Alan Akeroyd
@alanakeroyd.bsky.social
Archivist. Interests include archive theory, store location systems and the history of local government in Cambridgeshire and Huntingdonshire. Archives Manager for Cambridgeshire County Council, UK. Views expressed are my own.
Cambridgeshire Archive Assistants Yaye and Jayne at the IHR History Fair today #cambridgeshirearchives #huntingdonshirearchives #HistDay25
November 4, 2025 at 12:28 PM
Cambridgeshire Archive Assistants Yaye and Jayne at the IHR History Fair today #cambridgeshirearchives #huntingdonshirearchives #HistDay25
#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.
October 10, 2025 at 10:41 AM
#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.
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
October 8, 2025 at 1:48 PM
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
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
October 3, 2025 at 2:26 PM
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
This is a slightly strange title to see on the cover of a document. Don't Look Within would be even more tempting
September 5, 2025 at 1:56 PM
This is a slightly strange title to see on the cover of a document. Don't Look Within would be even more tempting
#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
July 31, 2025 at 10:46 AM
#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
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
#cambridgeshirearchives
July 17, 2025 at 11:19 AM
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
#cambridgeshirearchives
#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
June 11, 2025 at 11:37 AM
#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
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
June 2, 2025 at 11:05 AM
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
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.
June 2, 2025 at 10:47 AM
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.
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
May 23, 2025 at 2:57 PM
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
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
May 21, 2025 at 11:45 AM
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
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...
May 14, 2025 at 9:56 AM
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...
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
May 6, 2025 at 11:41 AM
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
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
May 6, 2025 at 11:27 AM
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
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
May 1, 2025 at 11:18 AM
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
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
April 24, 2025 at 9:54 AM
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
#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
April 22, 2025 at 9:41 AM
#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
#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
April 4, 2025 at 11:24 AM
#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
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
April 3, 2025 at 8:52 AM
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
#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
April 2, 2025 at 3:02 PM
#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
#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
March 25, 2025 at 11:10 AM
#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
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
March 11, 2025 at 11:57 AM
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
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
February 28, 2025 at 9:31 AM
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
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...
February 27, 2025 at 12:04 PM
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...