Recipes, deeds, seals and the Black Book of Warwick at Woodcote!
A collection containing original 18th century recipe books, medieval documents and a wealth of records relating to Henry Wise, who was gardener to Queen Anne and King George I is up for sale.
Warwickshire County Record Office is asking people to help save the collection dating back to the 12th century. It has been on loan to the Record Office since the 1940s and now the owners, the descendants of the Waller family of Woodcote, have decided to sell it.
The collection is a unique piece in the jigsaw of Warwickshire’s history and heritage the County Record Office is anxious to keep it where is can be used by generations to come. They are applying for a grant from the Heritage Lottery Fund for financial support for to buy the archives which are valued at £150,000.
Caroline Sampson, Head of the Archive Service said “Generations of local historians have used the collection for a range of diverse reasons, including re-constructing house histories, as evidence of property transactions and to plot the paths of old watercourses to help solve drainage and flooding problems in the Lillington area”.
There is information on prominent sites such as the Police Headquarters at Leek Wootton and the site of the Record Office itself. An eye witness account of the death of King George IV and a series of correspondence from the Crimean War is also included.
You can help save this irreplaceable collection by taking a couple of minutes to show your support by filling in an online survey at http://www.warwickshire.gov.uk/countyrecordoffice. There will also be a programme of events and activities, organised by the County Record Office, to help raise the profile the collection.