As you may know there is an
unfortunate gap in the Berkshire Record Office's
holdings of the county's Electoral Registers for the
years 1889-1892/3. Either the Clerks of the Peace did
not send their registers to the correct department of
the newly formed County Council, or the staff did not
receive the proper instructions. Whatever the reason
the Registers have been lost.
Last December I was at the
Berkshire Record Office looking for the Wokingham
1890 Register when the archivist remembered having
seen a reference to them in a British Library
catalogue. This seemed an opportunity too good to be
missed so I visited the new British Library in Euston
Road and obtained a five year ticket. The new Library
positively welcomes readers so obtaining a ticket is
relatively easy, as long as you are not trying
to borrow the latest Mills and Boon romance for three
weeks (which has happened).
The Registers in question
only cover the Eastern/Wokingham and the Northern/Abingdon
Divisions. The Registers themselves are held off-site
and take 24 hours to be delivered to the Reading Room.
On the request form quote the Pressmark 'BL.B35' for
Eastern/Wokingham Division, or 'BL.B32' for the
Northern/Abingdon Division, and in the description
give the Division and year. The staff will tell you
which reading room the books will be delivered to;
the catalogue is held in a room misleadingly known as
Science North.
The Library could be more
user-friendly, but once you have got your Reader's
Ticket you have access to a great range of documents
and books. So references you thought you would never
be able to follow up suddenly become possible. 1 am
about to see if a distant ancestor's relative held a
captain's commission in the Parliamentary General's
bodyguard during the Civil War: Sloan mss. Vol. 5247,
'Flag and arms of......... the Earl of Essex's
armies' refers. I can now order it either by going in
and waiting half an hour, or by telephone and it will
be waiting when 1 arrive a day or two later.
