| Administrative History | The origins of Derbyshire Record Office can be traced to the establishment of Derbyshire County Council in 1889 when the new authority inherited the records of the County Quarter Sessions and began to make enquiries about other historic records that were directly relevant to some of their operational responsibilities, such as the records of the former Turnpike Trusts. In 1922, the council accepted the first deposit of a private archive collection, which was brokered by the Manuscripts Department of the British Museum. A small number of other collections were accepted during the interwar years, and it is the efforts of the County Librarian, Edgar Osborne that are most noteworthy at this time. In the early 1940s his enquiries would ultimately lead to the county council being appointed a designated repository for manorial documents.
In 1949, John Robshaw Wild was appointed to the specific new position of Records Clerk and he instituted some of the archival practices that continue into the 21st century, such as a register of new accessions and answering enquiries. He also arranged for some repair work to be undertaken and although no firm evidence survives it is probable that he undertook at least some basic listing work to describe material in the collections. When the county hall relocated to the former Smedley's Hydro at Matlock from St Mary's Gate in Derby, the 'county records department' was relocated too (although the records stores in Derby, built in 1910, continued to be used by the record office until 2013). By the late 1950s, the service was known as the 'Derbyshire County Record Office' or sometimes just 'Derbyshire Record Office'.
The first County Archivist, Miss Joan Sinar (1925-1915), began in April 1962, and this is the date the record office is Traditionally considered to have been established, though this is a matter for debate. The county council was appointed ts a designated repository for public records in 1961, and as the Derby Diocesan Record Office in April 1969. Ever increasing pressure for storage and visitor space ultimately led to the relocation, in 1988, of the record office from County Hall to the former Ernest Bailey Grammar School on New Street, a short distance away. Miss Sinar retired shortly before the official re-opening of the service in its new home, and was succeeded by Dr Margaret O'Sullivan.
Following the creation of Derby City Council as a unitary authority in 1997, the record office was appointed by the new city council to run their archives service which had first been established in the 1920s by the predecessor of what became the Derby Local Studies Library (now Derby Local Studies and Family History Library). Between 2011 and 2013, a £4 million capital project saw the building of a new storage extension at the New Street site, refurbishment of the public areas, including an extension into the former Wyvern House Hydro, and the merger of the archives service with the county local studies library. The local studies library had been based at County Hall since 1970, having previously been at the Matlock Regional Library and before that at the Library Headquarters in Derby. It was first established by Edgar Osborne (see above) as the 'Local Collection', particularly from 1928. |