Isle of Man.

For more recent history, why not take a look at the archive of York Symphony Orchestra, founded in 1898 by York Minster organist Thomas Tertius Noble? Or the work of the York Branch of the British and Foreign Bible Society whose original sponsors included Quakers William and Henry Tuke and the American grammarian Lindley Murray? Finally, and appropriately for Spring, we’ve added the records of G. W. Gray of Stanningley whose horticultural papers provide a glimpse into the work of the National Chrysanthemum Society and the Royal Horticultural Society from the 1920s to the 1950s.

We aim to continue to update you each Friday on the new catalogues you can find on Borthcat and we very much look forward to seeing you again in person, when the Borthwick searchroom reopens in the future.