Sara and Richard Barton-Wood

About 50 members of the Heritage Society were present at the Fairland Hall to enjoy a fascinating presentation on the history of the Norfolk Record Office by Sara and Richard Barton-Wood.

Formed in 1930, the Norfolk Record Society had documents entrusted to it, many being housed in the Castle Museum, then Miss Mary Grace was appointed Norwich’s first archivist and was based with the records at the old Duke Street Library. This building featured the “dreaded” spiral staircase. In 1955 Jean Kennedy, the first trained archivist to work on the Norfolk collection, was appointed to assist Miss Grace.

A new library was needed to properly house the growing collections of books, together with archive material, and land was bought for the purpose in 1938 near the City Hall, but not until 1960 did work finally get underway on the site with a contribution towards the cost from US service personnel stationed in Norfolk during the war. It was on January 19 1963 that the new Central Library was officially opened in a grand ceremony by Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother. The new building housed the general library, the American Memorial Room, the Colman-Rye library of local history and in the basement the Norfolk and Norwich Joint Record Office. The legendary Jean Kennedy was appointed Senior Archivist, then City and County Archivist in November 1964.

On August 1 1994 disaster struck when the building was engulfed with a furious fire, which destroyed a huge number of books in all departments and the contents of the American Memorial Room , while computer terminals melted. With Tesco lending four trolleys and Marks and Spencer eight, an operation soon got underway to rescue from the basement the Record Office material, much of which had suffered water damage. The Atomic Energy Authority at Harwell helped with freeze-drying damaged documents, while Mr. Alfred Warminger offered free storage in his paper-shredding warehouse in Ber Street for those not too badly affected.

In 1995 a move was made to a second temporary home in Gildengate House at Anglia Square. Dr. John Alban took over from Jean Kennedy in 1997 and, following much debate and a successful lottery bid at the second attempt, a new state-of-the-art Norfolk Record Office was opened on October 31 2003 next to County Hall in Martineau Lane. A more formal opening by Her Majesty the Queen, who had also officially opened the new Millenium Library at the Forum in 2002, took place on February 5 2004. The new record office contains fire resistant repositories, the searchroom and an impressive Long Gallery, where exhibitions are held, while it also incorporates the East Anglian Film Archive and the Sound Archive. The Norfolk Record Office boasts the largest collection outside London and some of the significant documents, together with the important conservation work, were highlighted during the talk. Mrs Barton-Wood’s well received book “Through Fire and Flood – Saving Norfolk’s Archives” provides an absorbing and detailed insight into the story.

Mike Foyle was in the chair and Bruce Blackney gave the vote of thanks.