Stories from the collection

Discover how plants travelled across the British Empire in the 19th century and the effect this has on our natural environment, and eating habits, today.

This 17th-century mince pie recipe contains spices, eggs and raisins, but also something slightly stranger.

Stale ale, ground nutmeg and mustard seeds – would you try these medieval cures for headaches and congestion? They give surprising insights into global trade.

Explore Jane Austin's will, in her own handwriting, which shows how the novelist planned to share her belongings with family and friends after her death.

In this letter, Thomas Henshaw of Derbyshire complained of his treatment by local officials who denied him welfare despite his ‘most distressing’ situation.

Discover how plants travelled across the British Empire in the 19th century and the effect this has on our natural environment, and eating habits, today.

This record of disputes taken to court in 1518, written in abbreviated Latin, includes a vivid portrait of the reigning monarch at the time.

On the Atlantic coast of Morocco are two cities that became one of the most substantial Islamic ports of the 17th Century.

Henry Savage Sweetman published the Calendar which translated over 8,000 Irish medieval records. But who was Sweetman and why did he complete this project?

This affidavit is testament to the lengths enslaved African people went to in seeking their freedom.

These Victorian railway wheel models demonstrate the diverse, and often unexpected, character of exhibits preserved in court records at The National Archives.

This photo shows an African American student choir who toured the UK and whose performances were attended by Queen Victoria and the Prime Minister.

This is one of hundreds of letters in police files claiming to have been written by the infamous Whitechapel Murderer – otherwise known as 'Jack the Ripper'.

These record books reveal the substantial dangers to passengers – and for those operating trains – in the first decades that public railways existed.

Records of a coroner’s inquest on the body of the sailor Thomas Aird reveal details of a little-known seamen’s strike that was brutally suppressed.