Events at the Record Office

The Record Office organises and hosts a number of events throughout the year on a variety of topics.

The Record Office is once again providing a range of lunchtime talks in the New Year.  These are always very popular, so please book your place now!

12 noon -1pm. Cost £3.50 (unless otherwise stated) or (£3.00 for Friends of the Record Office). Pre-booking essential - tea and coffee provided.

14^th February “Working the Land”- Agricultural Labourers and the records they left behind.

21^st February “All Human Life is Here” – the Quarter Sessions

28^th February “Sources for Local History – an introduction to Maps held at the Record Office”

6^th March “The Happiest Days of Our Lives” – Victorian and Edwardian Education Records  

13^th March “The Forlorn Hope” – Military Records at the Record Office

20^th March “Death, Disease and Data Protection” - Hospital and Asylum Records

27^th March Getting the Best Out Of Your Digital Camera – photographing and scanning old documents *Cost: £5 and time 12 noon - 2pm

Beginners Family History
Saturday 11^th February 2012
Cost £15
Time 10 – 4.30
Tea and coffee provided - bring your own lunch

Advanced Family History
Saturday 10^th March 2012
Cost £15
Time 10 – 4.30
Tea and coffee provided - bring your own lunch

To book your place, please contact Pat or Lois at the Record Office.
Tel : 0116 257 1080 Email : recordoffice@leics.gov.uk

To link in with the recent John Flower exhibition, we have taken ‘Art and Architecture’ as our theme for this edition of The Searcher and have been delighted to receive contributions from many sources. It has been fascinating to learn more about just some of our distinguished  artists and architects and we hope that you enjoy this insight into past artistic endeavours.  

This latest edition is now available for £2.99 (£3.70 if posted).  If you would like a copy please visit the office or email recordoffice@leics.gov.uk

This book grew out of an exhibition of the same name, which was shown at the Record Office in 2006.  The exhibition was an introduction to the wide variety of maps that are available in the Record Office and in all other local authority archives.

Know Your Place is No 4 in a series of Occasional Papers produced on behalf of the Friends of the Record Office for Leicestershire, Leicester & Rutland and is available at a price of £8.

For further details please contact the Record Office on (0116) 257 1080 or email : recordoffice@leics.gov.uk

Have you ever wondered whether your family has any hidden war stories? If your predecessors fought for their country, were taken prisoner, or even won medals?

Thanks to an easy-to-use guide from Wigston Record Office for anyone who wants to trace their family’s war history, finding out about your ancestors' exploits is now easier than ever.

World War Ancestry offers an introduction to the wealth of local military information from the two World Wars available to all at the Record Office.

This includes enlistment registers for the Royal Leicestershire Regiment and the Leicestershire Yeomanry, war diaries for battalions, letters from soldiers, photographs of troops, copies of The Green Tiger (the local Regiment’s journal) and many rare specialist books on local military history.

World War Ancestry, which is the first in a series of guides to the Record Office, also contains useful contact addresses and tips on where to begin and what clues to look for, and is a vital aid for family and military historians alike.

A limited run of 500 copies of World War Ancestry is available now from Wigston Record Office priced £4.50 (which covers guide book production costs), or £5 including P&P.

For further details please contact the Record Office on (0116) 257 1080 or email : recordoffice@leics.gov.uk

John Hutchinson, Archivist to Leicester City Football Club and Curator of the touring exhibition gave a talk on long forgotten stories from the Leicester City FC Archives.

The Local Studies Library at the Record Office for Leicestershire, Leicester & Rutland has an extensive collection of Ladybird books. On Thursday 18^th March 2010, a publicity event was held to illustrate the gems within the library collection.  Over 10,000 items have been generously donated direct from the publishers, nearly 1,500 have already been catalogued (and you can find these on the Leicestershire & Rutland library service on-line catalogue – try a search for ‘L094’ as a classification/shelf number to see what we have available to view).

Some rare items were showcased on the night: the ‘Sunbird series’ ‘Out of town’, and ‘Alphabet Book’, both signed by their authors; ‘Keyword series’ flashcards, and books by our own local authors, and the highlight of the night was a talk by Kathie Layfield, who brought some of her original artwork.

On Saturday 7th November the Record Office held an Open Day.  The theme of the day was the 1960s - a decade of great change locally, nationally and, of course, musically, which it is hoped will convey the message that archives can inform us of our recent as well as our distant past. Visitors were able to find out about the 1960s in Leicestershire, Leicester & Rutland through our local studies and archive collections and also had the opportunity to bring in some of their own documents and photographs from that era to show us.

It was an opportunity for people to find out more about the work and resources of the Office through an informal programme of events and entertainments.  There were tours of the searchrooms and strongrooms, a demonstration of conservation techniques, family history advice, exhibitions, displays and live music was performed throughout the day by Leicestershire group "Stranded in the Sixties". 'Talkin 'bout our Generations' was opened by local author, Lynda Page, who was on hand to sign books and answer questions.  Lynda's most recent novel, 'No Way Out', is set in the Leicester of the 1960s. Staff were also on hand to answer questions on family and local history of all eras.

We had hula hoops and table skittles for the children and the refreshments had a 1960s twist to them, with chips and mushy peas and cheese & pineapple on sticks being served, along with sweets and crisps from the time, all washed down with Ginger Beer and Dandelion & Burdock.

Over 200 people came through the door and both visitors and staff enjoyed the day. Below is a selection of pictures from the event.

On Wednesday 18 November 2009 at 6-8 pm there was a presentation to the Record Office of 23 original newsletters published by Samuel Walker and Sons, printers of Hinckley and a book launch "Confronting the Nazi War on Christianity : The Kulturkampf Newsletters, 1936-1939".

The Kulturkampf Newsletters, which have never appeared in English since the 1930s, were produced by German Catholic exiles in France.  They scrupulously document the tensions between various strands of Nazi policy and the nature of the policy eventually adoped : this was to reduce the Churches' influence in all areas of public life through the use of every available means, yet without provoking the difficulties - diplomatic as well as domestic - which an openly declared war of extermination might have caused.

The company,  Samuel Walker's, Printers and Publishers Ltd, was founded by Samuel Walker, c.1900 when he was just 23. He had been a pupil at Hinckley Grammar School and had worked as a journalist on the Hinckley Times. Samuel's brother, Fred, joined the Dominican Order and became a priest. This helped the company forge links with the Dominicans and other orders. A large proportion of the work they did was for the Church, especially for missionary orders, like the White Fathers, who are in Africa and other far off places. The company folded in 1997.

Legacy of Partition Project