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49-656: The association was formally founded in 1932, but it took over the Records Preservation Section established three years earlier in 1929 by the British Record Society (see below). The similarity of name between the two bodies was a deliberate choice, made in order to emphasise continuity. The formation of the new association – and its not entirely amicable split from the BRS – was largely the initiative of (Sir) Hilary Jenkinson . He remained

98-520: A salvage campaign to encourage the recycling of waste paper, the BRA ran a vigorous counter-campaign to safeguard against the over-enthusiastic destruction of records of historical value. In 1943, it produced a report on British Records after the War , which proposed legislation to control local and private archives. Although most of its proposals proved to be too draconian for general acceptance, they did lead to

147-451: A paid executive officer was appointed. From 1950 to 2009 the association was able to employ a qualified archivist (and at times other staff), principally to undertake Records Preservation work. This was made possible in part through the receipt of an annual grant-in-aid from HM Treasury , paid from 1959 to 2000; but the work is now again carried out on an entirely voluntary basis. British Record Society The British Record Society

196-764: A speaker prominent in the world of scholarship, record-keeping or politics. Recent Maurice Bond Lecturers have included Clyde Jeavons , formerly of the National Film and Television Archive (2005), Nicholas Rodger (2006), Nicholas Kingsley of The National Archives (2007), Bamber Gascoigne (2008), Richard Horton , editor-in-chief of The Lancet (2009), Frank Prochaska (2010), Michael Meadowcroft , MP (2011), Peter Hennessy (2012), Professor Eric Ketelaar (2013), Jeremy Musson (2014), Fiona Skillen (2015), Caroline Shenton (2016), Joan Winterkorn (2017), Martin Daunton (2021), Andrew Flynn (2023). During

245-405: Is peer-reviewed , and contains a range of articles relating to the history, preservation, accessibility and use of archives, historical case-studies drawing heavily on archival research, and discussions of archival trends, theories and practices. It also carries reports and reviews of recent archival publications, web sites, exhibits and events. Since 2019, the journal has been published on behalf of

294-560: Is a British learned society that focuses on publishing historic records , or, more specifically, indexes to such records. In recent years, the Society has concentrated on the publication of name indexes to English probate records, and the texts of 17th-century Hearth Tax returns. The Society was founded in 1889 to take over the Index Library , which had begun life the previous year as W. P. W. Phillimore's private scheme for

343-424: Is awarded for the best or most original piece of work published in any media in the previous three years which has met the aims of the association in promoting the preservation, understanding, accessibility or study of archives. The Records Preservation Section (RPS; originally Records Preservation Committee, or Records Preservation Branch) was established under the auspices of the British Record Society in 1929, in

392-602: Is said to have removed all the Acts and Journals relating to one session. A more business-like administration began with the advent of two Clerks in the 17th century, Robert Bowyer (1609–1621) and Henry Elsynge (1621–1635). Under these diligent and scholarly men the Lords archive took its modern form. Petitions and many other forms of Papers coming to the Lords were carefully filed; extensive series of rough Minutes and of Committee Proceedings were preserved; and, not least in importance,

441-583: The Declaration of Breda , and other public muniments which had "just been untombed from this mausoleum of historic remains" (as Thomas Duffus Hardy and his fellow Commissioners remarked). The succeeding Reports of the Commissioners were continued from 1900 onwards by calendars published by the House of Lords itself. During the time that the records were being identified and calendared on behalf of

490-829: The Freedom of Information Act 2000 and the Data Protection Act 1998 . In 2012 this corporate function moved to the Clerk of the Parliaments' office of the House of Lords. From 2000 to 2004 the air-conditioning and other environmental controls in the Victoria Tower were refurbished to bring it up to the British Standard for archival storage, BS 5454 , and from 2000 to 2005 a major project converted

539-561: The Jewel Tower , where the main series of records had been preserved, but also in part owing to the efforts of a Lords clerk, Henry Stone Smith , who threw out of the blazing windows of the main building onto Old Palace Yard many hundreds of bundles of other Lords papers that had not been transferred to the Jewel Tower. These bundles for several decades after the fire led a confused existence, being virtually forgotten by those outside

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588-902: The Palace of Westminster on 5.5 miles of shelving. Some of the most important constitutional records of the United Kingdom are stored by the Archives, including the Petition of Right (1628), the Death Warrant of Charles I (1649), the Habeas Corpus Act 1679 , the draft and final Bill of Rights (1689), the Slave Trade Act (1807 and 1833), the Great Reform Act (1832), and successive Representation of

637-630: The Parliament Roll for that session for transfer to Chancery , retained in the House of Lords the complete series of sixteen enacted Bills, or Original Acts , from which he had made the enrolment. Since then, this series has been preserved continuously among the records of the House of Lords. By 1509, the Clerk of the Parliaments and his assistants (today known collectively as the Parliament Office) had hived off from Chancery, and in

686-536: The United Kingdom preserves and makes available to the public the records of the House of Lords and House of Commons back to 1497, as well as some 200 other collections of parliamentary interest. The present title was officially adopted in November 2006, as a change from the previous title, the House of Lords Record Office . Over three million records are held by the archives in the Victoria Tower of

735-430: The " Queen Victoria Tower ", steadily increased from that indicated in the original plan (of some 200 feet (61 m)) until, in 1855, when the wrought-iron flagstaff was at last put into position, the tower was proudly claimed to be not merely "the grandest feature of the building", but the largest and highest square tower in the world, 323 feet (98 m) high to the base of the flagstaff and 395 feet (120 m) high to

784-567: The 1930s, the British Record Society has been primarily a publishing society for English records, frequently in conjunction with county historical societies. By 2012, 126 volumes of the Index Library had been published over 123 years, besides two extra volumes and some microfiche. Over the past half century the Society has largely, but not exclusively, concentrated on the publication of name indexes to probate records, and

833-422: The Archives. Today the archives employs over 30 staff, including archivists, digital archivists, records managers, digitisation and collection care specialists. The team provide information management, preservation, access and outreach services enabling anyone in the world to use Parliament’s records, both now and in the future. The archives has an operational digital repository and is working to acquire and ensure

882-487: The Association by Liverpool University Press . The journal's editors have been: Roger Ellis, 1949–57; Joan Lancaster, 1957–63; Arthur Owen, 1964–76; Andrew Cook, 1977–84; John Warner-Davies/Davies, 1985–89; Jeremy Black , 1990–2005; Ruth Paley , 2006–date. Since 1970, the association has published a series of handbooks providing introductory guides to historical documentary sources for researchers and editors, under

931-611: The BRA's guiding force for nearly 30 years. From 1930 to 1932 he had served as Secretary of the Drafting Committee which established the association; and he subsequently served as its Joint Honorary Secretary 1932–47; Chairman of the Records Preservation Section 1947–61; Vice-President of the association 1954–61; and as a member of most of its committees. Other active members in the early years included G. H. Fowler , Joan Wake , Ethel Stokes , Irene Churchill , Kathleen Major , William Le Hardy , and H. M. Cashmore . Prior to

980-616: The Covid-19 pandemic, the BRA held a series of webinars discussing truth and the archival record, in partnership with the Institute of Historical Research . The series of webinars can be accessed from the Shock of Record twitter account. The association also holds other occasional conferences, seminars and training sessions. In 2018, the association established the annual Harley Prize in memory of Janette Harley (1951–2015). The prize, of £500,

1029-556: The Historical Manuscripts Commission they were also gradually being installed in a new repository. After the fire of 1834, the House of Lords gave directions that a new building must contain two "Fireproof Repositories for Papers and Documents". Charles Barry 's winning design had as its culminating feature a tower over the Royal entrance in which every storey included "Record Rooms". The height of this tower,

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1078-591: The House of Commons, the series of some 241 original manuscript Journals, dating from 1547 to 1800, were deposited in the Victoria Tower, by authority of the Speaker of the House. Secondly, in 1937, the then-Clerk of the Parliaments, Sir Henry Badeley , initiated a survey of the entire Lords archive. The resulting report by V. M. R. Goodman revealed the necessity of a full-time staff (which the records did not then have) to undertake boxing, repair and production of

1127-422: The House of Lords , on 3 July 1963, with the intention, as he said, that "this new building may have a long and distinguished career... in the service of Parliament, history, and culture". This lasted until the late 1990s, when it became clear that the air-conditioning in the repository was failing to comply with required standards, and other services needed updating. From 1996 to 2000, a records management survey

1176-517: The Lords ordered the printing of their Journals. Meanwhile, a second parliamentary archive, the records of the House of Commons , had been forming in another part of the Palace of Westminster. Initially, in the Middle Ages, it could be said that no formal records at all were made of the domestic proceedings of the House of Commons. From 1547, however, a Commons Journal survives, and, parallel with

1225-564: The Palace of Westminster. A public Search Room was opened, and when in the 1950s the Record Office Technical Committee highlighted the need for repairing the thousands of deposited plans in the Victoria Tower, two craftsmen were recruited specifically for this task. Today the conservation unit numbers six staff, on secondment from the British Library. The publication of calendars, which had ceased in 1922,

1274-621: The Parliament Office, until, in 1870, the newly formed Royal Commission on Historical Manuscripts began to issue regular reports. In them, the commission drew attention to the extent and variety of manuscripts preserved in the House of Lords. The first Report of the Commission brought to light a packet of letters which had been abandoned by Charles I at the Battle of Naseby , as well as the "annexed" Book of Common Prayer of 1662,

1323-515: The People Acts . In March 2022 it was announced that the archives would be relocating to The National Archives , Kew , by 2025. The archives also oversees records management for Parliament, has an active outreach programme and frequently appears on radio and TV programmes. The archive of the House of Lords originated in March 1497, when the then Clerk, Master Richard Hatton, having prepared

1372-520: The RPS is to act as a rescue organisation and clearing-house for records deemed to be at risk, passing them on to appropriate institutional custodians. In practice, most of the records it has received have always come from the offices of London solicitors, and have been transferred to county record offices and other local archive repositories around the United Kingdom. The work of the RPS was carried out largely by volunteers from its foundation until 1948, when

1421-723: The Rolls was also Keeper of Public Records, and nominal head of the Public Record Office . Under the Public Records Act 1958 , responsibility for public records was transferred from the Master of the Rolls to the Lord Chancellor ; but the BRA chose not to follow this lead. The current president is therefore Sir Geoffrey Vos . The association has published a journal, Archives , twice-yearly since 1949. It

1470-665: The aftermath of the Law of Property Act 1922 and the Land Registration Act 1925 , both of which rendered certain classes of historical property record redundant for legal purposes, and so at risk of destruction. It was partly inspired by (though not directly modelled on) the example of the National Art Collections Fund . Its responsibilities and assets were formally transferred to the newly formed British Records Association in March 1933. The role of

1519-407: The conference was normally held in late November or early December; but the decision was then taken to schedule the next conference for Spring 2019 (no conference being held in 2018). The annual Maurice Bond Memorial Lecture, named after the former Clerk of the House of Lords Record Office , is held in the late autumn (normally October) in conjunction with the association's AGM , and is delivered by

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1568-431: The course of the 16th century this newly independent Lords office gradually expanded and formalised its record keeping. In addition to the class of Original Acts already mentioned, the clerks preserved Journals of the House of Lords, now surviving from 1510, Petitions from 1531 and Bills from 1558. It seems, however, that the office was somewhat haphazard in its methods; Cardinal Wolsey , for instance, when Lord Chancellor ,

1617-532: The entire stock—with the vital exception of the Commons Journals—was consumed in the " tally stick fire ", which destroyed a great part of the fabric of the Palace of Westminster. The records had been stored in the House of Commons Library and various attics throughout the Commons, all of which went up in smoke. The House of Lords archive, however, survived. This was in part due to the isolated position of

1666-530: The establishment of the National Register of Archives in 1945. From 1974 to 1992, the BRA's administrative secretary was the former Soviet spy John Vassall , who, following his release from prison, had begun a new life under the name John Phillips. By tradition, the president of the association is the Master of the Rolls of the day. At the time of the BRA's foundation, and until 1958, the Master of

1715-587: The establishment of the Society of Local Archivists in 1947, the BRA was the closest that Britain had to a professional association for archivists, and it played a central role in laying down professional standards and principles, and in promoting the establishment of professionally staffed local archive services in the post-War years. During the Second World War , when the British government promoted

1764-482: The formation in the Lords of the main Parliamentary records under Bowyer and Elsynge, separate series of domestic records of the Commons began to accumulate, of Petitions and Papers (from the reign of Elizabeth I), of Return Books of Elections (from 1625) and of Minute Books of Committees (from 1623). By the early 19th century the House of Commons archive was extensive, but on the night of 16 October 1834 almost

1813-493: The long term preservation of Parliament's digital records. New collections also include a web archive which maintains a history of the main parliamentary website and its many subsites . In March 2021, the Parliamentary Archives became an Accredited Archive Service. In March 2022, it was announced that the Parliamentary Archives would be relocating to The National Archives, Kew, by 2025. The reasons for

1862-468: The manuscripts. The Second World War intervened, but in 1946 Badeley set up a House of Lords Record Office, under a Clerk of the Records who was to act as the deputy of the Clerk of the Parliaments in all record matters. To the Clerk of the Records was entrusted the care of the contents of the Victoria Tower, including both Lords and Commons documents and certain other small groups of records relating to

1911-475: The need for private publication of indexes to records in the Public Record Office . The Society consequently turned its attention to records held in other repositories. In 1898 the Society’s Scottish section became the totally independent Scottish Record Society . In 1933 the Society's Record Preservation Section was similarly taken over by the newly founded British Records Association (B.R.A.). Since

1960-465: The paper finding aids of the collections into a single on-line catalogue, known as Portcullis. In 1999, the House of Lords Record Office took on the subsidiary title of Parliamentary Archives in order to clarify the custodial responsibility and whereabouts of the House of Commons Archives for members of the public, and in 2006 this became its official name. Historical collections of the House of Commons Library and Lords Library are also available in

2009-401: The preservation of the parliamentary records. The first concerned the records of the Commons. In 1927 the Clerk of the House of Commons resolved to transfer to the Victoria Tower an extensive post-1834 series of Private Bill records, though still retaining ultimate ownership of them for the House. This precedent has been followed by succeeding Clerks of the Commons, and in 1957 the core records of

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2058-458: The publication of indexes to British public records, now the brief of the List and Index Society . The Society was also always interested in record conservation, and to act as what would now be called a pressure group for archives and their users, pushing for the creation of county record offices and county record societies . The inception of an official series of Lists and Indexes in 1892 reduced

2107-525: The records were assigned a permanent home at the south west corner of the Palace of Westminster , in a moated building (still surviving, and open to the public), the 14th-century Jewel Tower . Here the principal records of the Lords remained from 1621 to 1864, being available throughout this period for inspection by the public. The contents of some were given still wider currency in the 18th century as certain Bills and Papers began to be printed, and when, in 1767,

2156-458: The series title "Archives and the User". Titles published to date are: The association publishes a twice-yearly newsletter (from 2011, in electronic form). It has from time to time issued other occasional publications, including memoranda on good practice; and conference proceedings. The BRA holds an annual one-day conference, focusing on a particular thematic area of historical records. Until 2017,

2205-551: The texts of Hearth Tax returns from the 1660s and 1670s. A longer history of the Society and its current activities will be found on its website. A complete list of its publications up to 1982 will be found in E. L. C. Mullins, Texts and Calendars , I and II, Royal Historical Society, 1958 and 1983. Details of those published after 1982 can be found on the Royal Historical Society 's website. Parliamentary Archives The Parliamentary Archives of

2254-418: The top of the crown at its summit. Within the tower, cast-iron spiral staircases of 553 steps linked twelve floors, and on most of the floors there were eight strong rooms—accommodation at that time so ample for the parliamentary records that at one stage the tower was intended also to house the principal holdings of the Public Record Office . During the twentieth century, two important developments occurred in

2303-575: Was found in 1948 to be defective both in its structure and its equipment. In the course of the following years the interior of the Tower was therefore almost entirely rebuilt by the Ministry of Public Building and Works. The resulting repository was air conditioned and contained 5.5 miles (8.9 km) of steel shelving on twelve floors. It was declared open by the Viscount Hailsham , Leader of

2352-517: Was resumed in 1949 and continued to the 1980s. In 1975 the major acquisition of the collections of the Beaverbrook Library expanded the collection to include the papers of David Lloyd George , Bonar Law , and Max Aitken, Lord Beaverbrook . The principal activity of the House of Lords Record Office, however, in the immediate post-war years concerned the reconstruction of the repository. The Victoria Tower, although ample in dimensions,

2401-641: Was undertaken of most of the administrative offices of the Palace of Westminster . The survey findings were incorporated into the Parliamentary Records Management Policy Guidelines , which was approved by both houses. This was followed by a project to implement corporate records management to international standards in Parliament. In 2001, a new post of Freedom of Information Officer was created to develop and implement policies for House of Lords' compliance with

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