A £37,000 grant will help preserve historic archives from one of Wakefield’s most cherished heritage landmarks.
Bosses at West Yorkshire Archive Service announced they have been handed the cash windfall by the National Cataloguing Grants Fund.
The money will allow them to complete and improve the catalogue of archives of the Winn family, Barons St Oswald of Nostell Priory, which was named a Treasure of the Archives in a public vote held in the area last year.
The collection includes information about the involvement of the Winn family and their architects and craftsmen in the building, furnishing and management of the house and its estate.
Historic Nostell Priory features plasterwork interiors by Robert Adam and James Paine, and has a collection of Chippendale furniture, made specifically for the house 1766-1776.
The collection at the archives still holds bills and letters relating to Adam, Paine and Chippendale. It also features manorial records from 1605 to 1745, and estate records dating as far back as 1215, when King John confirmed an earlier grant of Nostell to the Priory of St Oswald.
Graham Hebblethwaite, Chief Officer of West Yorkshire Joint Services, which oversees the work of the Archive Service, said: “The award of this grant could not have come at a better time. We are currently developing proposals, with the help of the Heritage Lottery Fund, to create a new state of the art archive facility to replace the Registry of Deeds in Wakefield.
“If we are successful, the Nostell Priory archives will be one of the most important collections held in the new facility.”
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