iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Alan Akeroyd @alanakeroyd.bsky.social · 01/05/2026

It's the first of May! - and my unique Huntingdonshire archivists and antiquarians desktop calendar shows the elegant Edwardian profile of Herbert Norris, whose collection of artefacts, books and documents became the Norris Museum in St Ives. A hero to us all. www.norrismuseum.org.uk

A desktop calendar showing the month of May, with a black and white photograph of someone who looks very much Edward Elgar (but isn't)

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Alan Akeroyd @alanakeroyd.bsky.social · 07/04/2026

The cherry trees outside our Ely archives building are in blossom #cambridgeshirearchives

Two cherry trees in blossom outside the main entrance to a building

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Alan Akeroyd @alanakeroyd.bsky.social · 07/04/2026

It's now April on my unique Huntingdonshire archivists desk calendar! and here we have Canon Bagley, county archivist 1947-1951. He did stirling work on the early accessions but threw in the towel when the fire service dumped their old billiards table in the archives office #huntingdonshirearchives

A page on a desktop flip calendar. It shows a black and white photo of a Church of England cleric giving a sermon, and a diary for April 2026

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Alan Akeroyd @alanakeroyd.bsky.social · 31/03/2026

Our new catalogue's front page at archives.cambridgeshire.gov.uk includes links to our A-Z of research guides - hopefully researchers into Cambridgeshire and Huntingdonshire's history will find them useful #cambridgeshirearchives #huntingdonshirearchives

A slightly rotated screenshot of thumbnail links to research guides, including Hundred Rolls, Huntingdon Borough and the Huntly Family of Orton Hall

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Alan Akeroyd @alanakeroyd.bsky.social · 27/03/2026

Our new catalogue system has gone live today! Huge thank you to the archives team who have worked hard to clean and QA the data before importing everything, and to our colleagues in IT who led the procurement project. You can visit it here archives.cambridgeshire.gov.uk #cambridgeshirearchives

The front page of Cambridgeshire County Council's new archives database. It shows an old map in the background, superimposed by a search box.

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Alan Akeroyd @alanakeroyd.bsky.social · 05/03/2026

Here's March in my unique Huntingdonshire antiquarians and archivists calendar! This is Philip Dickinson, Hunts county archivist 1962-68, who in 1941 rediscovered the ancient borough charters (they had been thought lost for centuries). Sadly he never understood how an accession register worked.

The March page of a desk calendar. It shows a black and white photograph of an archaeological dig in the 1960s. A white haired man with glasses is holding what seems to be a glass jar that he has found. In the background a woman is looking at him. She seems most unimpressed.

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Alan Akeroyd @alanakeroyd.bsky.social · 03/02/2026

Hey it's February already and my lovely desk calendar now shows Sidney Inskip Ladds (1867-1950), an architect who was one of the small but very busy group of Huntingdonshire antiquarians back in the early 20th century. Ladds designed the Norris Museum in St Ives, where his papers are now kept

A photo of a desktop calendar for February 226, showing a black and white photo of a bowler hatted gent with a thick moustache

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Alan Akeroyd @alanakeroyd.bsky.social · 14/01/2026

A hydroplane near Huntingdon in 1913. This is one of a recent accession of stereo photos received at #huntingdonshirearchives, and the collection includes the handheld viewer too, so searchers who visit us in person can get the full stereo effect. More info in the Alt #randomdocument

A stereo black and white photo (ie two images side by side, almost but not quite exactly the same) showing a very large biplane in a field. This slightly damaged photo was taken by Dr Reginald Grove of St Ives, Huntingdonshire, on Tuesday 15th April 1913. Dr Grove carefully noted a lot of extra information on the back of the print, including the aperture of f8, the exposure time of 1/20th of a second, and the time of day of 4 pm. Document ref HA D1757/7/48

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Alan Akeroyd @alanakeroyd.bsky.social · 02/01/2026

Back at work today and my new desk calendar shows Rev Evelyn-White, rector of Rampton and dedicated local antiquarian. In 1900 he left the Cambridge Antiquarian Society to form his own group, the Cambs and Hunts Archaeological Society. Splitter!

A desk calendar showing January 2026, with an early 20th century black and white photo of a bald man with a grey beard. 'Tis Rev Charles Evelyn-White

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Alan Akeroyd @alanakeroyd.bsky.social · 24/12/2025

I've done very well in the work Secret Santa this year - this is the Official Huntingdonshire Archivists and Antiquarians Calendar 2026, only one of it has been printed, and it's for me! - I feel so honoured. Thank you to Esther and the team! We'll see who the pictures show as the months roll by 😀

The cover of a desk calendar. It shows an architectural drawing of a British School in Huntingdon, early 20th century. Originally built in the late 1820s as a nonconformist chapel this building was the home of County Record Office Huntingdon (now called Huntingdonshire Archives) between 1974 and 2009. The building still exists and has been converted into a set of small flats, and is called The Old Records House. Actually it occurs to me right now that the real building must be coming up to its 200th birthday.

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Alan Akeroyd @alanakeroyd.bsky.social · 04/11/2025

Cambridgeshire Archive Assistants Yaye and Jayne at the IHR History Fair today #cambridgeshirearchives #huntingdonshirearchives #HistDay25

Yaye and Jayne standing in front of the 'Welcome to Cambridgeshire Archives' pop-up banner

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Alan Akeroyd @alanakeroyd.bsky.social · 10/10/2025

#cambridgeshirearchives is being spruced up! - Property colleagues will be doing various jobs around the building over the next few weeks. The scaffolding you can see here is so they can reach into the roof gutters and clean them all out.

Workers' barriers outside the archive building on a sunny morning

Scaffolding around the archive building entrance

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Alan Akeroyd @alanakeroyd.bsky.social · 08/10/2025

Today was my turn in the bake off! - I made some lemon tarts, using a 1950s recipe from the Chivers collection. "Bake in a moderate oven" was all it said, so the baking time was complete guesswork. The team have all been very kind and said how much they liked them 😀 #bakeoff #cambridgeshirearchives

The tarts on a baking tray about to go into the oven

Ingredients all lined up before starting

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Alan Akeroyd @alanakeroyd.bsky.social · 03/10/2025

Had a great time at Cambridge University Library on Wednesday afternoon - I was being an actual researcher (!) consulting the 1662 court records for the Isle of Ely. Huge thank you to the very kind and lovely staff of the @theul.bsky.social manuscripts reading room

Isle of Ely recognisances, 1662. A bundle of thin parchment strips tied at one end. They are written in Latin

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Alan Akeroyd @alanakeroyd.bsky.social · 05/09/2025

This is a slightly strange title to see on the cover of a document. Don't Look Within would be even more tempting

The cover of an early 20th Cambridgeshire Constabulary licensing and general info register, held at Cambridgeshire Archives. The cover says LOOK WITHIN in gold leaf letters on a black background. Document reference K1360/OC/4/7

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Alan Akeroyd @alanakeroyd.bsky.social · 31/07/2025

#randomdocument 20: "Bennet is punish’t Sixpence for pocketing the Cucumber & one Shilling for Blotting the Book." Always nice to see justice done for cucumber pocketing. From the Society of Cambridge Youths account book for 1764 #cambridgeshirearchives

A large and indeed rather deliberate-looking ink splot all across an 18th century account book page. From the Society of Cambridge Youths account book, reference CA 2675/2/1. The Society was formed in 1724 to ring the bells of Great St Mary's church in Cambridge; they still exist today.

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Alan Akeroyd @alanakeroyd.bsky.social · 17/07/2025

Cambridgeshire Archives scanning bureau specialises in the digitisation of historical documents. Here's our photographer Soo at work! Prices start at £8.90 for a single item up to A3 size. A link to our prices: www.cambridgeshire.gov.uk/residents/li... #cambridgeshirearchives

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Alan Akeroyd @alanakeroyd.bsky.social · 11/06/2025

#randomdocument 19: St Ives cattle market 1886. Occasionally cattle would force their way through front doors and run upstairs, sometimes even breaking windows to fall to the street below. This photo is a favourite; it was once used in an episode of Sapphire and Steel #huntingdonshirearchives

St Ives cattle market, Huntingdonshire. The town's Broadway is filled with livestock and some surprisingly well dressed men, considering that they are surrounded by literally hundreds of cows. The buildings on either side are banks and shops, and in the distance is the spire of the parish church. (Doc ref HA PH68/14).

A close-up of some of the people at the Cattle Market. They are wearing bowler hats, waistcoats and smart coats, and are carrying canes. (Doc ref PH68/14 part)

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Alan Akeroyd @alanakeroyd.bsky.social · 02/06/2025

The longest lasting of the original gang of Cambridgeshire County Council committees was the Cromwell Museum Management Committee which survived, unchanged in both name and remit, for 43 years until 2016. That's nearly four times longer than the Interregnum itself @cromwellmuseum.bsky.social ‬

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Alan Akeroyd @alanakeroyd.bsky.social · 02/06/2025

On Friday I attended a meeting of our stakeholder group, the County Advisory Group on Archives and Local Studies, at the old Bishops Palace in Ely. CAGALS is the only one of the 1973 gang of Cambridgeshire County Council committees to survive in something like its original form. More or less. Ish.

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Alan Akeroyd @alanakeroyd.bsky.social · 23/05/2025

All done now! - I have finished writing the guide to the committees and sub-committees of all 13 Cambridgeshire County Council administrations from 1974 up to 2025. Now I can just sit back and wait for the bids to roll in for the movie rights

Pages from the guide to CCC's committee history, in a nice ring binder

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Alan Akeroyd @alanakeroyd.bsky.social · 21/05/2025

The new ‪ARA Journal has arrived and what an international issue it is too, with articles on subjects touching Oman, France, Poland, the Philippines and the Yellow River Basin @araukie.bsky.social #archives

The cover of the Journal of the Archives and Records Association vol 46 issue 1. And a bit of my X Files coffee mug

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Alan Akeroyd @alanakeroyd.bsky.social · 14/05/2025

Will you be in Huntingdon on Saturday? Join us at 1.00 for a talk on the photographic firm of Maddison & Hinde, established in the 1850s, then view a selection of photos from the collection. Free! Booking details here www.library.live/calendar/loc...

A studio portrait showing four generations of the Tysoe family, consisting of three men and one child. The photograph is listed in the Maddison & Hinde order book, and can thus be dated to 1898. David Cozens, in his book "Huntingdon A Pictorial History" believed the family may have lived in Hartford Road, Huntingdon. Doc ref HA WH2/70

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Alan Akeroyd @alanakeroyd.bsky.social · 06/05/2025

Thoughts on archive locations /3. Over time the shelf locations started to be quoted by researchers when referring to the items themselves. This can sometimes 'lock in' a location number as a doc ref number forever, and any future listing has to take account of it, as at Ely #archivelocationsystems

A catalogue entry for the same document as before, the Archdeacon's visitation book, but this time listed to item level. Dorothy Owen in 1971 had to allocate F/5/34 because researchers had already started quoting F5 when referring to the item. Owen wrote: "Gibbons' numbers, which have been quoted by many scholars, have been retained, with amplifications where necessary" (page x in Owen's 'Ely Records,' 1971). So what began as just a shelf number in the 1890s became embedded in the permanent reference number of the document. The document itself is today no longer on F5 in Bishop Alcock's Tower at Ely; it is instead in a bay at Cambridge University Library.

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Alan Akeroyd @alanakeroyd.bsky.social · 06/05/2025

Thoughts on archive locations /2. When collections became too large for "it's by the door" to be helpful, shelves had to be numbered. So in Ely diocese the Archdeacon's 1574-1624 visitation book was placed on shelf F5. The 1891 catalogue simply listed items in shelf order. #archivelocationsystems

A page from A. Gibbons 'Ely Episcopal Records' of 1891, showing part of shelf F5.

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Alan Akeroyd @alanakeroyd.bsky.social · 01/05/2025

It's May Day! Here's an illustration of May Day celebrations in the Cambridgeshire village of Whittlesford in 1876, from the scrapbooks of George Nathan Maynard (1828-1904) #cambridgeshirearchives #mayday

A hand-coloured print of children dancing in a village. Document reference CA R58/5/7 page 118 part

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Alan Akeroyd @alanakeroyd.bsky.social · 24/04/2025

Pressed flowers from the Vatican's garden. These were preserved in Stella Barnes's detailed and very interesting diaries of her stay in Rome in 1927, during which she briefly saw Pope Pius XI. #cambridgeshirearchives #vatican

Pages from Stella Barnes's travel diary, 1927. Document reference CA 685/11/2/3, volume 2.

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Alan Akeroyd @alanakeroyd.bsky.social · 22/04/2025

#randomdocument 18: a tracing made in 1860 of one of William Palmer's 1656 plans of Soham and Fordham manor, showing the names of the people who held the right to farm each individual strip. #cambridgeshirearchives #manors #maps #mapsky #stripfields

A colourful tracing made in 1860 of a plan originally made in 1656. It shows the occupiers' names of individual strips. Document reference CA 107/PA.

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Alan Akeroyd @alanakeroyd.bsky.social · 04/04/2025

#randomdocument 17: I do like this technical drawing of a steam boiler. This plan was drawn up for Cambridge's sewage pumping station at the Riverside in 1923 #cambridgeshirearchives #steam #boilers

A wonderful technical drawing of a steam boiler from 1923 (document ref CA KCB/2/SE/1/4/3/33). I think the draftsman must have really liked boilers. It has been coloured with a dark blue wash that gives it a 3D look

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Alan Akeroyd @alanakeroyd.bsky.social · 03/04/2025

I had a look to see if we have any interesting documents about tariffs, but with no success. I found some dull ones though! Here's a 1904 letter from the Tariff Commission, requesting views on proposed corn and meat tariffs. Prior consultation about tariffs seems a radical idea these days #tariffs

A letter from the Tariff Commission to the Cambridgeshire and Isle of Ely Chamber of Agriculture in 1904, asking for a questionnaire to be circulated among farmers. The questionnaire itself is pages long and would have taken hours to complete. The Commissions was asking for views on proposed tariffs on agricultural produce. Commonwealth countries would be exempt from tariffs. Document reference CA 689/O.6 part.

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Alan Akeroyd @alanakeroyd.bsky.social · 02/04/2025

#randomdocument 16: the interior of the Overcote Ferry pub in Holywell near St Ives, Huntingdonshire, photographed about 1910. A bit dark and gloomy for modern tastes, no doubt. I prefer modern pubs 😀 #huntingdonshirearchives

A black and white photo of the interior of a pub, photographed in about 1910. Very grim and grubby it looks too. There is no one around. There is a grandfather clock in the corner, a fireplace by one wall, and two glasses on a table. Document ref HA PH46/1

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Alan Akeroyd @alanakeroyd.bsky.social · 25/03/2025

#randomdocument 15: Sir Henry Bishop's music for the Duke of Wellington's funeral march, 1852 (document ref R83/27). You can hear the music played on piano here www.youtube.com/watch?v=qbNS... #cambridgeshirearchives

The beginning of the the sheet music for the Duke of Wellington's funeral march. The document was printed in 1852 and it has yellowed significantly. There is a picture at the top showing 19th century British soldiers marching with drums.

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Alan Akeroyd @alanakeroyd.bsky.social · 11/03/2025

Hey I'm being followed by the Association of Drainage Authorities! @floodandwater.bsky.social - am so chuffed. Here's an extract from Richard Robinson's 1758 map of the part of the South Level of the Cambridgeshire fens, showing all the drainage ditches around Coveney. #cambridgeshirearchives

A 1758 map of the drainage ditches around the village of Coveney, part of the South Level. The entire fenland area was originally drained in the 17th century by the Bedford Level Corporation (named after the Earl of Bedford who had stumped up a lot of the capital). It was split into three drainage areas, called the North, Middle and South Levels. The North Level's drainage was in a dire state by the 18th century and in 1754 a separate group of commissioners was set up to take it over from the Bedford Level. Similarly a Middle Level commission was set up in 1810, which meant that the South Level was then the only remaining bit of the fens still under Bedford Level control. Everything was swept aside in 1920 with the establishment of the Ouse Drainage Board.

The cartouche of Richard Robinson's map of the eastern part of the South Level. Document reference CA R59/31/40/83

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Alan Akeroyd @alanakeroyd.bsky.social · 28/02/2025

More cardboard! When the plans were being finalised for our Ely building, nearly a decade ago, I made a cardboard model for the team so that they could visualise what our new archive centre would look like. #cambridgeshirearchives

Alan's cardboard model of what our Ely building would look like. I made this in about 2016 or so. The flowchart on the wall behind it was my chart of dependencies for the project

A model of our water tank for the sprinkler system. No bombing!

It appears that at some point our office Triceratops was in the model too. Very lifelike. Mr Triceratops is still here today, on the shelf next to my desk. We gave him his very own barcode for the move, A0042557

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Alan Akeroyd @alanakeroyd.bsky.social · 27/02/2025

A detail from the will of Olaudah Equiano, beginning "I Gustavus Vassa." Vassa was the name imposed on him as a slave by Lt Pascal of the Royal Navy. The original will is on display at the Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge until June, so see it if you can! fitzmuseum.cam.ac.uk/plan-your-vi...

"I Gustavus Vassa" from Olaudah Equiano's will of 1797 (document ref CA 132/B10). The line above shows the first few letters of "In the name of God Amen."

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Alan Akeroyd @alanakeroyd.bsky.social · 17/02/2025

The charter's discoverers were bank clerk Philip Dickinson and a clerk at the solicitors called Mr Dyer. Here's an extract from the Hunts Post newspaper giving some details about the find. Dickinson later became a noted local historian and the borough's honorary archivist.

Newspaper cuttings talking about the 1941 discovery.

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Alan Akeroyd @alanakeroyd.bsky.social · 17/02/2025

The solicitors firm where it was discovered is long gone, and the building itself was demolished to make way for Huntingdon's ring road in the 1960s. Here's a modern photo showing where the charter was found.

A yellow circle on a modern photo, showing the location of the underground room where the 1205 charter was discovered in 1941.

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Alan Akeroyd @alanakeroyd.bsky.social · 17/02/2025

#randomdocument 14: Huntingdon's borough charter of 1205. This was long thought to be lost but it was found alongside many other town charters and records in a solicitors basement in 1941. The charter was in 2 pieces: you can see the vertical tear. More info in the replies! #huntingdonshirearchives

The 1205 charter. Originally there was a royal seal of King John at the bottom but that had been removed at some point in its history, and so the charter was discovered seal-less in 1941. (Document reference HB1/1/1)

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Alan Akeroyd @alanakeroyd.bsky.social · 11/02/2025

A detail extract from Soo's photograph.

An extract showing the village centre and the names of the owners of the properties.

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Alan Akeroyd @alanakeroyd.bsky.social · 11/02/2025

Our in-house archives photographer Soo has just finished creating this digital image of a 200 year old inclosure map. It is made up of 16 smaller photographs digitally stitched together. I'll put a detail in a reply. Awesome work. The original map is nearly eight feet long #cambridgeshirearchives

An inclosure map from 1803. Always nice to see a map that is a strange shape. It is noticeably smaller at the top (the north east end of the parish) than at the bottom, to match the shape of the parish itself.

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Alan Akeroyd @alanakeroyd.bsky.social · 11/02/2025

#randomdocument 13. A photo of German prisoners of war outside Warboys church in 1946. One of the POWs was pastor Kurt Schroeder of Westphalia, and in October 1946 he led a joint service at Warboys church with Rev Nelson Trafford the local rector. Doc ref HA HP91/30/2 #huntingdonshirearchives

Black and white photograph of German POWs outside the door of Warboys parish church. The POWs were held in a camp near the village, and they carried out agricultural work. Repatriation of German POWs did not begin until September 1946, well over a year after the end of the war in Europe; the final German POWs were not returned until 1948.

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Alan Akeroyd @alanakeroyd.bsky.social · 07/02/2025

Because we do not already have one, I am writing a history of every Cambridgeshire County Council administration from 1973 to today in terms of what committees they set up or dissolved. Am up to 1989. It will be by far the single most boring document ever written, and I am thoroughly enjoying it

An extract from Alan's history of CCC committees. A work in progress

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Alan Akeroyd @alanakeroyd.bsky.social · 03/02/2025

More cardboard! This is the 4th Huntingdon record office, a former noncon chapel. We were here 1974 to 2009. I made this model a while ago to show new members of the team how we used to live. The building's now been converted to flats and is called The Old Records House 😀 #huntingdonshirearchives

Alan's cardboard model of the Grammar School Walk record office, all labelled up. The toilet was shared between staff, searchers and a big spider, I mean it was huge, and our colleagues at the Cromwell Museum used to pop in and use it too because they had no toilet at all. It's clear that toilets were never really a priority in Huntingdonshire in the old days. Probably they were seen as high-falutin' namby pamby things.

Grammar School Walk record office, before 2009.

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Alan Akeroyd @alanakeroyd.bsky.social · 31/01/2025

#randomdocument 12. A photo that we accessioned just last week, showing members of the Histon and Impington village cycle club in 1908. What a grim lot they look too. None of their bicycles appears to have any brakes. But they do have a gun. Doc ref CA R125/005 part #cambridgeshirearchives #cycling

The members of Histon and Impington Village Cycle Club line up for the start of race, August 1908. A black and white photo showing five very serious cyclists head-on, their cycles held up by assistants. A man standing behind them is holding up a gun which looks worryingly like a real revolver rather than a starter's pistol. That's 1908 for you.

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Alan Akeroyd @alanakeroyd.bsky.social · 28/01/2025

More cardboard! Back in 2010 there was a bit-of-a-long-shot proposal to convert a 1980s L-shaped office block into the new Cambs RO. I made a cardboard model to see if it was feasible. Here's the first floor; the ground floor would have been storage. Much smaller than Ely #cambridgeshirearchives

Alan's cardboard model from 2010 of a proposed new Cambs Archives building. This is the first floor bit. Not impossible, but a bit incoherent. Not as large as what we have now at Ely and not as nice either. The proposal was eventually dropped on cost grounds.

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Alan Akeroyd @alanakeroyd.bsky.social · 27/01/2025

The original pedigree used to be on display in Hinchingbrooke School in Huntingdon. Here's a photo of it being taken down in 2007. The school has replaced it with a copy made by our archives digitisation team. Document ref HA 5170 #huntingdonshirearchives #cambridgeshirearchives

Taking the Cromwell pedigree down from the wall in 2007. The photo shows archive and Cromwell Museum staff wearing gloves and trying not to drop it

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Alan Akeroyd @alanakeroyd.bsky.social · 27/01/2025

#randomdocument 11. An extract from a 1602 pedigree of the Cromwell family, showing Owain Glyndŵr as part of their ancestry. Oliver Cromwell, who would later also take up arms against the monarch, was only three years old when this pedigree was made. #huntingdonshirearchives #owenglendower #wales

Owain Glyndŵr's entry on the Cromwell pedigree of 1602. The entry includes a potted biography of him. "He was afterwards dryven to great extremytie and was for wante of foode in the end myserably famished in the Mountayns in the 10 yeare of H4." Doc ref HA 5170.

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Alan Akeroyd @alanakeroyd.bsky.social · 24/01/2025

Two photos of the same manorial court roll, one taken before conservation, the other afterwards. I am in awe of what archive conservators can do #conservation #cambridgeshirearchives

A manorial court roll at Cambridgeshire Archives. The top photo shows how it looked before it hit the conservation studio, which was very manky indeed; the bottom photo shows the same document afterwards, still fragile of course but now legible

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Alan Akeroyd @alanakeroyd.bsky.social · 22/01/2025

ooh the new ARA Journal has arrived. Looking forward to reading this #ara #archivesandrecords

Cover of the Journal of the Archives and Records Association vol 45 issue 3. In my hand.

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Alan Akeroyd @alanakeroyd.bsky.social · 22/01/2025

#randomdocument 10: Cornelius Vermuyden's signature on his contract to drain the Fens, 1650. In return he received £1K and 4K acres of land. All done by 1652, but the legal position suddenly became unclear in 1660 because all the contracts had been made under Cromwell. #cambridgeshirearchives

Cornelius Vermuyden's signature and seal, on the contract he made with the Bedford Level Corporation. He was paid £1,000, about £183,000 in today's money. From document R59/31/X/51/1.

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