76-679: The Royal Commission on Historical Manuscripts (widely known as the Historical Manuscripts Commission , and abbreviated as the HMC to distinguish it from the Royal Commission on the Historical Monuments of England ), was a United Kingdom Royal Commission established in 1869 to survey and report on privately owned and privately held archival records of general historical interest. Its brief
152-480: A crown in heraldry and other imagery such as cap badges , uniforms, government logos and elsewhere. The heraldic crown is chosen by the reigning monarch. From 1661 to the reign of Queen Victoria , an image of St Edward's Crown was used. The early part of Victoria's reign depicted the Imperial State Crown created for her coronation , while a Tudor Crown began to be used from the 1860s. In 1901,
228-506: A network of other institutions of a similar nature." Canadian academic Philippe Lagassé found the crown "acts in various capacities, as such: crown-in-council (executive); crown-in-parliament (legislative); crown-in-court (judicial). It is also an artificial person and office as a corporation sole. At its most basic, "the Crown" is, in the UK and other Commonwealth realms, what in most other countries
304-662: A project to undertake an architectural survey of the former County of London , was founded as a private initiative in 1894, but was later taken over by the Greater London Council (GLC). On the abolition of the GLC in 1986, responsibility for the Survey was transferred to the RCHME. The first Commissioners were: Notable staff members: The Crown The Crown broadly represents the state in all its aspects within
380-461: A word, the compendious formal, executive and administrative powers and apparatus attendant upon the modern constitutional and monarchical state." Lord Simon of Glaisdale stated: The crown as an object is a piece of jewelled headgear under guard at the Tower of London . But it symbolizes the powers of government which were formerly wielded by the wearer of the crown ... The term "the Crown"
456-446: Is "the state"." Historically, the Crown was considered to be indivisible. Two judgments— Ex parte Indian Association of Alberta ( EWCA , 1982) and Ex parte Quark ( House of Lords , 2005)—challenged that view. Today, it is considered separate in every country, province, state, or territory, regardless of its degree of independence, that has the shared monarch as part of the respective country's government; though, limitations on
532-496: Is carried out by the civil servants employed in the various government departments." This interpretation was supported by section 8 of the Pensions (Colonial Service) Act 1887 ( 50 & 51 Vict. c. 13), which set the terms "permanent civil service of the state", "permanent civil service of Her Majesty" and "permanent civil service of the Crown" as having the same meaning. The Crown was first defined as an 'imperial' crown during
608-513: Is not to be confused with any physical crown , such as those of the British regalia . The term is also found in various expressions such as Crown land , which some countries refer to as public land or state land ; as well as in some offices, such as minister of the Crown , Crown attorney , and Crown prosecutor . The term the Crown does not have a single definition. Legal scholars Maurice Sunkin and Sebastian Payne opined, "the nature of
684-465: Is now located at The National Archives ; while the indexes, originally compiled in manual form, but which began to be entered onto a database from about 1980, are now incorporated into The National Archives' "Discovery" catalogue. The Manorial Documents Register (MDR) is a central register recording the nature and location of English and Welsh manorial archives. It was originally set up by the Master of
760-473: Is now the sole Historical Manuscripts Commissioner, while the role of Secretary of the Commission is combined with that of Head of Archives Sector Development. Since the creation of The National Archives the role of Secretary of the Commission has been filled by Nicholas Kingsley , 2005–15 and Isobel Hunter , 2015–date. Until 1945, the principal medium through which the Commission disseminated its findings
836-494: Is the royal prerogative by which unowned property, primarily unclaimed inheritances, becomes the property of the Crown. As such, the physical crown and the property belonging to successive monarchs in perpetuity came to be separated from the person of the monarch and his or her private property. After several centuries of the monarch personally exercising supreme legislative, executive, and judicial power, these functions decreased as parliaments, ministries, and courts grew through
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#1732772938794912-403: Is therefore used in constitutional law to denote the collection of such of those powers as remain extant (the royal prerogative ), together with such other powers as have been expressly conferred by statute on "the Crown". Lord Diplock suggested the Crown means "the government [and] all of the ministers and parliamentary secretaries under whose direction the administrative work of the government
988-621: The Common Informers Act 1951 ended the practice of allowing such suits by common informers. The term "Crown forces" has been used by Irish republicans and nationalists , including members of paramilitary groups, to refer to British security forces which operate in Ireland . The term was used by various iterations of the Irish Republican Army (IRA) during conflicts such as Irish War of Independence and
1064-536: The Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 made an exception for 'any right or privilege of the Crown' not written in an act of parliament, thus preserving the rights of the Crown under the unwritten royal prerogative. In addition, use of images of the crowns for commercial purposes is specifically restricted in the UK (and in countries which are party to the Paris Convention ) under sections 4 and 99 of
1140-613: The Historic England Archive . The Ordnance Survey had always endeavoured to mark visible antiquities on its maps, and in 1920 had appointed its first archaeology officer: the role had subsequently developed into a department of specialists maintaining a national record of archaeological sites. In 1983 the responsibilities of the Archaeology Division were transferred to the three Royal Commissions for England, Wales and Scotland. The Survey of London ,
1216-615: The Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Wales in August 1908; and, finally, by Royal Warrant dated 27 October 1908, the Royal Commission on Historical Monuments (England). Under the terms of its warrant, the Commission's remit was "to make an inventory of the Ancient and Historical Monuments and Constructions connected with or illustrative of the contemporary culture, civilization and conditions of life of
1292-556: The Royal Institute of British Architects and the Royal Society of Arts also lobbied for action to be taken. Brown had explicitly proposed that the issues should be addressed by a Royal Commission , comparable to the Royal Commission on Historical Manuscripts . His suggestion bore fruit, and led to the establishment in turn of the Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Scotland on 14 February 1908;
1368-641: The jurisprudence of the Commonwealth realms and their subdivisions (such as the Crown Dependencies , overseas territories , provinces , or states ). The term can be used to refer to the office of the monarch or the monarchy as institutions; to the rule of law ; or to the functions of executive (the Crown- in-council ), legislative (the Crown-in- parliament ), and judicial (the Crown on
1444-421: The 13th century. The term the Crown then developed into a means by which to differentiate the monarch's official functions from his personal choices and actions. Even within mediaeval England, there was the doctrine of capacities separating the person of the king from his actions in the capacity of monarch. When the kingdom of England merged with those of Scotland and Ireland , the concept extended into
1520-490: The 15th report (1899). In the same period, however, it began to publish its more detailed reports on collections as separate octavo volumes (or, in many cases, multi-volume series), with the material predominantly presented in calendar form. Over the next century it published some 200 such volumes before the series was discontinued: the final volume (the fifth in a series on the papers of the Finch family) appeared in 2004. In 1968
1596-919: The Bailiwick of Jersey belonging to the Crown in Right of Jersey and not to the Crown Estate of the United Kingdom. The Succession to the Crown (Jersey) Law 2013 defined the Crown, for the purposes of implementing the Perth Agreement in Jersey law, as the Crown in Right of the Bailiwick of Jersey . Legislation in the Isle of Man also defines the Crown in Right of the Isle of Man as being separate from
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#17327729387941672-665: The Commission itself may be regarded as a branch of the Record Office". However, in the wake of the Public Records Act 1958 (which transferred responsibility for public records to the Lord Chancellor , while the Commission remained under the authority of the Master of the Rolls) the two bodies diverged to achieve a greater degree of independence from one another. A new Royal Warrant, dated 5 December 1959, gave
1748-406: The Commission published a general survey of the papers of 19th-century United Kingdom Prime Ministers ; and this was followed (between 1971 and 1985) by six volumes of editions of selected papers of Gladstone , Wellington and Palmerston . Between 1982 and 2003, the Commission published twelve thematic volumes in its series Guides to Sources for British History , based in part on the contents of
1824-614: The Commission revised and greatly extended terms of reference. Over the next few decades the Secretaries to the Commission included Roger Ellis, 1957–72, Godfrey Davis , 1972–82, Brian Smith , 1982–92 and Christopher Kitching , 1992–2004. This period of independence ended in April 2003, when another Royal Warrant effectively merged the Commission with the PRO to form the new National Archives . The Chief Executive and Keeper of Public Records
1900-627: The Commission was based in the Public Record Office building. In December of that year it moved into its own offices (albeit at no great distance away) at Quality House, Quality Court, Chancery Lane . The general public were able to visit Quality House during regular office hours to consult the NRA, MDR and other resources. Quality House was vacated towards the end of 2003, when the Commission's staff and resources relocated to The National Archives building at Kew. Royal Commission on
1976-433: The Commission's terms of reference, were granted in 1963 and on 15 April 1992. The Commission was merged with English Heritage on 1 April 1999. The Commission determined from the outset to publish its inventories of monuments, and to compile them on a county -by-county basis. The first county selected for survey was Hertfordshire : the resultant volume was published in 1910. Some 40 inventory volumes were published over
2052-554: The Commissioners' direction. Later inspectors included Henry Maxwell Lyte , John Knox Laughton , Joseph Stevenson , Reginald Lane Poole , W. D. Macray , J. K. Laughton , Horatio Brown , W. J. Hardy and John Gwenogvryn Evans . Throughout the 19th and early 20th century the Commission remained closely associated with the Public Record Office : indeed, in 1912 it was stated that "for all practical purposes
2128-590: The Commonwealth realms is a similar, but separate, legal concept. To distinguish the institution's role in one jurisdiction from its place in another, Commonwealth law employs the expression the Crown in Right of [place] ; for example, the Crown in Right of the United Kingdom, the Crown in Right of Canada, the Crown in Right of the Commonwealth of Australia, etc. Because both Canada and Australia are federations, there are also crowns in right of each Canadian province and each Australian state . When referring to
2204-534: The Crown is used to mostly mean the authority of government; its meaning changes in different contexts. In the context of people considering the claims and settlements related to the Treaty of Waitangi , professor of history Alan Ward defines the Crown as "the people of New Zealand—including Māori themselves—acted through elected parliament and government." In the Bailiwick of Guernsey , legislation refers to
2280-494: The Crown has been taken for granted, in part because it is fundamental and, in part, because many academics have no idea what the term the Crown amounts to". Nicholas Browne-Wilkinson theorised that the Crown is "an amorphous, abstract concept" and, thus, "impossible to define", while William Wade stated the Crown "means simply the Queen". Warren J. Newman described the Crown is "a useful and convenient means of conveying, in
2356-403: The Crown in Right of the Bailiwick of Guernsey or the Crown in Right of the Bailiwick and the law officers of the Crown of Guernsey submitted that, "the Crown in this context ordinarily means the Crown in right of the république of the Bailiwick of Guernsey" and that this comprises "the collective governmental and civic institutions, established by and under the authority of the monarch, for
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2432-618: The Crown in Right of the United Kingdom. Following the Lords' decision in Ex parte Quark , 2005, it is held that the King, in exercising his authority over British Overseas Territories , does not act on the advice of the Cabinet of the United Kingdom , but, in his role as king of each territory, with the exception of fulfilling the UK's international responsibilities for its territories. To comply with
2508-402: The Crown in multiple jurisdictions, wording is typically akin to "the Crown in right of [place], and all its other capacities". The powers of a realm's crown are exercised either by the monarch, personally, or by his or her representative on the advice of the appropriate local ministers , legislature, or judges, none of which may advise the Crown in any other realm. In New Zealand, the term
2584-497: The Crown's legal personality is usually regarded as a corporation sole , it can, at least for some purposes, be described as a corporation aggregate headed by the monarch. Frederic William Maitland argued the Crown is a corporation aggregate embracing the government and the "whole political community". J.G. Allen preferred to view the Crown as a corporation sole; one office occupied by a single person, enduring "through generations of incumbents and, historically, lends coherence to
2660-443: The Crown; usages such as, "for the Crown, Joe Bloggs argued", being common. The Crown can also be a plaintiff or defendant in civil actions to which the government of the Commonwealth realm in question is a party. Such crown proceedings are often subject to specific rules and limitations, such as the enforcement of judgments against the Crown. Qui tam lawsuits on behalf of the Crown were once common, but have been unusual since
2736-488: The European Union , where "Miller" is Gina Miller , a citizen. Until the end of the 20th century, such case titles used the pattern R v Secretary of State for Exiting the European Union, ex parte Miller . Either form may be abbreviated R (Miller) v Secretary of State for Exiting the European Union . In Scotland , criminal prosecutions are undertaken by the lord advocate (or the relevant procurator fiscal ) in
2812-487: The Historical Monuments of England The Royal Commission on the Historical Monuments of England ( RCHME ) was a government advisory body responsible for documenting buildings and monuments of archaeological, architectural and historical importance in England. It was established in 1908 (shortly after the parallel commissions for Scotland and Wales ); and was merged with English Heritage in 1999. The research section and
2888-559: The National Register of Archives (see below). Topics covered included the papers of British cabinet ministers; of British colonial governors ; of the British textile, leather and metal-processing industries; and of British antiquaries and historians. Between 1962 and 1980, the Commission entered into partnerships with local record societies to publish 27 volumes of editions and calendars of significant manuscripts, in what
2964-474: The Records. They were shortly afterwards joined by George Butler, Bishop of Limerick ; and Lord Talbot de Malahide . A new Royal Warrant of 1876 confirmed the appointment of what had effectively become a standing commission; and the Commission's work was extended by further warrants dated 18 December 1897 and 27 March 1919. Four inspectors (including H. T. Riley ) were appointed in 1869 to survey records under
3040-612: The Rolls in 1926 (in the aftermath of the Law of Property Act 1922 and Law of Property Amendment Act 1924 ), and was initially maintained by the Public Record Office. Under the terms of the 1959 Royal Warrant responsibility for it was transferred to the HMC; and since 2003 it has been maintained by The National Archives. The hard-copy Register is in the process of being computerised: those parts which have been completed are available online. Until 1959
3116-691: The Troubles . As noted by Irish republican Danny Morrison , "[t]he term 'security forces' suggests legitimacy , which is why republicans prefer terms like 'the Brits' or 'the Crown Forces', which undermines their authority." Due to the Irish War of Independence, "the phrase 'Crown Forces' came to represent something abhorrent in the Republican narrative". The Crown is represented by the image of
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3192-631: The Tudor Crown design was standardised and continued in use until the reign of Elizabeth II in 1952 when a heraldic St Edward's Crown was restored. In 2022, Charles III opted for a modified Tudor Crown design. Crown copyright applies in perpetuity to depictions of the Royal Arms and any of its constituent parts under the royal prerogative , and The National Archives restricts rights to reproduce them. Although Crown Copyright usually expires 50 years after publication, Section 171(b) of
3268-621: The United Kingdom (1896) and Gerard Baldwin Brown in his Care of Ancient Monuments (1905), had argued that, for the legislation to be effective, a detailed list of significant monuments needed to be compiled, and had made unfavourable comparisons between the policies of Britain and its European neighbours. Learned societies including the British Archaeological Association , the Society of Antiquaries of London ,
3344-400: The abbreviation R (i.e. the case name at trial would be R v Smith ; if the defendant appeals against the Crown, the case name would be Smith v The King ). In Western Australia and Tasmania , prosecutions will be brought in the name of the respective state instead of the Crown (e.g. The State of Western Australia v Smith ). Victorian trials in the original jurisdiction will be brought in
3420-581: The appropriate government minister as the party, instead. When a case is announced in court, the clerk or bailiff may refer to the Crown orally as our sovereign lord the king (or our sovereign lady the queen ). In reporting on court proceedings in New Zealand , news reports will refer to the prosecuting lawyer (often called a Crown prosecutor, as in Canada and the United Kingdom) as representing
3496-494: The archival collections that had been inspected, in a combination of lists, calendars and transcripts of selected documents. The first such report was published, as a folio volume, in 1870: the appendix included reports on the manuscript collections of 44 corporate bodies and 36 private owners in England, Wales, Scotland and Ireland, and one located overseas (English manuscripts at Heidelberg University ). Eight further reports, with increasingly detailed appendixes, were issued over
3572-514: The archive are now part of Historic England . The Royal Commission was established in 1908, twenty-six years after the passage of the Ancient Monuments Protection Act 1882 , which provided the first state protection for ancient monuments in the United Kingdom, and eight years after the passage of the wider-ranging Ancient Monuments Protection Act 1900 . Critics, including David Murray in his Archaeological Survey of
3648-520: The bench) governance and the civil service . The concept of the Crown as a corporation sole developed first in the Kingdom of England as a separation of the physical crown and property of the kingdom from the person and personal property of the monarch. It spread through English and later British colonisation and is now rooted in the legal lexicon of all 15 Commonwealth realms, their various dependencies, and states in free association with them. It
3724-413: The body politic (which never dies). The Crown and the sovereign are "conceptually divisible but legally indivisible [...] The office cannot exist without the office-holder". The terms the state , the Crown , the Crown in Right of [jurisdiction] , His Majesty the King in Right of [jurisdiction] , and similar, are all synonymous and the monarch's legal personality is sometimes referred to simply as
3800-753: The care of government archives, pressure began to grow for the state to pay attention to privately owned records. Largely on the initiative of Lord Romilly , the Master of the Rolls , the first Royal Commission on Historical Manuscripts was appointed by Royal Warrant dated 2 April 1869. The first Commissioners were Romilly himself (as chairman); the Marquess of Salisbury ; the Earl of Airlie ; Earl Stanhope ; Lord Edmοnd Petty-Fitzmaurice ; Sir William Stirling-Maxwell ; Charles Russell , President of Maynooth College ; George Webbe Dasent ; and T. D. Hardy , Deputy Keeper of
3876-408: The copyright for government publications ( Crown copyright ). This is all in his or her position as sovereign, not as an individual; all such property is held by the Crown in perpetuity and cannot be sold by the sovereign without the proper advice and consent of his or her relevant ministers. The Crown also represents the legal embodiment of executive, legislative , and judicial governance. While
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#17327729387943952-421: The court's decision, the territorial governors now act on the advice of each territory's executive and the UK government can no longer disallow legislation passed by territorial legislatures. In criminal proceedings , the state is the prosecuting party; the case is usually designated (in case citation ) as R v [ defendant ] , where R can stand for either rex (if the current monarch is male) or regina (if
4028-422: The decision not to proceed with publication was taken, and these appeared in later HMSO publications or elsewhere. Dorset is the only county which was completed in its entirety to the revised 1850 date, with Cambridge and Stamford the only urban areas to be completed to the same date. The published inventories are now available to view in full at British History Online . The National Buildings Record (NBR)
4104-464: The following years, the ninth and last in folio format appearing in 1883–4. Although the contents of many of the appendixes have been superseded by more comprehensive publications and finding aids , this is not invariably the case, and a number of the early reports continue to be used by researchers. From its 10th report (1885) onwards the Commission switched to an octavo format, although it continued to include significant material in appendixes down to
4180-490: The governance of these islands, including the states of Guernsey and legislatures in the other islands, the royal court and other courts, the lieutenant governor, parish authorities, and the Crown acting in and through the Privy Council". In the Bailiwick of Jersey , statements by the law officers of the Crown define the Crown's operation in that jurisdiction as the Crown in Right of Jersey , with all Crown land in
4256-420: The government, a case in judicial review is brought by the Crown against a minister of the Crown on the application of a claimant . The titles of these cases now follow the pattern of R (on the application of [X]) v [Y] , notated as R ([X]) v [Y] , for short. Thus, R (Miller) v Secretary of State for Exiting the European Union is R (on the application of Miller and other) v Secretary of State for Exiting
4332-466: The legal lexicons of the United Kingdom and its dependencies and overseas territories and, eventually, all of the independent Commonwealth realms . There are, thus, now many distinct crowns, as a legal concept, "worn by"—or many different offices of monarch occupied by—one person as sovereign (supreme monarch) of each country. However, the Crown can also mean the pan-national institution shared by all 15 Commonwealth realms. In each Commonwealth realm,
4408-405: The monarch is female), and the v stands for versus . For example, a criminal case against Smith might be referred to as R v Smith and verbally read as "the Crown and Smith". The Crown is, in general, immune to prosecution and civil lawsuits . So, R is rarely (albeit sometimes ) seen on the right hand side of the 'v' in the first instance. To pursue a case against alleged unlawful activity by
4484-400: The name of the director of public prosecutions . The Commonwealth director of public prosecutions may choose which name to bring the proceeding in. Judges usually refer to the prosecuting party as simply "the prosecution" in the text of judgments. In civil cases where the Crown is a party, it is a customary to list the body politic (e.g. State of Queensland or Commonwealth of Australia ) or
4560-517: The name of the Crown. Accordingly, the abbreviation HMA is used in the High Court of Justiciary for His/Her Majesty's Advocate , in place of rex or regina ; as in, HMA v Al Megrahi and Fahima . Most jurisdictions in Australia use R or The King (or The Queen ) in criminal cases. If the Crown is the respondent to an appeal, the words The King will be spelled out, instead of using
4636-668: The next 70 years, before the project was wound down, in favour of more thematic publications, in the early 1980s. In accordance with the Commission's warrant, the inventories were initially limited to identifying constructions up to 1714, but were later extended to 1850. Several inventories were not geographically complete at the time the project was abandoned. Cities and counties covered in part are York (abandoned after 1981), Cambridgeshire (abandoned after 1972), Northamptonshire (abandoned after 1986), Gloucestershire (abandoned after 1976) and Salisbury (abandoned after 1977). In some cases research for forthcoming volumes had started after
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#17327729387944712-608: The online ARCHON directory maintained by The National Archives. The National Register of Archives (NRA) was established by the Commission in 1945, following the recommendations of the report on British Records after the War published by the British Records Association in 1943. It was designed as a central register, accessible to researchers, of the nature and location of local and private archives and manuscripts relating to British history; and it rapidly grew in
4788-445: The people of England, excluding Monmouthshire , from the earliest times to the year 1700, and to specify those which seem most worthy of preservation". A revised warrant of 29 November 1913 extended the terminal date to 1714 (the death of Queen Anne ). A new warrant of 29 March 1946 gave the Commissioners discretion to undertake recording beyond 1714, and an informal terminal date of 1850 was adopted. Further royal warrants, revising
4864-556: The post-War years to become the principal medium through which the Commission accumulated and disseminated information about archives. The NRA consists of a collection of published and unpublished lists and catalogues of archival collections. Some have been compiled by the Commission's own staff, but the majority are copies of lists compiled by the local and other repositories in which the records are held. The Register also includes placename and personal name indexes to these lists, as well as some basic subject indexes. The hard-copy Register
4940-431: The power of the monarch in right of each territory vary according to relevant laws, thus making the difference between full sovereignty, semi-sovereignty, dependency, etc. The Lords of Appeal wrote, "the Queen is as much the Queen of New South Wales and Mauritius and other territories acknowledging her as head of state as she is of England and Wales, Scotland, Northern Ireland, or the United Kingdom." The Crown in each of
5016-422: The realm and crown of England, is only to assert that our king is equally sovereign and independent within these his dominions, as any emperor is in his empire; and owes no kind of subjection to any other potentate on earth." The concept of the Crown took form under the feudal system . Though not used this way in all countries that had this system, in England, all rights and privileges were ultimately bestowed by
5092-580: The reign of Henry VIII in the Ecclesiastical Appeals Act 1532 which declared that 'this realm of England is an empire ... governed by one Supreme Head and King having the dignity and royal estate of the imperial Crown of the same'. In William Blackstone 's 1765 Commentaries on the Laws of England , he explained that "the meaning therefore of the legislature, when it uses these terms of empire and imperial , and applies them to
5168-439: The relevant jurisdiction's name. (In countries using systems of government derived from Roman civil law , the state is the equivalent concept. ) However, the terms the sovereign or monarch and the Crown , though related, have different meanings: The Crown includes both the monarch and the government. The institution and powers of the Crown are formally vested in the king, but, conventionally , its functions are exercised in
5244-398: The ruler. Land, for instance, was granted by the Crown to lords in exchange for feudal services and they, in turn, granted the land to lesser lords. One exception to this was common socage : owners of land held as socage held it subject only to the crown. When such lands become ownerless, they are said to escheat ; i.e. return to direct ownership of the Crown ( Crown land ). Bona vacantia
5320-522: The sovereign's name by ministers of the Crown drawn from and responsible to the elected chamber of parliament . Still, the king or queen is the employer of all government officials and staff (including the viceroys , judges, members of the armed forces, police officers, and parliamentarians), the guardian of foster children ( Crown wards ), as well as the owner of all state lands ( Crown land ), buildings and equipment (Crown property), state-owned companies (Crown corporations or Crown entities ), and
5396-416: The term the Crown , at its broadest, now means the government or the polity known as the state , while the sovereign in all realms is the living embodiment of the state, or symbolic personification of the Crown. The body of the reigning sovereign thus holds two distinct personas in constant coexistence, an ancient theory of the "King's two bodies"—the body natural (subject to infirmity and death) and
5472-538: Was "to make inquiry as to the places in which such Manuscripts and Papers were deposited", and to report on their contents. It remained in existence until 2003, when it merged with the Public Record Office to form The National Archives . Although it technically survives as a legal entity, its work is now entirely subsumed into that of The National Archives. Following the passing of the Public Record Office Act 1838 , which made statutory provision for
5548-482: Was called its Joint Publications series. In 1964, the Commission first published its Record Repositories in Great Britain , a geographical directory to publicly accessible national, local and specialist archive repositories . This was regularly updated and reissued in revised editions, and became a standard resource for researchers. The last edition was the 11th, published in 1999: it has now been superseded by
5624-400: Was established on a partially voluntary basis in 1940 as a survey – primarily photographic – of buildings of national importance considered to be at risk of damage or destruction through military action . Although originally independent of the RCHME, the two bodies shared premises and frequently worked in close collaboration. The NBR continued its activities after the end of the war, and in 1963
5700-509: Was publication: thereafter, it developed other channels of communication (notably the National Register of Archives: see below), but publication always remained important. Throughout its existence, the Commission published periodical reports to the Crown in the form of command papers . The reports themselves were relatively brief and conventional, but in the early years they were accompanied by lengthy appendixes comprising detailed descriptions of
5776-611: Was taken over by the RCHME. At this point it was renamed the National Monuments Record (NMR) to reflect the fact that its remit was archaeological as well as architectural. In 1999, with the rest of the Commission's activities, it was absorbed into English Heritage, and in 2012 was renamed the English Heritage Archive. In 2015 the work of the NMR moved with the archive to Historic England and became
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