Greater Manchester’s oldest surviving archive collection has been saved for posterity by Manchester City Council.
The Assheton of Middleton estate archive collection, purchased by Manchester City Council, will now have a permanent home in the Greater Manchester County Record Office at Manchester Central Library ensuring that people in Greater Manchester and beyond will continue to have access to this outstanding local history collection.
The archive sheds light on local life in the medieval and early modern era between Greater Manchester’s better-known Roman and industrial revolution stories.
It is an outstanding example of a medieval family archive with nationally important items relating to the English Civil War, the Middleton Bowmen, the Black Knight, and the royal court of the Plantagenets, as well as unique local history sources recording the local Middleton population.
The purchase of the 1400 items was made possible by generous funding support from The National Lottery Heritage Fund, The V&A Purchase Fund, the Friends of the National Libraries and Manchester Central Library Development Trust.
The collection contains some fascinating items including the earliest surviving written document, the 1197 Articles of Agreement which divided lands within the Assheton estate between Roger de Middleton and William de Radcliffe in the Greater Manchester area. It was witnessed by ‘Adam, parson of Middleton’ so it is also the earliest evidence of a church in Middleton.
The Heritage Fund grant, made possible by National Lottery players, will also allow Archives+ to invest in the collection, developing a programme of education and outreach activities aimed at schools and local communities in Middleton, Rochdale, and Manchester.
