Our programme changed on the 8th April, when
members of our Branch visited the English
Heritage's public archive, the National Monuments
Record (NMR) Swindon. NMR has public search rooms
in both Swindon and London, and this was our
second visit there.
We were greeted by one the NMR's archivists
and given a short talk on the history of the NMR
and coffee. The building is superb, being ultra
modern mixed with the solid brick building of the
Victorian Railway buildings. After the talk, we
were conducted around the building, and shown the
conservation areas.
We were then taken into the search rooms and
shown around. One room holds the red boxes of
parish histories and photographs, and normally,
one is able to browse through a designated box,
of practically any parish in England. On this
occasion, the Archivist had kindly removed the
photographs and details of Abingdon, which she
had researched for us, and we took these back to
the Lecture room to look through these. This led
to a lot of discussion with the Archivist and
queries over the names of places.
We were encouraged to participate in one of
their projects, which is called Images of England.
This project is to enable the NMR to build a
digital library of photographs of England's 370,000
Listed Buildings. Their web site is at www.english-heritage.org.uk/
and further details of the NMR and Images of
England project will be found there.
A most enjoyable and rewarding visit and we
look forward to returning soon.
About the National Monuments Record
The National Monuments Record (NMR)
is England's national archive of heritage
information. It contains around twelve
million items, covering the architecture,
archaeology, air photographs and maritime
sites of England. Its collections include
three million photographs of buildings;
almost total coverage of the country in air
photographs; data on most known
archaeological sites; textual records for
buildings including the Listed Buildings
Information Service; 50,000 measured
drawings; and an extensive reference library.
The NMR is funded by the
Department for Culture, Media and Sport.
Previously part of the Royal Commission on
the Historical Monuments of England it is now
run by English Heritage.
NMR Enquiry & Research
Services The NMR is accessible free
of charge to any member of the public. You
can visit us in person at our public search
rooms in Swindon and London or you can
contact us by letter, telephone, fax, e-mail
or via our web-site. Remote enquiries are
answered on a first come - first served basis.
The NMR's indexes are principally
topographical so the more specific you can be
about identifying your place of interest, the
better. If you have any questions about how
to word your enquiry, please ring us. You may
be asked to complete a simple enquiry form.
When they have written confirmation of your
request Enquiry & Research Services staff
will check the NMR on your behalf. Our
standard service, carried out for a limited
number of sites, is free; but we do offer
priority services and a more extensive
research service for which we charge. We also
charge for photocopies, photographic prints,
reproduction fees and printouts from some of
our databases. A price-list and information
sheets are available.
