 The Secret World of Victorian Broadmoor
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From Tuesday 18 November, the Victorian archives of Broadmoor Hospital were made available for research for the first time.
At the same time, you can visit the Museum of Reading to see our Broadmoor exhibition, celebrating the completion of the first part of our Broadmoor project. View documents and artefacts never before seen by the public, in an exhibition that reveals the lives of the patients, doctors and other staff of Broadmoor Hospital. Explore daily life inside the asylum, and discover more about patients including William Chester Minor the 'Surgeon of Crowthorne', and Richard Dadd, murderer and celebrated artist.
For details of what is in the Broadmoor archive please contact BRO. Please note that only records for patients who died over 100 years ago are currently available for research.
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BRO is 60!
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The first BRO opened its doors on 10 August 1948. During the next year we will be celebrating this anniversary with a variety of events. The first of these will be a birthday tea on Tuesday 5 August for our funding partners. The first public event will be our regular behind-the-scenes tours for Heritage Open Days, on Saturday 13 September. Later on in the autumn we will have a 60th anniversary exhibition at the Record Office.
Join BRO throughout the next year to help celebrate 60 years of caring for and providing access to the county's unique written heritage, and look forward to the future.
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Manorial Documents Register online
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BRO's project to put lists of its manors and their records online is now complete. The register can be viewed at http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/mdr.
Manorial records are particularly useful for family history in the period before parish registers, as well as providing a rich source for information about local communities across the centuries.
Manors were landed estates where the landowner exercised some sort of legal control over his tenants. Berkshire had over 350 manors and records survive for around 265 of them.
This project was completed with generous help from The Marc Fitch Fund.
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Explore your family history
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Discover your family history or look into the history of where you live with a visit to the BRO.
Why not put your name down for one of the free BRO introductory visits.
Dates for 2009 are:
2 February 2009
20 April 2009
6 July 2009
5 October 2009
Places are limited to 10 people. Visits start at 2pm and last around an hour.
The aim is to provide a brief outline of what is available in BRO and to provide some guidance and advice in the use of sources in the searchroom.
If you would like to book a place on a visit, please ask at Reception, email arch@reading.gov.uk or call 0118 901 5132 to put your name down on the list.
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