- Behind the scenes experience
- School holiday activities
- Adult craft
- Reminiscence: stepping into Norwich’s shoe manufacturing heritage
- History in focus: parish chest
- History talks
- Reading from the archives: all creatures great and small
- Calming colouring
- Research workshops
Behind the scenes experience
In person
Tuesday 11 March 2-3.30pm, Friday 27 June, 2-3.30pm, Tuesday 7 October, 10-11.30am
£7 per person*
Join us for our popular visit behind the scenes at the Norfolk Record Office. Find out what how the conservators repair both parchment and paper documents, have a sneak peak at our Strongrooms, and see a display of original documents.
*Norfolk Archives and Heritage Development Foundation supporters get two free tickets for our Behind the Scenes experience as part of their individual membership. For more information and to join visit NorAH.
School holiday activities
Mini beasts in their microhabitat
In person
Wednesday 9 April, 2-3.30pm
Pay what you can (£2 per child suggested).
Aimed at primary school-age children (under 8s must be accompanied by an adult).
Celebrate spring by creating your very own mini beasts and garden. Find out what bugs do to archives and see examples of material which was stored badly before arriving at the Record Office. Look at illustrations of flowers from the archives and see a collection of plants collected by 13 year old George Eaton. Finally spend time making your own mini beasts and creating a home for them.
Bookings open on Monday 17 March.
Adult craft
Introduction to scrapbooking
In person
Thursday 24 April, 1-3pm
£12 per person
Refreshments included
Look through Victorian scrapbooks for inspiration on how to create your own. Learn some techniques to help you add journaling to your scrapbook page before creating a couple of pages for your very own scrapbook. Feel free to bring some photographs in to incorporate into your pages.
All materials are included.
Reminiscence
STEPPING INTO NORWICH’S SHOE MANUFACTURING HERITAGE
In person
Monday 12 May, 10-11.30am
Free of charge
Refreshments included
Norwich was one of the main cities involved in the shoe industry between the 1950s-1980s. Whether you worked in a factory, had relatives that worked in one of the factories, or enjoyed shoe shopping join us to reminiscence about your experiences. The event will start with an introduction to the shoe industry in Norwich by Michael and Frances Holmes. There will be a chance to see some original documents and sound recordings about people’s experiences of the shoe trade in Norfolk. Join us at our café style setting to enable you to grab a drink and have a chat about your memories.
History in focus
LIFTING THE LID ON THE PARISH CHEST
In person
Friday 13 June, 11am-12.30pm
Pay what you can (£2.50 per person suggested).
Join us for our new series of events were we will uncover documents on a particular topic. Each session will explain how to use the searchroom and online catalogue to find those documents before talking through some examples and then giving you a chance to explore documents connected to the topic in more detail. This session we explore documents you expect to find in the parish chest.
Discover what comprises the parish chest, find out how to access this material and how it can help in your research.
Refreshments included.
History talks
Celebrating literary treasures: Ten years of The British Archive for Contemporary Writing at University of East Anglia
In person and online
By Helen Busby
Wednesday 26 March, 1-2pm
Free of charge
At the home of the UK’s oldest Creative Writing MA programme and home of the world-renowned literary festival UEA Live there lives a small archive service packed with literary treasures. BACW is the writer’s archive, with collections from Nobel Prize winner Doris Lessing, global best sellers Lee Child and Naomi Alderman, innovative poets Joelle Taylor and Jay Bernard and beloved nature writers like Mark Cocker and Roger Deakin. Hear the stories behind the stories and discover what we are doing to save writers’ archives now for future generations.
Refreshments will be available 10 minutes before the talk starts. Feel free to grab yourself a cuppa and settle down for an interesting 45 minutes.
Once visited never forgotten: St Andrew’s Asylum/ Hospital
In person and online
By Dale Wiseman
Wednesday 30 April, 1-2pm
Free of charge
Discover the history of the Norfolk asylum from 1813 through to its closure as a hospital in 1998. Using research from the Change Minds project Dale will featuring case studies from the 1880s, including a patient who was at the Norfolk asylum for a just a few months and a long-term patient.
In addition, Dale will focus on important staff members including Dr Hills, Nurse Annie Park Kerr and Dr Thomson who through a long-term friendship persuaded Arthur Donan Coyle to come and play cricket at St Andrews on many occasions. Before highlighting his personal connection to the hospital which spans nearly fifty years.
Refreshments will be available 10 minutes before the talk starts. Feel free to grab yourself a cuppa and settle down for an interesting 45 minutes.
Battlefield wills from the First World War, 1914-22
In person and online
By Daryl Long
Wednesday 21 May, 1-2pm
Free of charge
More than 15,000 Norfolk men died in the First World War. What happened to their estate after their death? A soldier’s pay book allowed last wishes and bequests to be recorded and, for some, just the name of next of kin was sufficient to ensure any valuables and a soldier’s pay could find its way home. However, of those 15,000, just over 200 made wills that were proved in the Norwich Probate Court and these records are held at the Norfolk Record Office. Ongoing research explores the story behind these wills. Who were these men? What is their back story and what was the impact on those they left behind?
Refreshments will be available 10 minutes before the talk starts. Feel free to grab yourself a cuppa and settle down for an interesting 45 minutes.
Run as part of Norfolk’s Creativity and Wellbeing Week 2025
Reading from the archives
ALL CREATURES GREAT AND SMALL
Online
Monday 23 June, 10-10.30am
Pay what you can (£2.50 per person suggested).
Discover people’s experiences of seeing different animals for the first time in our next Reading from the Archives. Hear about one man’s visit to Great Yarmouth aquarium in the 1870s, listen to an account of a parade of elephants heading through Norwich as an advert for Barnum and Bailey’s Circus in the 1890s and hear how mice were used as weather forecasters.
Calming colouring
Online
Tuesday 25 March, 2-3pm
Free of charge
Join us online for a our latest calming colouring session. Staff will show you some documents as inspiration, before having a chat and relaxing afternoon colouring in a range of line drawings from the archives.
All drawings will be sent to you before the session ready for you to print and join in. Grab a drink and feel free to drop in and out at any point during the session.
Research workshops
Our research workshops to help you to get started or discover additional materials useful for your own research. All of the sessions are led by a knowledgeable and experienced tutor who will take you through each source focusing on their uses for research and how to access them. For each session, a full workbook will also be provided.
Introduction to family history
Online
Tuesday 1 April, 10-11am
Free of charge
Join us online to find out how to get started on tracing your family history. Topics and documents include tips on collecting materials and memories within your immediate family, how to use census records, civil registration, and parish registers to trace your ancestors.
Want to take your family history further? See our advance workshops below. Participants will receive a code for £2 off our advanced family history workshops.
Advanced family history- part 1
In person
Thursday 1 May, 10am- 12noon
£10 per person*#
If you have started your research independently or joined us on our introduction to family history online previously and want to take your research a step further, this session is for you. Including a mixture of practical activities and demonstrations we show you how to use documents needed for delving deeper into your family history. There will also be original records be on display to illustrate some of the topics taught. This session will show you how to use electoral registers, marriage licence bonds and tithe documents. Staff are also happy to take questions on where to go next in research into your own ancestors.
Look out for Advanced family history- part 2.
*Norfolk Archives and Heritage Development Foundation supporters can enjoy our research workshops for free. For more information and to join visit NorAH.
#Introduction to family history participants can use their voucher code for £2 off this session..
Advanced family history- part 2
In person
Wednesday 14 May, 2-4pm
£10 per person*#
If you are hoping to take your family history further you may want to check this session. Including a mixture of practical activities and demonstrations we show you how to use probate material, school records, business records, and papers relating to the workhouse. There will also be original records be on display to illustrate some of the topics taught. Staff are also happy to take questions on where to go next in research into your own ancestors.
Look out for Advanced family history- part 1.
*Norfolk Archives and Heritage Development Foundation supporters can enjoy our research workshops for free. For more information and to join visit NorAH.
#Introduction to family history participants can use their voucher code for £2 off this session.
Introduction to house history
Online
Thursday 3 April, 10-11am
Free of charge
Join us online to find out how to get started on tracing your house history. We will look at how to trace the history of the fabric of your building using historical and modern maps before using census returns and trade directories to find out about the previous owners and occupiers of your property.
Participants will receive a voucher code for £2 off our advanced house history sessions. See below for details.
Advanced house history
In person
Friday 23 May, 10am- 12noon
£10 per person*#
Join us for a workshop on how to take your house history further. This session includes a mixture of practical activities and demonstrations to show how to use the documents needed for finding out about the history of your house. There will also be original records be on display to illustrate some of the topics taught. Find out more about tracing the history of the fabric of your building using manor court books, wills and inventories and building control plans. Plus, we will look at if your property was a former school, mill, pub or church. Staff are also happy to take questions on where to go next in research into your individual property.
Look out for our Introduction to house history sessions, details above.
#Participants can use their £2 off voucher code from the Introduction to House History session.
*Norfolk Archives and Heritage Development Foundation supporters can enjoy our research workshops for free. For more information and to join visit NorAH.
Run as part of Norfolk’s Creativity and Wellbeing Week 2025
Norwich: Culture, community and church, 1500-1750
In person
Friday 9 May, 10am- 4.30pm
£25 per person, lunch can be added on for an extra £10*
Norwich has a wonderfully rich and diverse history which provides a seemingly inexhaustible supply of stories for historians to tell. On this study day, six leading historians will share their perspectives and research on various aspects of this history.
Carole Rawcliffe, Reid Barbour, and Clare Haynes focus on three quite different individuals – Augustine Steward, Thomas Browne, and Francis Blomefield – whereas Joel Halcomb takes a broad view of the development of non-conformism in early modern Norwich. Rebecca Pinner searches for the mythic origins of Norwich through the figure of Gurgunt, whilst Andy Wood presents two new documents on that most famous of chapters in the history of Norwich, Kett’s Rebellion.
The names and themes may seem familiar, but each presenter will offer new research and new perspectives on them to help us deepen our understanding of the history of this wonderful city.
*Norfolk Archives and Heritage Development Foundation supporters can enjoy this conference for free. For more information and to join visit NorAH.
Norfolk Record Office 