B Bond Warehouse in Bristol, housing of Bristol Record Office

Bristol Archives (formerly Bristol Record Office) was established in 1924. It was the first

borough record office In the United Kingdom (and particularly in England and Wales) the term county record office usually refers to a local authority repository, also called a county archives. Such repositories employ specialist staff to administer and conserve th ...

in the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the European mainland, continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...

, since at that time there was only one other local authority record office (Bedfordshire) in existence. It looks after the official archives of the City of Bristol, besides collecting and preserving many other records relating to the city and surrounding area for current and

future generations Future generations are cohorts of hypothetical people not yet born. Future generations are contrasted with current and past generations, and evoked in order to encourage thinking about intergenerational equity. The moral patienthood of future ...

to consult. It moved from the

City Hall In local government, a city hall, town hall, civic centre (in the UK or Australia), guildhall, or a municipal building (in the Philippines), is the chief administrative building of a city, town, or other municipality. It usually houses ...

to newly converted premises in the former

B Bond Warehouse B Bond Warehouse () is a former bonded warehouse built to serve Bristol Harbour. Built in 1908, B Bond was the second of three warehouses constructed close to Cumberland Basin to meet the demands of the tobacco import boom of the early 20th ce ...

in 1992. The office is formally recognised by the

Lord Chancellor The lord chancellor, formally the lord high chancellor of Great Britain, is the highest-ranking traditional minister among the Great Officers of State in Scotland and England in the United Kingdom, nominally outranking the prime minister. T ...

for holding public records, and it acts as a diocesan record office for the Diocese of Bristol. Major deposited collections include those of J. S. Fry & Sons, chocolate manufacturers, 1693–1966, and Imperial Brands (formerly W.D. & H.O. Wills, tobacco manufacturers), late 18th century – 20th century. However, for many years one of its best-known holdings was a single volume of judicial case papers bound in the actual skin of the 19th-century executed murderer John Horwood. Bristol Archives is part of Bristol Museums, along with Bristol Museum & Art Gallery,

M Shed M Shed is a museum in Bristol, England, located on Prince's Wharf beside the Floating Harbour in a dockside transit shed formerly occupied by Bristol Industrial Museum. The museum's name is derived from the way that the port identified each of ...

, Georgian House, Red Lodge, Blaise Castle, and Kings Weston Roman Villa. The core opening hours are Tuesday - Friday, 9:30am-4pm. In addition, on the first two Saturdays of the month, Bristol Archives is open 10am-4pm. Bristol Archives holds material related to the port of Bristol from the 13th century onwards. Further records are held by the

Institution of Civil Engineers The Institution of Civil Engineers (ICE) is an independent professional association for civil engineers and a charitable body in the United Kingdom. Based in London, ICE has over 92,000 members, of whom three-quarters are located in the UK, whi ...

References

External links

Bristol Archives

The online catalogue
{{Authority control Local government in Bristol Archives in England City archives County record offices in England Organisations based in Bristol History of Bristol