600 Year Old Archive Is Save

Through a generous grant by the MLA/V&A Purchase Grant Fund, the Museums, Libraries and Archives Council (MLA) has helped secure the Cartwright Archive for the people of Northamptonshire and the nation.

The archive of the Cartwright family of Aynho Park in South Northamptonshire is an exceptionally fine collection of family and estate papers, comprising thousands of documents from the 13th to 20th century. The 600 year old archive is extensively used by local and family historians and reveals much about the Cartwrights and their domestic lives; the history of their lands and the communities whose lives they shaped. Members of the family were public figures, parliamentarians, diplomats and soldiers.

This outstanding privately owned archive as been in the expert care of the Northamptonshire Record Office, freely available to all since the 1960s. The owners of the collection, offered Northamptonshire County Council first opportunity to raise £300,000 to permanently secure the collection for the nation. Following a vigorous campaign the necessary funds have now been raised, comprising £250,000 (including £50,000 to catalogue and make accessible collection) from the Heritage Lottery Fund, £60,000 from the MLA/V&A Purchase Grant Fund, £10,000 from the Friends of the National Libraries and £30,000 from the Cartwright of Aynho Charitable Trust.

MLA Chief Executive Chris Batt said, "I am delighted that the MLA/V&A Purchase grant Fund has been able to support this acquisition. This is a case of different funding bodies working together with a single purpose to secure this historic collection."

Justin Cavernelis-Frost, Head of Archive Policy at the MLA, said, "Archives have very little protection in law, and many collections on deposit in public care are increasingly at risk of dispersal through withdrawal or sale. This collection has been saved from being broken up, or exported overseas."

Northamptonshire cabinet member for culture, county and civic heritage, Councillor Andre Gonzalez de Savage, said: "We are delighted with this success, which has been made possible through the support of the Heritage Lottery Fund and other generous organisations and individuals, committed to keeping the archive in Northamptonshire..

"All archives are unique and irreplaceable but it is the range of issues and interests covered by these documents and the light they shed on so many areas of Northamptonshire's history that makes this collection so significant.

"That the collection will stay in the county and have a permanent home at the record office is fabulous news. What better home for such a treasure, where the specialist expertise of our employees will be used to preserve and conserve the collection?"

People can find out more about archives through the Archive Awareness Campaign, as local and national archives, large and small, public and private, general and specialist open their doors throughout the year to celebrate the wealth of archive material across the UK. -- www.mla.gov.uk