Stories from the collection

The oldest complete document at The National Archives, this charter recording a grant of land dates back over 1,000 years.

Ravenser Odd was a short-lived island in the mouth of the River Humber. It rose from the sea in the early 13th century and had sunk beneath the waves by 1360.

How do you reward a medieval poet? This document granted the author of the Canterbury Tales an unusual royal gift: a daily allowance of wine.

The oldest complete document at The National Archives, this charter recording a grant of land dates back over 1,000 years.

The 1951 Refugee Convention defined international obligations to refugees, but also exposed global tensions in a context of decolonisation and ongoing conflict.

Anne Lister and Ann Walker's romantic relationship defied societal norms of their time, as we can encounter through the archival material they left behind.

The book Spycatcher sparked one of the most controversial courtroom battles of the 1980s, bringing questions around state secrecy to a global audience.

This report provides an eyewitness account of the liberation of the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp at the end of the Second World War.

This volume offers a glimpse of the numerous ‘Black Loyalists’ who seized the American Revolutionary War as a chance to gain freedom from enslavement.

This MI5 assessment highlights some of German leader Adolf Hitler’s feelings towards the United Kingdom in 1938 – including (allegedly) using a swear word.

These intricate 1716 drawings were submitted by Sybilla Masters in the final stage of securing a patent for machinery for 'cleaning and curing Indian corn'.

The government tried to keep the details of the Bethnal Green Tube shelter disaster of 1943 private – but a court case brought the terrible story to light.

Records from the 1930s describe attempts to police sexual activities between men in public toilets – and officers’ thoughts on when to enforce the rules.

Sophia Duleep Singh (1876–1948) was an Indian princess and a formidable figure in the women's suffrage movement.

Pre-trial statements from this 1776 dispute between the Chevalier d’Eon and Charles de Morande provide intricate details about these two French spies.