Upcoming Events
We are pleased to bring you our third online programme of events for early Summer 2021.
To book or for links to join non-booking events please see details below.
- History Talks
- Reminiscences Session: Memories of Childhood
- Online Workshops
- Mindful Mondays
- Adult Craft- papercraft flowers
- How to…
- Reading from the Archives
- Small Bites
- Work Experience- write a blog post
- Writing Home: A Creative Writing Workshop for Young People
- Become a volunteer NRO blogger
History Talks
Our talks are repeated on Zoom twice during the day, once at 1pm and once at 7pm. Each talk lasts 20 mins and speakers will be available to answer questions live. Once they have been shown all talks will be made available on the Norfolk Record Office YouTube Channel.
We would encourage you to register your interest for talks on our Eventbrite page, as this helps us to determine if we need to increase the capacity. However, this does not guarantee you a space. To enter the talks please click on the links below before the talk starts, and you will be admitted to a lobby. Admittance is on a first come first served basis.
Early Summer talks include:
Food Glorious Food
by Nicole Hudson
Wednesday 21 April
Join us for a lunchtime or teatime talk that will make your stomach rumble, exploring our regional sound archives to uncover reminiscences of the heart of the home, the kitchen.
Discover what was on the menu for families at the turn of the 20th century, hear memories of food shopping before the arrival of supermarkets, and hear accounts of traditional recipes and food preparation.
This talk is presented by Unlocking Our Sound Heritage East of England. Unlocking Our Sound Heritage (UOSH) is a national audio preservation project chaired by the British Library and supported by the National Lottery Heritage Fund. As the East of England UOSH hub, Norfolk Record Office is one of ten heritage organisations across the UK working to digitally preserve rare and at-risk audio archives, safeguarding them for future generations, and making them accessible to the public.
No booking required, please use the links to join 5 minutes before we start
If you know someone who would like to listen by telephone please give them the following details:
Telephone: 0203 481 5237
PIN for 1pm talk: 864 2249 7309
PIN for 7pm talk: 820 4537 5766
Missed it? View the video on our YouTube channel
Painting the Broads
by Frank Meeres
Wednesday 26 May
In the 1920s a Suffolk teenage girl spent five summers on painting holidays on the Broads. Her ‘log’ gives a fascinating insight into Broadland holidays a century ago – and includes some fine paintings!
No booking required, please use the links to join 5 minutes before we start
If you know someone who would like to listen by telephone please give them the following details:
Telephone: 0203 481 5237
PIN for 1pm talk: 850 2577 2894
PIN for 7pm talk: 831 5506 7918
Missed it? View the video on our YouTube channel
Discord, Dispute and Toleration in Reformation Norwich
By Muriel McClendon
Wednesday 9 June
How did the religious tolerances of the city’s magistrates impact on on the Reformation in Tudor Norwich. Join Muriel McClendon, to explore how religious tolerance and acceptance of religious dissidents lead to a ‘Quiet Reformation’.
No booking required, please use the links to join 5 minutes before we start
If you know someone who would like to listen by telephone please give them the following details:
Telephone: 0203 481 5237
PIN for 1pm talk: 820 5145 3414
PIN for 7pm talk: 814 8277 5167
Missed it? View the video on our YouTube channel
Reminiscence Session: Memories of Childhood
From childhood games to school dinners, pocket money chores to birthday celebrations, this reminiscence session will explore memories of childhood, sharing extracts from regional sound archives to discover perspectives of childhood from the past. Lasting for 45 minutes, discover what games children played at the turn of the 20th century, hear memories of mischief, and souvenirs of school days. Share your own memories or simply listen in to enjoy some nostalgic reflection.
This session is presented by Unlocking Our Sound Heritage East of England. Unlocking Our Sound Heritage (UOSH) is a national audio preservation project chaired by the British Library and supported by the National Lottery Heritage Fund. As the East of England UOSH hub, Norfolk Record Office is one of ten heritage organisations across the UK working to digitally preserve rare and at-risk audio archives, safeguarding them for future generations, and making them accessible to the public.
Booking required, use link below
Online Workshops
Our one hour online workshops include
- A talk on how to use Norfolk sources for your research
- A chance to ask questions
- A workbook containing workshop notes and a practical activity
- A voucher to receive half price access to an in-person workshop
- A chance to view some of our Website Tutorials explaining how to use various websites to locate and access the documents mentioned (these are also available via our YouTube channel)
The workshops are completely free of charge and focus on sources that you can access from home. Click on a date below to book
Introduction to House History
Using a mixture of historical maps, census returns, trade directories, and wills to find out how to trace the history of the fabric of your building and it’s previous owners and inhabitants.
Bookings required, using links below
Introduction to Family History
Discover some tips on collecting materials and memories within your immediate family before finding out how to use census records, civil registration, and parish registers to trace your ancestors.
Bookings required, using links below
Advanced Family History
Aimed at those of you who already know the basics to tracing your family history, this session covers electoral registers, marriage licence bonds and tithe documents. A number of the items included are only available in the Norfolk Record Office searchroom in person.
Bookings required, using links below
Mindful Mondays
Join us for 45 minutes of relaxing colouring in whlst chating to others. All colouring sheets containing images from our archives are provided in advance , you just need to bring the colouring pencils! Feel free to drop in and out at any point during the 45 minutes.
Booking required, using links below
Adult Craft
Join us for an hour long session learning some different craft techniques.
Creating papercraft flowers
Explore original documents showing gardens and landscapes in Norfolk over previous centuries, listen to recordings from the Unlocking Our Sound Heritage audio archives and learn paper craft techniques to create a range of flowers and leaves which can be used for card making and other craft activities.
Booking required, using links below
How to…
These sessions, which last around 30-45 minutes, provide you with tips and advice from members of Record Office staff.
Looking after your books and documents at home
Join Senior Conservator, Nick Sellwood to find out how to look after the books and documents you own in your own home. We will look at aspects including heat, storage and moisture before moving being able to ask Nick about your own individual items.
Booking required, using the links below
Using our Online Catalogues
Our new online catalogue launched in January 2021. Containing nearly 900,000 entries, our new online catalogues help you to explore what we hold at the Norfolk Record Office. In this session we will take you through some tips and tricks for searching for a range of documents, and explain how these can be placed on the clipboard.
Booking required, using the links below
Reading from the Archives
Take it easy for 30 minutes and enjoy a number of stories detailing ordinary people’s lives in the past. After the success of the first session, join us to find out about the bravery, thoughtfulness and intrigue of Norfolk Women during the First World War.
Booking required, using the links below
Small Bites
Manor Court Records
Manor records are a key source for tracing house history, and can help in family history too. This talk explains how they work and how you can start using this undervalued resource.
Booking required, using the links below
Norwich Building Control Plans
We hold thousands of these architectural plans, covering all kinds of Norwich buildings , from 1877 to 1989. Join archivist Jenny Watts to explore the plans and discover how to find them in our indexes.
Booking required, using the links below
Work Experience- write a blog post
If you are a year 11 , 12 or 13 student or at university and struggling to find work experience in the heritage sector this year- look no further. This 2 hour session is aimed at giving you a little bit of background to working in archives before enabling you to gain some work experience writing for our blog and getting to see your final work published online. The session will enable you to find out more about the Norfolk Record Office, discover what is included in our collection and how to access it. Blog posts can be worked on in your own time but need to be submitted in July.
Writing Home: A Creative Writing Workshop for Young People
Suitable for Children aged 8-12 (pen/pencil and paper required)
Norwich’s ‘Strangers’, Dutch refugees who settled in the city in the 16th century, brought new skills, customs and perspectives. In the lead-up to Refugee Week (14-20 June), discover more about the experiences they had and the contribution they made in this 90 minute fun and friendly workshop, which will feature archive items to inspire the imagination.
Booking required, using the links below
Become a volunteer NRO blogger
Do you love history, research, or writing? Are you interested in listening to historical sound archives to find engaging stories and narratives?
Unlocking Our Sound Heritage at Norfolk Record Office are seeking volunteer bloggers to research and write articles for the Norfolk Record Office blog, drawing upon regional sound archives for inspiration and illustration. Join this introductory training session to find out more about the opportunities to get involved, and learn skills including how to conduct research using the NRO catalogue, and how to edit sound recordings to create sound clips.
Booking required, using the link below
The talks are run via Zoom, all other events are run via Microsoft Teams. Please ensure your equipment, operating systems and web browsers are compatible with these videoconferencing platforms in advance. This is particularly necessary for Apple users. Please see the following for support:
Zoom: https://support.zoom.us/hc/en-us/articles/201362193
Teams: https://bit.ly/3hWNWwn
Norfolk Record Office 
