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Article: Miles of history on the move
- Article from:
- The Independent (London, England)
- Article date:
- March 20, 1994
- Author:
CopyrightCopyright 1994 The Independent - London. Provided by ProQuest LLC. (Hide copyright information)
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MEASURING our progress in mileage can be awe-inspiring. For
example, there are 93 miles of shelves at the Public Record Office
which hold 908 years of our history, starting with the Domesday
Book, the survey of England commissioned by William the Conqueror
in 1066 and completed in 1086.
These public records - "documenting the history of a medieval
kingdom, a world-wide empire and an emerging welfare state" - are
virtually unbroken from the 11th century to the present, according
to The Nation's Memory, an illustrated guide to the PRO.
Yet it was only in 1838 that proper care of the records began.
In earlier times retention of papers or parchment tended to be
fairly haphazard, with invaluable ...