THE HADLEIGH ARCHIVE
A RESOURCE OF DOCUMENTS, MAPS AND IMAGES OF THE TOWN
Six hundred years of history held at Hadleigh Guildhall
Hadleigh’s archive is an important part of the town’s rich heritage and culture, which is stored here in the town and not in the County Record Office. This makes them more easily available to people within the town, it’s a resource on the doorstep. Hadleigh Town Council are proud and honoured to be the host of the archive and we should all be extremely grateful that our records and volunteers remain within our town. Hadleigh Town Council continues to support, and be ever grateful to, the teams looking after the archives.
There are two distinct jobs the group of volunteers undertake; cataloguing and digitalising documents and images, and translating Latin and transcribing early English ancient records and documents of the town. There are well over 30,000 items, the earliest dating back to the 13th century, in the Hadleigh Archive and is spread across five 6ft safes and other folders and boxes all within the Town Council offices.
Organised, conserved, transcribed and catalogued, under the umbrella of the Hadleigh Town Council, the archive team is composed of experienced and knowledgeable volunteers. The group currently has 7 members who volunteer at the archive office of the Town Council two afternoons a week. In addition to that, many hours are spent at home by members of the group cataloguing, translating and transcribing documents. All done by the volunteer group pro bono publico.
Visitors have the opportunity to visit the Archive Room to look at appropriate documents, by appointment.
All enquiries should be made by e-mail to: archives@hadleightowncouncil.gov.uk
The core of the collection is composed of records created by the institutions which administered town affairs from the medieval period through to modern times – Hadleigh Market Feoffment Charity, Hadleigh Grand Feoffment Charity and the Hadleigh Borough records. Records of other local organisations include those of Hadleigh Town Council, schools, businesses, property deeds, planning applications, maps and plans, photographs, printed books and ephemera.
The storage of documents relating to Hadleigh Town Council, HMFC and MFC on site has facilitated use of them in the day-to-day running of council and charity affairs.
The ongoing collection of modern material ensures its survival as part of the archive collection.
Aims of Hadleigh Archive:
- To ensure the care and preservation of the collection by providing a safe and secure environment, in fire-proof safes and under correct temperature and humidity conditions, where possible.
- To maintain and update a searchable digital catalogue of the documents and images, improving access to the collections.
- To ensure documents and material created in recent times, and which might otherwise be lost, are kept for posterity.
- To provide accessibility to a rich and valuable local resource to all those interested in our town’s history, making it available for research purposes on request.
- To enhance knowledge and understanding of the history of Hadleigh.
Recent events:
Exhibitions:
May 2023 “Hadleigh Archives” at the Hadleigh Show
Mar 2023 “Hadleigh Revisited” (in photographs)
Oct 2019 “Partridges of Hadleigh, 200 years of trading”
2017 “Hadleigh in the 50s and 60s” (a photographic record)
The Local List
Research, using archive material, to contribute to the Local List project, to help build up a dossier for the inclusion of post-1840 buildings to the list.
Hadleigh Guildhall Timeline
Hadleigh Archive resources have provided much of the material used in creating this timeline, a Hadleigh Society History Group project. It has been extensively used in the compilation of the Conservation Management Plan carried out by Caroe Architecture, 2023. The information supplied underpins the final conclusion of the report on the highly exceptional significance of the Guildhall complex and will make a huge contribution to future decisions on works to improve the usage of the building.