The blog for the Borthwick Institute for Archives at the University of York.
Written by Helen Watt, Honorary Fellow, Department of History, University of York On Wednesday, 25 March 2026, the enthronement or installation of the new Archbishop of Canterbury will take place in Canterbury Cathedral. This will be both a solemn and truly momentous ceremony, as the Rt Rev. and Rt Hon. Dame Sarah Mullally will be … Continue reading Welcoming the new Archbishop of Canterbury
Written by Gary Brannan, Access Archivist The Registers of the Archbishops of York contain a great many interesting stories – but few more dramatic than the story of what has been described as the ‘most notorious clerical strike in medieval English history’ – Archbishop Neville’s feud with the Chapter of Beverley Minster in 1381 from … Continue reading Strike in the Chapter House: Archbishop Neville and the Canons of Beverley
A year has flashed by and the project to index two of the registers of the Archbishops of York, 1576-1650, will very soon come to an end. However, both registers are now fully indexed and the results are available for searching on line at https://archbishopsregisters.york.ac.uk Looking back over the work, it was perhaps a little … Continue reading Archbishops’ Registers Revealed: final thoughts of an indexer
Written by Helen Watt, Marc Fitch Project Archivist As a recent authority states, we have been naming animals for thousands of years; not only did the ancient Egyptians give names to animals, but also the ancient Greeks, for example, Alexander the Great called his horse, Bucephalas (‘ox-head’)1. Apart from horses, other types of animal, particularly … Continue reading Thoughts of an Indexer: I name this cow….
Written by Helen Watts, Marc Fitch Fund Project Archivist Our Marc Fitch Fund Project Archivist, Helen Watt, gives us some thoughts and reflections following the completion of initial work in indexing one of our Archbishops’ Registers and attempts to answer an old indexers’ question – can you ever really be sure when using a previous … Continue reading Revealing the Registers: thoughts of an indexer
Written by Helen Watt, Marc Fitch Project Archivist When David Cressy examined aspects of marriage in Tudor and Stuart times, he asked whether or not love played a part in courtship and marriage then (1). Unlike other historians, such as Laurence Stone, he considered that love was fundamental to marriage in that era and in … Continue reading ‘Till death us do part’?: marriage, love and wills in the Archbishops’ Registers
Written by Catherine Dand, Project Conservator As the Archbishops’ Registers Revealed project is drawing to a close along with the year 2015, I wanted to offer a brief overview of my involvement in the project. It can be quite tricky for a conservator to accurately convey exactly what it is they do in the workshop. … Continue reading A Festive Conservation Run-down of the Archbishops’ Registers Project
Written by Gary Brannan, Access Archivist We’re now coming to the end of a project which started life in October last year to conserve, digitise and make available online the Registers of the Archbishops of York 1225-1646. The project – generously funded by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation – will also develop new tools and … Continue reading Revealing the Registers: some personal highlights