We hold regular events and work with local groups throughout North Yorkshire to develop community heritage projects and learning activities.
Heritage projects are a great way for communities to come together to learn about their past, to take part in fun and inspiring activities, to share their experience and knowledge and to develop new skills.
If you would like to discuss setting up a community heritage project then please contact the record office. We can offer digitisation and conservation services, meeting space, advice on sources of funding and more.
To keep up-to-date with events and exhibitions, please see the North Yorkshire County Record Office blog.
Autumn lunchtime talks
Venue: North Yorkshire County Record Office, Malpas Road, Northallerton.
The talk will begin at 12.30pm and last around 45 minutes, followed by a discussion. The entry fee for talks is £2 and includes light refreshments. Advance booking is not necessary.
Exhibition and textile workshop
Lives Unravelled Exhibition by 6 Ply.
Textile artists group, 6 Ply, show works inspired by research on the theme of women living in Ripon Workhouse informed from visits to the workhouse and documents held at the North Yorkshire County Record Office.
The exhibition will run from Tuesday 22 October to Friday 20 December 2024 (Tuesday to Friday 9.30am until 4pm) at the Record Office.
Admission is free and there is no need to book.
Past projects
Attics and Acres
'Attics And Acres' focuses on the archive of the Graham family of Norton Conyers and is funded by Heritage Lottery Fund, Friends of the National Libraries and Northallerton and District Local History Society. With the help of volunteers, our project archivist is working to make the archive accessible to all by developing an online catalogue and holding a series of talks, exhibitions and workshops.
Home Comforts
The Heritage Lottery Funded 'Home Comforts' researched the history of the 32 Voluntary Aid Detachment Hospitals set up across the North Riding during the First World War. Up to 1,500 beds for the care of wounded soldiers returning from the front were provided in buildings as diverse as town hall, stately homes and workhouses, with local women taking the lead in organising this provision. Project volunteers researched and wrote a 212 page, fully illustrated book telling the story of each of the hospitals and a programme of talks, exhibitions and activities reached over 4,000 people. The project was long-listed for the 2015 National Lottery Awards. You can learn about more projects at the Heritage Lottery Fund website.
Grounds for Appeal
In April 2016 the County Record Office was delighted to be awarded £8,500 from the Heritage Lottery Fund to make the North Riding Military Tribunal Papers 1916 to 1918 widely available.
We hold nearly 6000 appeal papers of men who wished to defer their military service or who conscientiously objected to it. In 1921 the Board of Health issued instructions that all tribunal records be destroyed. There were two exceptions to this, Middlesex and Lothian and Peebles appeal records. These were retained as a benchmark for possible future use. By an oversight the North Riding Tribunal papers have survived.
You can read more at the following places:
Trawling Through Time
For nearly 100 years Cochrane’s shipyard was a vital part of life in Selby. Opened by the then Beverley-based Andrew Cochrane, Cochrane and Sons became one of the most significant employers in the Selby region. In many cases, working at Cochrane shipyard was something that ran in the family, with generation after generation working at the yard. When the yard closed in 1993, not only did it result in the loss of hundreds of jobs, but it signalled the end of the shipbuilding tradition in Selby, a tradition which was first recorded in the 15th century.
The company archive represents one of the most important pieces of evidence for the history of Selby. The North Yorkshire County Record Office was awarded a grant of £48,000 from the Heritage Lottery Fund to work on our project ‘Trawling Through Time’ which aimed to make this fascinating collection accessible to everyone.
You can view more images from the project on our Flickr album.
