This is a guide to some of the miscellaneous sources held at the North Devon Local Studies Centre. It covers many of our indexes, lists and study aids as well as some useful, but perhaps less familiar, material. Many of these sources are available on the open shelves. However, some others, including most items held by the North Devon Athenaeum, need to be requested at the reception desk. Staff will be able to advise on the location of any items held at the Centre.
For simplicity’s sake our reading room is divided in this guide into three sections: the main area/bookshelves; the Record Office searchroom area/bookshelves; and the reception desk. The location of books is described in greater detail in the North Devon Record Office guide ‘A Handlist of Books’.
In Pursuit of Devon’s History, compiled by Ian Maxted, is the best introductory book for those working on local history. It details the available sources, where to find them, the best techniques to use, etc., and can be found on the main bookshelves under shelf reference 907.
The bookshelves in the Record Office area of the reading room contain background, non-local material, including books on how to research particular topics or local history in general. Sources for English Local History by W B Stephens is divided into subject areas such as education, religious history and the history of transport and outlines the kind of sources held by local record offices that can be used to study them. Local History: A Handbook for Beginners by Philip Riden does the same for sources held by the National Archives at Kew. There are also books that explain the sources themselves and how they came to be produced.
On the same shelves there are books on interpreting old handwriting, Latin, abbreviations and methods of dating. A Handbook of Dates by C R Cheney is especially useful in working out regnal years, feast days, saints’ days, etc..
The Local Historian’s Encyclopedia by John Richardson explains virtually every historical term that is likely to be encountered by the researcher and is available from the reception desk.
Gazetteers of British place-names are also available from the reception desk. A Devon Gazetteer, by Brian Randell et. al. is housed on the bookshelves in the Record Office searchroom area.
On both the main bookshelves and Record Office searchroom area bookshelves there are various bibliographies and handlists.
For addresses of other record offices and details of their holdings, British Archives by Janet Foster and Julia Sheppard is invaluable, as are the Public Record Office handlists which can be found on their website at www.pro.gov.uk. Phillimore’s Atlas and Index of Parish Registers shows the coverage of parish registers, transcripts, indexes, etc. in all counties in England and Wales and can be found on the Record Office area bookshelves.
Hugh Peskett’s Parish and Non-Parochial Registers of Devon and Cornwall, 1538-1837 is useful for locating parishes and the dates and location of parish registers and bishops transcripts; where parish records are still held at the parish, the current Exeter diocesan directory is available at www.exeter.anglican.org and gives the contact details of incumbents. For those searching Methodist records, the Devon Record Office publication Methodism in Devon: a handlist of chapels and their records lists each chapel and the circuit to which it belonged. Copies of these publications are available at the reception desk.
The Bibliography of British Newspapers: Devon and Cornwall can be found at the reception desk and lists the locations of back copies of all Devon and Cornwall newspapers.
The shelves in the Record Office searchroom area containing the Record Office lists also house lists of documents relating to north Devon held at the Devon Record Office, Exeter and City of Plymouth & West Devon Record Office. These include partial lists of Rolle/Clinton and Fortescue estate papers, as well as those of the Devon County Quarter Sessions Court.
The same shelves contain various lists of records surveyed by the Record Office but housed elsewhere, for example the records of Hartland Abbey.
We have a visitors’ book in which we invite our users to register their areas of research, while the Devon Family History Society Directory of Members’ Interests provides information on the topics of research of its members and contact details.
Some current local interest periodicals can be found on the carousel in the main reading room. Staff at the reception desk have access to a list of all periodicals held by the Local Studies Library.
On the main bookshelves are various reports, transactions and bound periodicals, for instance the Exmoor Review and Proceedings of the Devon Archaeological Society. The Reports and Transactions of the Devonshire Association date from 1867 to the present and contain detailed articles on every conceivable topic of local interest. A similar publication, Devon & Cornwall Notes and Queries, is held from 1900 onwards.
The pamphlet boxes on the main bookshelves include, under the reference 929.3, many of the Gibson’s Guides to particular sources such as wills or muster rolls, and to particular aspects of local history.
A number of transcripts of popular sources are available. The bookshelves in the Record Office searchroom area contain selected transcripts of parish registers, for which there is a list at the reception desk, and of the 1841 Census for all north Devon parishes.
On the main bookshelves there is a complete transcript of the Devonshire Domesday Survey and, available from the reception desk, selected transcripts of medieval and early modern tax returns, including the Devon hearth tax and feudal aids. These list the wealthier inhabitants of each parish and are especially useful for tracing family history before the advent of parish registers.
Also available on the main bookshelves are Devonshire Wills and Administrations issued by the British Record Society, a list of wills proved in Episcopal court in Exeter 1532-1800, and also the Devonshire Association’s Index to Barnstaple Wills, 1563-1858. These are of particular importance as most Devon wills were destroyed during the Second World War. A microfiche copy of Olive Moger’s Abstracts of Devonshire Wills is available from the reception desk. This source contains details of many of the lost wills, arranged by surname.
Current North Devon and Torridge District Council minutes are housed on the main bookshelves. Previous District Council minutes (1974 onwards) are held in the Library stack and can be requested by asking at the reception desk. Weekly schedules of planning applications for the North Devon District Council area are also available.
The Library also holds archive copies of the non-current electoral rolls for North Devon and Torridge District Council areas (1973 onwards). Again, these should be requested at the reception desk. Please note that there are restrictions on the use of recent electoral registers.
Alongside the Record Office lists there are a number of loose-bound examples of local research. These include: Extracts from ‘The Outlook’ by Tom Gent; Chittlehampton Land Tax Assessment, 1780 transcribed by David Ryall; Conflict & Stability in Hartland in the 16th & 17th cents. by Michael Wickes; The Fortescue Family of Castle Hill, Barnstaple, 1809-1841 by Judith M Gilmore.
Other loose-bound folders on the same shelves include an index of Devon enclosure awards, a list of books held in the Record Office’s own library, selective lists of family history sources at the Cornwall, Dorset and Bristol Record Offices, a list of Devon material in other record offices and transcripts of selected parish and nonconformist registers.
There are various collections of photographs in the North Devon Local Studies Centre. The Beaford Photographic Archive contains some 10,000 images of rural life in the north Devon area. An index to the collection is available in the Record Office searchroom area. The Francis Frith Collection for north Devon parishes is available on microfiche, with a detailed catalogue on the open shelves. The North Devon Record Office holds the Pacey Collection (Ref: B120-2), which concentrates on images of buildings from all over England. The North Devon Athenaeum has compiled a comprehensive collection of images relating to Barnstaple, for which there is a card index.
The North Devon Athenaeum holds a number of printed annual or periodical publications which may give useful background information to researchers. These include trade directories for selected years from c1850, miscellaneous Crockford’s Clerical Directories, 1860-1990, an incomplete run of Gentleman’s Magazine, 1731-1895, the complete Whitaker’s Almanac, 1873 to date, Army Lists, 1802-2000, Navy Lists, 1871-2000 and Air Force Lists, 1935-2000.
The Athenaeum also holds a number or parish register transcripts as well as lists and indexes to memorial inscriptions for several churchyards. Lists of parishes for which register transcripts and memorial inscriptions are held are available at the reception desk. The transcript volumes themselves are housed on bookshelves in the Record Office searchroom area.
Also available are subject and surname indexes for the North Devon Journal newspaper covering the period c1850-1895, and pedigree files for certain Devon families.
Please note the Athenaeum library is closed on Saturdays, although the transcripts of parish registers, memorial inscriptions and the 1841 Census, mentioned above, are available for consultation every Saturday.
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