The Parish Registers of baptisms, marriages and burials are our most popular records, many of which date back to the 16th century. For ease of use and to help preserve the original registers transcripts have been prepared by volunteers of many of the registers, those that remain untranscribed can be requested from the archive staff. Photocopies can sometimes be made of post-1813 registers; some earlier registers have been microfilmed, from which copies can be made.

Those of you who have visited us to research your family or local history will have almost certainly consulted either the registers and they are a good starting-point for new visitors looking into family and local history.

Between the 16th and 19th centuries the parish was the main unit of local government with such diverse responsibilities as care for the poor, highway maintenance and the call up of men to the militia. The records of parish officers, such as the Overseers, Constables and Churchwardens are therefore also part of the parish collections. Settlement papers, for example, were created by the Overseers when someone moved into the parish. They are useful for tracing families and for building up a picture of migration patterns into a village. The changing face of your parish church can also be reconstructed through the church faculties, a type of planning permission for churches. The lists of these and other sources are now available on the A2A website for those interested in community, church and family history to search.