Manorial Documents Register | Welcome. Nottinghamshire's medieval records published online. 23 June 2011Last updated at 09:46 Document showing a map of the manor of Eakring, Nottinghamshire, 1604 A register of medieval court rolls, surveys and maps, has been released online for the first time. Information about 200 Nottinghamshire manors is accessible to the public thanks to the county council's archives team. "Manorial documents are the earliest records for any local community," said archivist Mark Dorrington. The register, with documents dating back to the 13th century, was funded by The National Archives. Manors were agricultural estates compromising a village whose inhabitants would work the land for the estate's lord.
The manorial documents, which pre-date Parish records started in 1538, include such details as the hanging of a thief, men accused of sheep theft and a fight in 14th century Mansfield. "We've got documents dating back to the 13th century and with some manors they continue right up until the 20th century," said Mr Dorrington. Dickens's Refuge for Fallen Women John Bowen TLS. History.
British Library makes Google search deal. 20 June 2011Last updated at 12:02 The British Library receives more than one million visitors a year Thousands of pages from one of the world's biggest collections of historic books, pamphlets and periodicals are to be made available on the internet. The British Library has reached a deal with search engine Google about 250,000 texts dating back to the 18th Century.
It will allow readers to view, search and copy the out-of-copyright works at no charge on both the library and Google books websites. The library gets more than a million visitors a year. The works selected to be digitised date from between 1700 and 1870, and the project will take some years to complete, with Google covering the costs of digitising. Among the first works to go online are a pamphlet about French Queen Marie Antoinette and Spanish inventor Narciso Monturiol's 1858 plans for one of the world's first submarines.
Google has similar partnerships with about 40 libraries around the world.