A guide to archives and published sources relating to maritime history. Although a land-locked county, Derbyshire Record Office does hold maritime records created or collected by Derbyshire people. Ships and boats Material relating to ships and boats has all been subject indexed in our online catalogue under the term ‘seagoing vessels’. You can also search … Continue reading Maritime History Research Guide
December’s Twitter Digest
A Happy New Year to you all! And in true archives fashion, what better way to start 2022 than by looking back? Welcome to the Twitter Digest for December 2021. How did you spend your New Year’s Eve? Just out of curiosity, is this the earliest selfie you've ever seen?? It was taken by a … Continue reading December’s Twitter Digest
More online events from the record office
We are pleased to announce another three free online talks for the new year. Our first talk is our ever popular ‘Introduction to the Record Office’ – find out who we are and the services we offer, the collections we hold and how you can access them, whether in person or remotely. Talk: ‘Introduction to … Continue reading More online events from the record office
Recipe books of the Gell and Wright families
This post is from our guest blogger, Mark Dawson. Mark has written several books on the history of food and is currently chair of the Leeds Food History Symposium. As someone interested in the history of food and drink, I’m naturally drawn towards old recipe collections. At Derbyshire Record Office there are a number of … Continue reading Recipe books of the Gell and Wright families
Christmas Roses
In amongst all of my traditional Christmas baking I wanted to try something a bit different. So I had a look through some of the recipe books in our Local Studies collection. I soon found a book published in 1976, 'Recipes from the Peak District' by Peter Grayson, which looked promising. I was immediately intrigued … Continue reading Christmas Roses
A guide to researching records of disability
The following guide lists a selection of sources which can be used to help uncover information about disability in the records held at Derbyshire Record Office. For the purpose of this guide the term disability is taken to be physical or sensory impairment and those long-term injuries or conditions which have historically been treated as … Continue reading A guide to researching records of disability
Merry Quizmas!
Here's a festive little quiz for you, based on ten original sources held at Derbyshire Record Office. When you've finished, scroll back up to see how many you got right. There are no prizes. You are, however, entitled to boast if you score more than five.
Gingerbread
In the spirit of the festive season I decided to try baking Mrs. Rotherham's gingerbread, from the 1830s recipe book of Clara Palmer-Morewood of Alfreton Hall. This was my first attempt at a historic recipe from our archives so excitement and expectation was high. On first glance at the recipe it seemed relatively straight-forward – … Continue reading Gingerbread
Henry Eustace Mitton
The Butterley Company of Ripley, founded in 1790, built a name for themselves as engineers (the roof of St Pancras Station being one of their finest achievements), but also had a profitable business selling coal and iron. The success of their coal operations in the first half of the 20th Century owes much to Henry … Continue reading Henry Eustace Mitton
Christmas shopping made easy
Are you in the throes of Christmas shopping? Trying to find that perfect gift for the person who seems to have everything? Or do you just want to give something that bit more personal? On our Picture the Past website you can choose an image and then have it transformed into a variety of different … Continue reading Christmas shopping made easy
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