Archives & Libraries
Northumberland Archives’ new home at the Woodhorn Centre, near Newbiggin-by-the-Sea, is on schedule and should be opening in Autumn 2006. The site is being billed as a major tourist attraction with a museum and a country park as well as an archives search room with computer links for up to eighty users. Web users can stay in touch via www.experiencewoodhorn.com. The computer generated image (CGI) (above) shows what you can expect to see when you visit the Centre.

A timely reminder from the Wiltshire and Swindon Record Office of how saving the past depends all too often on chance. Recently the complete archive of Winterbourne Monkton School in Wiltshire, containing log books for the years 1875-1957 and an admission register for 1902-1971, was recovered by an alert neighbour from a skip in Cumbria and returned to Wiltshire. Staff suspect that the archive was removed by a departing teacher when the school closed in 1972 (from Past Matters No.15, Winter 2006, W&SRO).

Beds & Luton Archives change of hours. From 3 April 2006, the Bedfordshire & Luton Archives & Records Service at Riverside Building, County Hall, Bedford MK42 9AP, will be closed every Thursday to visitors, but they will continue to respond to telephone enquiries and e-mails. On Mondays, they will be open an extra two hours, until 7pm instead of 5pm. For more details tel: 01234 228833; e-mail: Nigel.lutt@bedscc.gov.uk.

150 years of public libraries in Sheffield. Sheffield first public library opened on 1 February 1856 in two ground floor rooms of the Mechanics' Institute, Surrey Street (where the present Central Library is still located). At first it was only a reference library, but it was so successful that the entire ground floor was rented and a lending library opened on 2 June 1856. In 1864, Sheffield Council bought the entire building. There will be special events at Sheffield Central Library throughout 2006. For more information subscribe to the Sheffield History Reporter, which is published six times per annum and costs £2 pa to cover p&p (overseas £5 pa). Send cheques to Sheffield City Council, c/o Mick Spick, Development Officer, Local Studies Library, Sheffield Central Library, Surrey Street, Sheffield S1 1XZ.

For the record
English Heritage have called for a 'joined up approach to heritage research' and have published two brochures outlining their ideas and strategy for the next five years. Most of the ideas are about access, patterns of usage, sustainability and conservation, with no direct reference to historical research. Two 48 page policy statements have been published: Discovering the past: Shaping the future and English Heritage Research Agenda. Both are available from www.english-heritage.org.uk/research as downloadable pdf files or from English Heritage, 23 Savile Row, London W1S 2ET.

The records of St Martin's in the Bullring, Birmingham, from 1544 will soon be available from the Birmingham & Midland Society for Genealogy & Heraldry after two years’ work. A private bequest, a Lottery grant and permission from Birmingham Archives made the project possible. For more information contact BMSGH, c/o Jackie Cotterill, General Secretary, 5 Sanderling Court, Spennells, Kidderminster, Worcs DY10 4TS, e-mail: gensec@bmsgh.org.

The Women's History Network is keen to make contact with anyone interested in its activities. The Network publishes Women's History Magazine three times a year and have about 400 members. For more inforamtion contact Dr Claire Jones, 7 Penkett Road, Wallasey, Merseyside CH45 7QE, e-mail: claire@jones5.com, web: www.womenshistorynetwork.org.

The future of fingerposts has been making the news after English Heritage and the Department for Transport called on local authorities 'to retain, repair and re-introduce fingerposts where appropriate'. Nottinghamshire County Council has been using Building Better Communities Project funding to encourage applications from district and parish councils. As long ago as 2001, Lincolnshire County Council established a working group called 'Traditional Roadsigns in Lincolnshire' and since then has refurbished over 100 signs. A copy of a new Traffic Advisory Leaflet, Traditional Direction Signs, can be obtained free of charge from English Heritage Customer Services on 0870 333 1181.

The Stamford Survey Group is about to publish the first in a series of volumes about the town's borough records. Volume one is William Browne's Town 1465-1492. As Series Editor Professor Alan Rogers explains, 'Stamford in the fifteenth century was still a major urban centre (and) at the heart of the town at this period lay the Browne family, especially William Browne — 'a marchaunt of a very wonderfulle richnenesse' as he was described. To order a copy of volume one (£10 incl p&p) or for more information, contact: SSG, c/o 2 King's Road, Stamford, Lincs PE9 1HD.

The 'Echoes of the Departed' project wants to receive photographs of individuals who live or have lived in Liverpool, so that they can be placed onto a website where image of present-day residents can be shown alongside images of former residents in temporary 'installations' across the city. The project aims 'to provoke a sense of historic interest and pride in the part Liverpool has played in the shaping the lives of those who chose to pass through'. For more details e-mail: clare.trenholm@liverpool.gov.uk; web: www.liverpool08.com.