National Archive

 

National Archives

VO
This architectural stronghold in the heart of Q isn't a new Fort Knox. It is, in fact, the storehouse of the nation's memory.

IV
The national archive holds the nation's records, which are a huge collection of documents ranging from Doomsday Book to Magna Carta to Shakespeare's signature. The latest government records, and lots of records of interest of found historians. We're freely open and available to the public, you don't need to pay to get in. All you need is a form of identification which will give you a reader's ticket, and then you can come and access the records held here at Q. Once you got your readers ticket here you can come up to these amazing reading rooms here at Q where you can physically access original documents literally going back to the 11th century. Within 20 minutes of ordering, you can be handling real historical records.

IV 2
There are so many spurs to get started with research of this nature. Family history, for example - it's almost like a legacy you can pass on to future generations. You may live in an interesting house or street that you want to find our more about. It's really looking at the world around you, and realizing that you can find out more through archives, through official records. And once you get started, it's totally addictive, you won't want to stop, and in many cases you don't have to. You can always go a little bit further back or start to contextualize the documents in a bit more detail.

IV
The national archives is an incredibly welcoming place. You do not need to be some form of academic or expert in history and more importantly for a lot of people you can access records that relate to you, to your family.

IV 2
Well the first step is to log on to the national archives website and if you follow the prompts there's a getting started section and you can search the catalogues. This means you can type in a key word, so for example Richmond, and see what documents appear which have Richmond in the title. It'll give you a range of maps, plans, surveys, and then you can come in person and order these documents out.

IV
As a totality, as a collection of records, it is almost unparalleled in the world. There's not much you can't find out about history here for the last thousand years.