Archives
Our archives are significant and may be of use to those researching local or family history.
Please note that many of the older registers have been imaged and transcribed and are readily available online or in digital format by request: We aim to minimise handling of older records and would always ask that online and digitised resources be checked before seeking to access original archives.
Please make enquiries by email to our administrator.
A cautionary note for family historians:
There are many challenges in researching family history well and accurately.
Researchers do well to note that prior to 1837 when civil registration was introduced the registers may contain little information beyond the bare minimum of an event taking place.
Whilst our records go back to the reign of Elizabeth I we know that they are not a full record of local people's lives for a number of reasons.
The graph of the number of recorded marriages from the 1550s to the 1850s shows that clearly between the beginning of the English Civil War and the early 1700s many marriages were never recorded in the parish church registers.
The number of weddings increases over the years as population grows but shows a serious gap from 1640s to 1700 (due to marriages by deposed ministers not taking place in churches) and then dips slightly around the Napoleonic Wars before declining after 1837 as civil registration comes in and there are more venues, register offices and local churches, at which people could marry.