Aims of the Society
The society was founded with the
aims of preserving and publishing the records
of the ancient county of Northamptonshire. Although
the first of these functions has now passed to
the County Record Office, the Society continues
to publish and to promote the study of the county's
history. |
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The Northamptonshire Record
Society was established by Miss Joan Wake
in 1920 in an attempt to stem the wholesale
loss of local historical records in the aftermath
of the First World War. It was Miss Wake's
unique enthusiasm and personal drive that
saved thousands of documents and led to the
formation, not only of the Society, but also
of the County Record Office. |
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The Society has grown from strength
to strength and is widely recognised as one of
the country's foremost local historical societies.
It enters the third millennium with a total of
about 1000 individual and corporate members.
The Society acquired its first
permanent home in 1930, at County Hall, Northampton,
and in 1947 it moved to the historic setting of
Sir Gyles Isham's house at Lamport. From 1958
it occupied the delightful and more accessible
premises at Delapre Abbey. It was Miss Wake who
had organised local support to save the ancient
former Cluniac nunnery from demolition. |
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In 1991 the Society moved together
with the County Record Office to its present home
at Wooton Hall Park, in what is one of the best-appointed
local archive repositories in the country. The
Society's facilities include administrative offices,
a meeting room and a library of several thousand
volumes on local and national history.
In 1996 the Society marked the
75th Anniversary of its foundation with a memorable
celebration at Courteenhall, the home of Sir Hereward
Wake, President of the Society and nephew of Miss
Joan Wake. To commemorate the event, the collection
of Peter Tilleman's drawings for John Bridges'
county history was published and presented to
all members present and to the guest of honour,
Lord Bingham, the Lord Chief Justice and Master
of the Rolls. |
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