B Bond Warehouse in Bristol, housing of Bristol Record Office

Bristol Archives (formerly Bristol Record Office) was established in 1924. It was the first borough record office in the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and North ...

, since at that time there was only one other local authority record office (Bedfordshire) in existence. It looks after the official archives of the

City of Bristol Bristol () is a City status in the United Kingdom, city, Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county and unitary authority in England. Situated on the River Avon, Bristol, River Avon, it is bordered by the ceremonial counties of Glouces ...

, besides collecting and preserving many other records relating to the city and surrounding area for current and

future generations Future generations are cohorts of hypothetical people not yet born. Future generations are contrasted with current and past generations, and evoked in order to encourage thinking about intergenerational equity. The moral patienthood of future ge ...

to consult. It moved from the

City Hall In local government, a city hall, town hall, civic centre (in the UK or Australia), guildhall, or a municipal building (in the Philippines), is the chief administrative building of a city, town, or other municipality. It usually houses ...

to newly converted premises in the former

B Bond Warehouse B Bond Warehouse () is a former bonded warehouse built to serve Bristol Harbour. Built in 1908, B Bond was the second of three warehouses constructed close to Cumberland Basin to meet the demands of the tobacco import boom of the early 20th ce ...

in 1992. The office is formally recognised by the

Lord Chancellor The lord chancellor, formally the lord high chancellor of Great Britain, is the highest-ranking traditional minister among the Great Officers of State in Scotland and England in the United Kingdom, nominally outranking the prime minister. The ...

for holding public records, and it acts as a

diocesan record office Originally within the United Kingdom the title of diocesan record office would frequently have referred to a church-owned diocesan registry or chancery. This would have been where the episcopal registers, administrative papers and title deeds were ...

for the

Diocese of Bristol The Diocese of Bristol is an ecclesiastical jurisdiction or diocese of the Church of England in the Province of Canterbury, England. It is based in the city of Bristol and covers South Gloucestershire and parts of north Wiltshire, as far east ...

. Major deposited collections include those of J. S. Fry & Sons, chocolate manufacturers, 1693–1966, and

Imperial Brands Imperial Brands plc (formerly Imperial Tobacco Group plc), is a British multinational tobacco company headquartered in Bristol, England. It is the world's fourth-largest international cigarette company measured by market share after Philip Mor ...

(formerly W.D. & H.O. Wills, tobacco manufacturers), late 18th century – 20th century. However, for many years one of its best-known holdings was a single volume of judicial case papers bound in the actual skin of the 19th-century executed murderer

John Horwood John Horwood (1803 – 13 April 1821) was a miner's son convicted of murder in Bristol, England, and executed in 1821. He was the first person to be hanged at Bristol New Gaol. Life John Horwood was born in Hanham, the fifth son of Thomas and ...

. Bristol Archives is part of Bristol Museums, along with

Bristol Museum & Art Gallery Bristol Museum & Art Gallery is a large museum and art gallery in Bristol, England. The museum is situated in Clifton, about from the city centre. As part of Bristol Culture it is run by the Bristol City Council with no entrance fee. It holds ...

M Shed M Shed is a museum in Bristol, England, located on Prince's Wharf beside the Floating Harbour in a dockside transit shed formerly occupied by Bristol Industrial Museum. The museum's name is derived from the way that the port identified each of i ...

, Georgian House, Red Lodge,

Blaise Castle Blaise Castle is a folly built in 1766 near Henbury in Bristol, England. The castle sits within the Blaise Castle Estate, which also includes Blaise Castle House, a Grade II* listed 18th-century mansion house. The folly castle is also Grade I ...

, and

Kings Weston Roman Villa Kings Weston Roman Villa is a Roman villa in Lawrence Weston in the north-west of Bristol (). The villa was discovered during the construction of the Lawrence Weston housing estate in 1947. Two distinct buildings (Eastern and Western) were disco ...

. The core opening hours are Tuesday - Friday, 9:30am-4pm. In addition, on the first two Saturdays of the month, Bristol Archives is open 10am-4pm. Bristol Archives holds material related to the port of Bristol from the 13th century onwards. Further records are held by the

Institution of Civil Engineers The Institution of Civil Engineers (ICE) is an independent professional association for civil engineers and a charitable body in the United Kingdom. Based in London, ICE has over 92,000 members, of whom three-quarters are located in the UK, whi ...

References

External links

Bristol Archives

The online catalogue
{{Authority control Local government in Bristol Archives in England City archives County record offices in England Organisations based in Bristol History of Bristol