Local Studies Reference Library

Imagine discovering works on all kinds of topics from coal mining to natural history, from fiction to crime but all related to the history of Leicestershire, Leicester and Rutland.  The local studies library at The Record Office makes it possible for anyone to gain access to such a collection.      

In the searchroom you may have noticed that books from the library line the walls alongside copies of original documents.  However, behind the scenes in the strong rooms lies a vast local studies library with a wealth of resources nestled between the archive collections.  There are books and documents in the library just waiting to be delved into by keen researchers and specialist librarians on hand to help.

The local studies library has something for every researcher of Leicestershire, Leicester and Rutland.  Here are some of the collections that we offer:

Follow these steps to find the local studies book for you:

1)  Bring along ID with your name and address to reception.

2)  Ask the receptionist to help you apply for a reader’s ticket.

3)  Use your ticket to enter the searchroom and go through to searchroom two.

4)  Find a numbered desk.

5)  Use the card catalogue and computer catalogue to search for the subject that interests you.

6)  Some books are in the first search room so you are welcome to refer to them straight away.

7) Most books are in the strongroom so make a request for the book using a form and hand it in at the searchroom desk.

8)  The book will be brought to you at your numbered desk.

The Record Office for Leicestershire, Leicester and Rutland is delighted to announce the donation of 23 original Newsletters from 1937-9 about the persecution of the Christian Church in Nazi Germany.

It is a surprise to find a resource of international significance to the study of Hitler’s dictatorship in a local record office in England. But the Newsletters were published in Hinckley, Leicestershire by a Catholic printing house, Samuel Walker and Sons. So it is entirely appropriate that they should return close to their place of origin.

The Newsletters will be made available to researchers at the Record Office, along with a collection of related research materials and the definitive English-language edition of all the extant Kulturkampf Newsletters (there were in addition French and German versions of the Newsletters): Confronting the Nazi War on Christianity: The Kulturkampf Newsletters, 1936-1939, edited and translated by Richard Bonney.

To see an example of a newsletter please click on the links below :

Please click on the link below for where to purchase the book:

Click on the following links for :

Talk by Professor Richard Bonney on the value of the Kulturkamf Newsletters as an impartial source of information on the policies and intentions of the National Socialist dictatorship towards the Christian Churches.
Confronting the Nazi War on Christianity

A key document prepared for the Nuremberg prosecutors by the US Office of Strategic Services.  Provides the best short overview of the Nazi policy of persecultion towards the Christian Churches.  Transcribed and annotated by Professor Richard Bonney.
The Nazi Master Plan