Cumbria Archives Newsletters
The Cumbria Archives newsletter highlights new research, archive discoveries, cataloguing and conservation projects, service developments and events from across Cumbria's archive centres.
Current and previous editions are available to download below.
Current and previous editions are available to download below.
Summer 2026
- Marks the relocation of Kendal Archives from County Offices, reflecting on the history of the building and plans for future archive provision in Kendal.
- Features a major article on pauper letters and the nationally significant Kirkby Lonsdale collection, exploring what these remarkable documents reveal about poverty, literacy and everyday life under the Old Poor Law.
- Includes archive centre updates, conservation and digitisation projects, volunteer contributions, local history research, and the story of Basque refugee child Carmen Cid Santibañez.
Download Summer 2026 Newsletter (PDF, 3.5MB)
Winter 2025/26
- A special edition marking the retirement of Peter Eyre, reflecting on more than thirty years of change and achievement across Cumbria's archive service.
- Features articles on Cumbria's musical heritage, the Thomas H. Mawson archive, the Victoria County History project, railway women, oral history and local history publishing.
- Includes updates from Barrow, Carlisle, Kendal and Whitehaven, conservation and digitisation projects, archive discoveries, volunteer activities and community partnerships.
Download Winter 2025/26 Newsletter (PDF, 6.1MB)
Spring 2025
- Highlights new research into Lady Anne Clifford's Great Books of Record, including the intriguing possibility of a previously unknown fourth set.
- Explores diverse stories from the collections, including seventeenth-century global trade links revealed through a Westmorland farmhouse archive, the Brampton Basque children, local history research and landscape conservation.
- Features archive centre updates, conservation and digitisation work, news of the Cumbria Archives website relaunch, and the acquisition of the nationally important Curwen estate archive.