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.

Methodist Registersfrom a number of chapels within the Doncaster circuit were deposited with the Archives in October 2007. Baptism registers from Wadworth 1899-1995, Braithwell 1884-1992, Dunscroft 1951-1966, Stainforth 1920-1971, and Doncaster Oxford Place and Hyde Park 1898-1974 are now available for viewing.

Doncaster & District Association for the Welfare of the Disabledhas in recent years been wound up and its functions have been taken over by other organizations. Its records – spanning the period from about 1900 up to 2003 - were brought to Doncaster Archives by one of the Association's officers in May.

The antiquarian, the late William Bunting, left an extensive body of material relating to his research into the history of Thorne, and documenting his own activities as a defender of Thorne Waste and surrounding areas against commercial exploitation. A large part of his archive was given initially to the Borthwick Institute for Archives at the University of York, but Doncaster Archives was seen as a more appropriate home for the collection, and the Bunting papers were transferred here in May 2007.

Sporting endeavour is represented by minutes, correspondence, handbooks and other records from the Doncaster and District Cricket League 1912-2005 and the Wheatley Hills Lawn Tennis Club 1935-2001.

Political life in Doncaster 1955-1966 is the subject of a scrapbook compiled by the late Councillor Kathleen Surfleet. This and her collections of election literature and correspondence with other local Conservatives 1951-1979 were acquired by the Archives in August.

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. These can now 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 by following the link to Planning from the home page of this website.

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. To this we can now (December 2007) add the indexes to the registers of deaths for the urban districts of Balby with Hexthorpe and Wheatley. The 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 'B'.