17 March 2020: TNA closed until further notice & Free access to Digitised Records

An important message from our Chief Executive


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An important message from our Chief Executive

We have made the decision to close The National Archives to the public from 19:00 today (Tuesday 17 March) until further notice. In a time of national effort, it is important that we play our part: by protecting what is valuable, maintaining what is essential and by working flexibly to carry out our duties in new ways.

All scheduled events have been cancelled until at least the end of May. This is in response to the latest government advice to combat the coronavirus pandemic.

We have teams who are working hard to ensure that our records and our site here at Kew are both secure and safe for the duration of our closure.

I want to take this opportunity at this unprecedented time to thank you for your support and loyalty to The National Archives as we maintain and preserve the public records for generations to come.

Best wishes,

Jeff James
Chief Executive and Keeper of The National Archives

Stay in touch with us


While we are advised to stay at home, it is more important than ever that we remain connected with each other.

We will continue to post updates on our website and also via email and social media, so make sure you stay subscribed and continue to follow us on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.

We will be sharing some of our top boredom busters with you over the coming weeks so stay tuned!

In the meantime, these online services might keep you occupied:

• Discovery, our online catalogue and home of our collections
• Research guides
• Blogs
• Podcasts
• Learning resources
• Online exhibitions

The National Archives, Kew, Surrey, TW9 4DU, UK. Tel: +44 (0) 20 8876 3444



All content is available under the Open Government Licence v3.0 except where stated otherwise.

 

Seems to have been inevitable.

 

It's the very inevitability of this all that bemuses me.

And, I know it's simplistic but surely if folks feel unwell, and sensibly stay at home, then we'll be through this and out the better side sooner rather than later. In the meantime, surely folks who are well should not be discouraged from going around their usual business.

I, whilst fit and healthy, am determined not to be confined to quarters (which would ultimately be to the detriment of my health!).

Kind regards, always,

Jim.

 

Me too Jim. Today I had all 25 acres of my workplace to myself. Perfect isolation indeed.

Steve

 

The problem is that folks can be infected and become spreaders well before the time that they feel ill and can be a detriment to other people's health

 

I have visited the county town of Somerset today, an old stomping ground (not necessarily a place for old stompers!). It is a ghost town compared with memory.

The town centre hostelry I was ensconced in had as it's only customer for many an hour me (then again, I may have been the reason they only had one customer!)

It is hard to comprehend, but I shudder to think what those of our greatest generation would think of it all.

Kind regards, always,

Jim.

 

The problem with this particular bug is that it can take a long time (up to 2 weeks) before people feel symptoms, and they can be infectious during that time.

 

If this is of any use, TNA posted this earlier on Twitter:

 

Thanks for the update.

 

Excellent, a few more Squadron ORBS to download at my leisure!

 

Good to see you might benefit, I'll have to think where I can grab something from.

 

Maybe not 'at leisure' - they could withdraw them at any time!

 

What record sets do they have that will be of interest to members on here? in the past I have got RAF Operation Record Books, Air Combat Reports & Medal Citations and I'll have a good trawl to get as many as I can that I've missed, but looking for suggestions of what else could be of interest

Cheers

 

Here are the online records and I've selected Armed Forces type ones, so I guess these are the ones that will be of most interest to us

Research guides - The National Archives

 

These would be handy.

Minutes of the Chiefs of Staff Committee.

They are digitised, but they're currently charged for (after the initial index, which is free).

Browse records of other archives | The National Archives

 

Well from that list, I'm definitely interested in these:

RAF Combat Reports 1939-45:
Royal Air Force combat reports 1939-1945 - The National Archives

 

I think I might have found a family document amongst the list.

 

Not much I know, but thanks to Alistair's post, I stumbled upon my uncle's Home Guard enrolment certificate:

 

I'll take credit where credit isn't due I'm glad its helped, fingers crossed members find more interesting things and we see it feeding through into threads on here

I'm guessing you paid the £3.50 for this - it doesn't look like free access has started yet

 

Yes, paid up Alistair. Happy to really, not often I find anything fro this side of the family. It was only the fact that it was a Durham archive that I even browsed through, so I wouldn't have looked if you had not posted the list.