History of the Archive
Although the cathedral archive dates from the 12th century nothing is known about where or how the archives were kept before the cathedral’s earliest written statutes, c.1250. These stipulated that the Chancellor compose and prepare the documents while the Treasurer was to keep the Dean and Chapter seal in a triple locked chest. Chests were the usual medieval storage for archives and there are early references to documents being stored in little boxes within a sealed chest in the chapter room and a ‘great chest’ which housed the most important archives until the mid nineteenth century.
Bishop Aigueblanche’s rebuilding of the North Transept, completed by 1268, provided a chamber above its east aisle which was probably intended to house the archives. It was certainly used for this purpose after the reformation when it was referred to as the upper archives room to distinguish it from the lower archives in the chapter house or treasury where the most precious cathedral archives such as royal charters, statutes and chapter act books were stored. The survival of fairly complete series of all types of cathedral accounts from the 1270s suggests that archives were being more systematically kept and probably housed in this new muniment room.
The post reformation statutes of 1583 created the office of keeper of the archives to be appointed from one of the canons residentiary with responsibility for looking after the archives and for arranging them in ‘separate cells’. Some time in the seventeenth century the first of two great presses each consisting of 40 large cupboards was constructed for the archives and placed in the upper archives room. These may have been made at the same time as the large bookcases were being provided for the library by Thomas Thornton. The cupboards continued to be used for storage of archives until 1996.
In 1649 as a result of the Act of Parliament dissolving cathedral administrations all cathedral archives were transferred to a central registry in London. After the restoration of the monarchy in 1660, the cathedral chapter was re-instated and the archives returned. Considerable effort was made to recover archives which had gone missing. However the disruption of the civil war and the times resulted in a loss of the archive record; chapter acts and cathedral accounts are very scant from 1620s.
As part of the recovery the first archive catalogue was compiled in 1665 listing the contents of the cupboards only 20 of which were in use. Throughout the eighteenth century successive keepers of the archives were active in the ordered keeping and care of the archive. By 1722 the first range of cupboards was full and the second range in use.
In 1855 the library was moved into the muniment room over the North transept. This eventually resulted in the archives being moved, in 1869, to the tower room above the east aisle of the cloister.
During the Second World War the medieval archives were transferred to the National Library of Wales in 1943. Whilst there the 4,500 items were catalogued and eventually returned in 1955. By this time a Pilgrim Trust report had found the tower room unsuitable for archive storage and the archives had been transferred to the lower Dean Leigh Library. The archives remained here until 1996 when they were re-housed in a climate controlled strongroom in the New Library Building.
For a more detailed account see ‘Hereford Cathedral: A History’edited by Gerald Aylmer and John Tiller, London, The Hambledon Press,2000, Chapter 30 The Archives, Brian Smith