Advice to private owners
We advise a wide variety of individuals and institutions on the long term care of private records. Our advice is impartial and we are not an an acquisitive body for non-public records.
We can help on the followings points:
- Advice on the historical interest of collections of papers and whether or not records are worthy of permanent preservation
- Advice on the best means of care, preservation and storage in situ
- Guidance on the sorting and listing of records
- Information on suitable places of deposit, if owners are seeking a temporary or permanent home for all or some of their records
- Information as to the whereabouts of related manuscript collections
- Assistance in identifying further sources of help and advice
- General guidance on the availability of tax concessions for owners of manuscripts (although it cannot provide specific advice which must be sought from appropriate professional advisers)
We make no charge for these services. Generally advice will be given in writing but personal inspections of manuscripts can be carried out by a staff member under certain circumstances.
In cases where we are invited to examine collections in private hands, it is our normal practice to complete a summary report describing the records. If the owner's permission is granted, this report is filed in the National Register of Archives, a location register describing the nature and whereabouts of records relating to British history. Alternatively, it may be retained on our confidential files at the owner's request.
The advice given to owners is always treated as a confidential matter between the owner and The National Archives.
We do not provide:
- Valuations of manuscripts
- Legal advice (although we are able to advise owners on the application of the Manorial and Tithe Documents Rules 1959-67, which The National Archives administers on behalf of the Master of the Rolls)
- Grant-aid for the preservation or cataloguing of manuscript collections (although we do advise on possible sources of grant-aid and adminster the National Manuscripts Conservation Trust and the Cataloguing Grants Scheme funded by the Pilgrim Trust and Esmee Fairbairn).
