Doncaster Council

Newly Available Archival Material

One of the roles of Doncaster Archives and Doncaster Local Studies Library is to acquire books and original documents, whether by gift, deposit, purchase, or transfer. Our intention is to use this page to promote the items that have recently been acquired by Doncaster Archives and to give a short description of their scope and content.

Details of items newly acquired by Doncaster Local Studies Library can be found by using the link shown in the left-hand column of this page.


Though additions to records of the parishes within the archdeaconry of Doncaster have been few the non-conformist churches of Doncaster and its hinterland have yielded up considerable quantities of material in recent months. More than twenty years' worth of Doncaster Methodist Circuit minutes are now in our custody, whilst Sprotbrough Methodist Church minutes spanning the period 1974-2004 have been added to the existing series. Minutes of the Doncaster Quakers' preparative meetings 1971-1997 have also been held here since October 2008. One noteworth addition from the established church is a grave register from Doncaster Christchurch, 1848-1987, discovered among inherited papers by a couple from Clydeside, who kindly donated the volume to us. 

The acquisition of a deed - a quitclaim by Roger of Thrybergh in favour of John of Wakefield - recording the conveyance of certain properties hereabouts adds to our knowledge of landholding in Balby, Wheatley and Doncaster in the mid fourteenth century. A glebe terrier of Marr - which is to say a valuation of property belonging to the vicarage of Marr - has also been acquired, and this was drawn up in 1770.

The photographer Gerald Green has deposited with us his extensive archives of photographic negatives and bookings diaries, covering a period from about 1953 to 2002. This remarkable body of material will have to remain unviewed for the time being until it has been cataglogued, but we are optimistic that work on this task will have been completed by the end of 2010.

Ernest Bayes's First World War diaries, deposited by his granddaughter, along with accompanying letters and postcards sent to his financée in Balby, are a rare survival. Written in France and Germany in 1917-1919, they are now rather too fragile to be produced for use in the reading room. Fortunately they come accompanied with accurate, later transcripts, which are suitable for viewing.  

Microfilm and microfiche copies of planning applications made to the Urban District Councils of Adwick, Bentley, Conisbrough, Mexborough, and Tickhill, and the Rural District Councils of Doncaster and Thorne, covering the period 1947-1974, were transferred to the Archives in the spring of 2007. These are now in the process of being catalogued and can be consulted at the Archives, but we would recommend that an appointment to view them be made, in order to ensure that one of our microfiche/microfilm readers is available. Prospective readers should note that applications to the County Borough of Doncaster for this period remain with the present Doncaster Council’s Planning Department, contact details for which can be found on the Planning pages.

New Catalogues and Indexes

Another role is to make the archives, whether newly acquired or already part of our holdings, as readily accessible as possible, by cataloguing and indexing. Items become available for use once this preparatory work has been completed.

Early in 2007 the index to the registerof deaths for the borough of Doncaster 1875-1939 was completed and made available for public use. In December 2007 were added the indexes to the registers of deaths for the urban districts of Balby with Hexthorpe and Wheatley. The medical officers of health for these two local authorities both began these registers in 1903 and continued to maintain them until 1914 when the two urban districts were absorbed into the Borough of Doncaster. These indexes have been printed and bound and placed in our reading room alongside the existing index for Doncaster.

The index to our holdings of maps and plans has been transferred from loose papers and been printed and bound for use in our reading room. This is a comprehensive index, arranged alphabetically, by place-name, to maps and plans in all catalogued collections held under our roof.
It is similar in that respect to the photograph index, which has been available in a printed version for more than five years. The photograph index has, however, gone one stage further: it is now available online, as Stage One of what will be an all-embracing Place-Name index to all of our catalogued archival material. Work on Stage Two, which will cover all other parts of our archive holdings, has reached the end of the letter 'K' (December 2008).