Project News from the Harewood Archive

In March 2009 work began at West Yorkshire Archive Service cataloguing the papers of the Earls of Harewood. By Spring 2010 the archive will be made accessible online.

Amongst the documents and correspondence, the archivists have found hundreds of replies to an invitation for a Harewood tenants ball in 1859! Over two days in August of that year 134 letters and 166 circulars were sent out to tenants not only on the Harewood Estate, but on estates owned by the family from Stockton in the north to Pontefract in the south. Invitations were also sent to businesses such as, Hodgson Cut Glass Manufacturers, E Smeeton Chemists, Joshua Hummerston of the Leeds Paper Hanging Warehouse and Mr Pepper the Carting Agent at the North Eastern Railway in Leeds.

The replies are fascinating for the family history information they provide, a lot of the family names are still common in the Harewood area today; Lister, Myers and Thompson to name a few. The letters also serve as a record of literacy standards at the time. Many people have felt it necessary to have the reply written for them, some less polished than others as the response shown below illustrates.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

You can follow the blog to hear more or find out about the work of the West Yorkshire Archive Service on their website. The archive is expected to be made available online in Spring 2010.

Work on the collection has been made possible thanks to an award from the National Cataloguing Grants Fund.