Northamptonshire Studies Collection

Northamptonshire Central Library
Abington Street
Northampton
Northamptonshire
NN1 2BA

Fax: (01604) 264055
Minicom: (01604) 462040

Enquiries by telephone, letter or personal visit

Access:

The library has disabled access

Reading Aids available:

Reading Edge Machine
Closed Circuit TV (CCTV)
Eezee Reader
Desktop Magnifier
Handheld Magnifier

The Northamptonshire Studies Collection is the county's main collection of material on the history of Northamptonshire, comprising books, pamphlets, maps, photographs, illustrations, parish registers and census records. Specialist materials include:

John Clare Collection:

Original manuscripts of Clare's work (also available on microfilm), the library of books owned by Clare and books written about him. Access to the manuscripts is by application only, to the above address.

 Sir Henry Dryden Collection:

Drawings and plans of buildings in Northamptonshire, other counties in the UK and Europe by Sir Henry Dryden of Canons Ashby (also available on microfilm).

Maps and Geographic Information System (GIS):

Historic maps of Northamptonshire (from 1576) and Northampton (from 1610), plus Ordnance Survey sheet maps in various scales and editions.
Current large scale OS maps (1:2500 / 1: 1250) are available on CD-Rom from which customised hard copy maps can be produced for a small charge.

Newspapers:

Northampton Mercury (from 1720), Chronicle and Echo (from 1931) and the Northampton Independent (from 1905) are among the local newspapers, many of which are available on microfilm.

Leather and Footwear:

An historic collection on the economics and history of the leather and footwear industry worldwide and locally, containing books, pamphlets, journals, theses, patents, market research reports, surveys and statistics.

Census and Parish Registers:

Printed census volumes are available from 1801 to date, and on microfilm from 1851 to 1891. Parish Registers for the county are available on microfiche.

Illustrations and Portraits:

Over 8000 prints and engravings of scenes from across the county and a collection of 1500 historic portraits of notable Northamptonshire families and individuals.