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Bristol Record Office (BRO) looks after the official archives of the City of Bristol, United Kingdom, as well as collecting and preserving many other records relating to the city and surrounding area for current and future generations to consult. It was established in 1924 as the first borough record office in the UK, since at that time there was only one other local authority record office (Bedfordshire) in existence.

Bristol Record Office is part of the Bristol Museums, Galleries and Archives service and some items from its collections are displayed at M Shed, the museum of Bristol.

History
Bristol Record Office was established in 1924 as the Bristol Archives Office, based at the Old Council House. The first archivist was Miss Norma Dermott Harding, who planned the office and arranged and catalogued the historic records of the Corporation of Bristol. From the early days of the office, however, non-Corporation records were also collected, including ecclesiastical archives, family and estate papers and business records.

In 1939, Miss Elizabeth Ralph was appointed City Archivist and, as the Second World War began, she transferred the entire city archives to the safety of a tunnel on the Bristol Portway, to protect from enemy bombing in the Bristol Blitz. In 1956, she oversaw the move of the archives to a purpose-built strongroom in Bristol's new Council House. Miss Ralph retired in 1971.

In 1992, Bristol Record Office moved to larger premises in B Bond Warehouse, a former bonded tobacco warehouse on Bristol's Floating Harbour. The archives occupy five floors of the western side of the building: the ground floor is occupied by the public searchroom and four further floors are used for storing the archive collections.

Services
TO EDIT********* Tyne and Wear Archives.


 * public searchroom- original docs, microfiche, PCs, digitised film/images
 * Digibureau

Note to self: Possible categories (from LMA list)

 * Corporation of Bristol/Bristol City Council
 * Associations
 * Businesses - add re transatlantic slavender trade, mainly within colls? and some ships books ... find external link re Becker volume
 * Charities
 * Court and prison records
 * Diocesan records
 * Families and estates
 * Hospitals and health authorities
 * Diocese and parishes
 * School records
 * Maps
 * Photographs and images
 * Film


 * Medieval records, inc Ricart's calendar + town plan image

Kirby, I. Diocese of Bristol: a Catalogue of the Records (1970)

English drama book

Useful refs
Records of Early English Drama CHECK TITLE

Collections (not an exhaustive list)
The collections held at Bristol Archives and Bristol Central Library's Local Studies Service have been jointly granted Designated Collection status, which is awarded to collections of national importance. The repository is formally recognised by the Lord Chancellor under the terms of the Public Records Act 1958 as a place of deposit for public records. It also acts as a diocesan record office for the Diocese of Bristol.

parish register

The Bristol Archives collections contain around two million items, occupying about ten miles of shelving.

Not all of the material in the BRO collections is catalogued and some material is restricted or closed because it contains confidential or personal information.

Contemporary collecting projects:
 * BBAP http://www.bbc.co.uk/bristol/content/articles/2007/08/31/bbap_feature.shtml
 * OutStories http://www.bristolpost.co.uk/Revealed-Personal-stories-city-s-secret-sexuality/story-18057523-detail/story.html

COUNCIL RECORDS / Records of Bristol City Council?
Mention archives/council's role in ... democracy, transparency etc?

Diocesan records AND ARCHDEACONRY?
Bristol Archives is formally recognised by the Lord Chancellor under the terms of the Public Records Act 1958 as a place of deposit for public records. It also acts as a diocesan record office for the Diocese of Bristol.

Diocese and the parishes  Archdeaconry of Bristol  parishes

parish register

Schools
Within associations/local authorities or here?

The Red Maids' School

the Red Lodge Reformatory

Bristol Grammar School http://archives.bristol.gov.uk/Record.aspx?src=CalmView.Catalog&id=40715&pos=5

National Nautical School http://archives.bristol.gov.uk/Record.aspx?src=CalmView.Catalog&id=38087&pos=1

Schools established by the Society of Merchant Ventures, inc Colston's School] and the [[the Merchant Venturers' Technical College http://archives.bristol.gov.uk/Record.aspx?src=CalmView.Catalog&id=SMV%2f5

Businesses and trade
BRO holds records of business and trade across several centuries, reflecting Bristol's developing role as a port and a centre of trade and manufacturing. Early records include those of crafts companies and guilds such as the Merchant Tailors' Company (from 1398) and the Baker's Company (from 1499) as well as individual merchants such as John Day (late 17th/early 18th century) and Samuel Munckley (late 18th century), who traded overseas WHERE/WHAT GOODS? - SLAVE TRADE?.

Mention transatlantic slave trade - Becher volume

Baker's Company

Major business collections held include the archives of Bristol Omnibus Company, J S Fry & Sons and Elizabeth Shaw (confectionery companies), John Harvey & Sons (wine merchants), W D & H O Wills (tobacco manufacturers), J W Arrowsmith (printers and publishers) and Bristol Water.

Associations
BRO holds archives of a wide range of institutions and societies.

One of the largest is the archive of the Society of Merchant Venturers, a private entrepreneurial and charitable organisation which played an influential role in many aspects of Bristol's history. Other collections related to trade include the records of the Bristol Commercial Rooms

Records of the local Labour Party and trade unions. Other political parties?

Others - social orgs etc?

Records of cultural organisations include those of the Theatre Royal Bristol (now Bristol Old Vic) WHICH REF?, the Bristol Museum and its predecessor organisations, the Arnolfini arts centre and the St Paul's Carnival Rapier Players Fem FM

Sporting archives include records of the Bristol Rugby Football Club and the Bristol South Cycling Club.

Charitable bodies
Bristol Archives holds records of charitable funds and organisations dating from the *CHECK* 16th century onwards. By the early 19th century, the Bristol Corporation administered a very large number of charities and bequests but most were transferred to the Bristol Municipal Charities under the Municipal Corporations Act 1835. Bristol Archives now holds the records of this organisation, which include the archives of three schools (now independent?) - Bristol Grammar School, the Red Maids' School and Queen Elizabeth's Hospital - as well as Foster's Almshouses, the Trinity Hospital almshouses and various other charities.

BRO also holds records of a wide range of other charities, including the Bristol Sailors' Home, the Bristol Royal Society for the Blind (originally the Bristol Blind Asylum), and the Bristol Centre for the Deaf (formerly the Bristol Christian Mission to the Deaf and Dumb). and the Bristol Guild of the Poor Brave Things.

Families and estates
BRO holds the papers of several major family estates: the Smyth family of Harford family of Blaise Castle, and the Southwell family of Kings Weston House . The estate was built for Edward Southwell, Sr., whose descendants became the Barons de Clifford.

Other family collections held at BRO include papers of the Hart-Davis family http://archives.bristol.gov.uk/Record.aspx?src=CalmView.Catalog&id=41593&pos=26

Goldney family of Goldney Hall http://archives.bristol.gov.uk/Record.aspx?src=CalmView.Catalog&id=33288&pos=1 and http://archives.bristol.gov.uk/Record.aspx?src=CalmView.Catalog&id=38640&pos=1

Vanderhorst family; the merchant Elias Vanderhorst (1738-1816) was born in South Carolina, but later emigrated to Bristol and became US Consul to the city. http://archives.bristol.gov.uk/Record.aspx?src=CalmView.Catalog&id=8032

Personal papers
BRO holds material concerning a wide range of people connected to the city of Bristol. Major collections of personal papers include those of Sir George White, founder of the Bristol Aeroplane Company and the Bristol Tramways Company (later part of the Bristol Omnibus Company, mentioned above). and WHO?

The journal of an anonymous surgeon on the Bristol privateer ship, The Dreadnought, in 1757 and the journal of a 19th century Bristol mariner, Samuel Baker, giving an account of his voyages, travels and experiences

The socialist poet John Wall.

artists James Sharples, Ellen Sharples and [Rolinda Sharples]]

Papers of the sculptor Doris K Flinn and actor Joan Tuckett

The civil rights campaigner Paul Stephenson

The folk singer Fred Wedlock.

antiquarians? BRO also collects small deposits of personal papers and correspondence - for example, the diaries of Harry Bow, a Victorian pallbearer, and Ilene Powell, a wealthy young woman who lived in Bristol in the 1920s. Both are currently on display at M Shed. .

The records of the Bristol Royal Infirmary include historical papers collected by the surgeon Richard Smith. These include a well-known volume of 19th century judicial and medical papers relating to John Horwood, who was executed for murder in 1821; Smith was involved in the case and arranged for the volume to be bound in Horwood's own skin. The book is currently on display at M Shed.

Photograph and image collections
Vaughan? what else?

Film archive
http://www.bristolpost.co.uk/Revealed-magical-images-lost-Bristol/story-11301208-detail/story.html

Link to History of local government in Bristol ?

Use where?
http://www.bristolpost.co.uk/Photographer-keeps-record-records/story-17869763-detail/story.html (but mentions nightwalkers...)