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As a young man in 1746, James Cook was apprenticed to master mariner and shipowner John Walker. In Cook’s time at Whitby, one in five of the population was an apprentice and the bulk of those would have been in marine trades. There was no grammar school in the town but mathematical and marine education were paramount in Whitby and Cook studied navigation in Walker’s house where he lived when not at sea.
Although the two manuscripts are half a century later than Cook’s apprentice days, they are indicative of the levels of sophisticated study expected of those who aspired to command at sea and reflect Whitby’s reputation as a ‘nursery of seamen’.

A rare map of St Pancras - a hand-coloured Edmund Daw map of the parish dating from 1854. Camden Archives had maps of the area by this cartographer for 1849 and 1860 but not this 1854 edition. Some major changes are quickly apparent from a comparison of the 1849 and 1854 maps. By the time of the later map the Smallpox and Fever hospitals shown at King’s Cross in 1849 have gone, while King’s Cross Station and its goods yard and hotel, absent from the earlier map, are all clearly shown on that of 1854.

this uniquely surviving example of large format colour printing from pre-Revolutionary France. It comprises a composite sheet of paper almost 1.5 metres long, woodblock printed in four sections and pasted together. The images are charmingly simple, using four colours stencilled over a line drawing with captions explaining the scenes in rhyming couplets explaining the scenes. Pierre Perdoux was one of the leading printers of decorated papers in Orléans, with the majority of his surviving works being smaller format items on religious subjects, and some 500 examples of papiers dominotés. Only a handful of these oversized prints are preserved.

The Chandler archive is substantial, consisting of c.130 boxes of material. The working papers of two of Chandler’s agents form the core of the archive: Brandt & Brandt in the US, and Helga Greene in the UK. Greene - Chandler’s fiancée at the time of his death - inherited his estate, and so the archive also includes a good tranche of personal papers, as well as personal correspondence between the two during the final years of Chandler’s life.

Showtown is a new museum in Blackpool which opened in March 2024; it is Blackpool’s first permanent museum and highlights the town’s rich history as a seaside home of entertainment. Charlie became one of the greatest and most creative Auguste clowns of the 20th century. He dominated the history of the Tower Circus, establishing himself as its primary attraction and Britain's most celebrated clown.  The collection offers insights into Charlie Cairoli's years of training, the continuation of circus traditions, and the remarkable talents he employed.

With an audience capacity of 1,400 people, the category-A listed His Majesty’s Theatre is the largest theatre in the North-East of Scotland. Built at a cost of £35,000 and opened in 1906, it is still in use today and is one of Aberdeen’s most iconic buildings. The architect responsible for the plans of the theatre was Francis (or Frank) Matcham who specialised in the design of many well-known theatres and music halls, including the Hackney Empire, the Coliseum and the Palladium in London, as well as the Tower Ballroom, Blackpool.

This volume provides a fascinating insight into domestic and material culture in the 18th century with reference to payments for linen and furniture alongside the purchase of crops and other good such as coal, straw, and apples. References are made to taxes (‘…for one years Window Tax £01-00-00’) and to disbursements made by Pilbeam in his role as Churchwarden (‘2 Church lockes’ and ‘wine for the communion’).

Medieval deeds provide an important insight into property ownership and transactions and also document people who may have owned adjoining property or acted as witnesses to a transaction. As such, they are invaluable resources for local and family historians from a time when few other written records survive to shed light on local residents.

Diaries can be some of the most powerful documents that we hold, providing a fascinating insight into the inner lives of people in the past. The diary of Francis Fearon is no exception. Fearon was Steward of Cuckfield Manor between c 1874 and 1890 and other documents in the archives at West Sussex Record Office suggest that he acted as solicitor for the Sergison family, owners of Cuckfield Manor. We otherwise knew very little about him but this diary provides an insight into his day-to-day activities, interests and the milieu in which he moved.

The map fills in an important gap in the history of the title of the property providing evidence that Robert Offley left the farm in trust for the benefit of the Chaplain and Curate of Oakwood Chapel in Wootton, Surrey, with the map having been commissioned by the curate of Oakwood Chapel at the time, John Hallam. For this reason, and the fact that West Sussex Record Office otherwise does not have any estate maps which directly refer to Steepwood Farm, it is a particularly valuable addition to the collections.