Service History

The history of Berkshire Record Office

In 1939 Berkshire County Council established a County Records Committee to consider how to look after the many official and private records that were being stored in the Clerk’s strongrooms in the old Shire Hall in the Forbury, Reading. The Clerk of the Council, Mr Neobard, was keen to employ an archivist. 20 shire counties had already established a County Record Office and Mr Neobard wanted Berkshire to be next. Although the Committee agreed to appoint an archivist from the start of the next financial year, war intervened and it was eventually in August 1948 that Felix Hull started work as first County Archivist. His temporary Record Office was in the caretaker’s flat in the basement of the old Shire Hall in the Forbury.