"Several years ago we asked the London Metropolitan Archives to do an inventory of all our registers and important documents as there are specific regulations under which these have to be stored - temperature, safety, fire risk, etc. The outcome was that they took a lot of past paperwork, minute books, etc. and the following registers:
• Baptisms 1864 - 1961
• Marriages 1864 - 1968
• Burials 1864 - 1948

These records are stored at LMA it Northampton Road, Clerkenwell and I took another Baptismal Register (1961 1976) a few weeks ago for storage. The LMA is literally round the corner from the Family Records Office in Myddleton Street and contains a tremendous amount of information about the London Area. The LMA is open every day including alternate Saturdays and they now have an e-mail address and a website as well as a telephone number 020 7332 3820.

One of the advantages of having the Registers at LMA is that they are now on microfilm which makes access so much easier.

The LMA produce a number of Fact Sheets to aid searches and whilst browsing through these I came across some very interesting information. Not only do they hold official records like ours but also lists of convicts transported from Middlesex; lists of deeds of properties up to 1938 and the evacuation of children during the Second World War.

They also have over 80 different hospital records including West Middlesex Hospital when it included the Workhouse Infirmary and the records of Normansfield Hospital in Teddington. Normansfield was established in 1868 by Dr John Langdon Down and his wife, Mary, as a private institution for the care and treatment of the mentally handicapped specialising in the education of children with learning difficulties. Normansfield was taken over by the NHS in 1951.

The LMA also holds records of Amateur Dramatic Societies one of which is the West Middlesex Hospital Players 1952 - 1960. For Normansfield Hospital they hold programmes and scores of the Genesta Amateur Dramatic Club founded by Dr John Langdon Down and his family 1892 - 1952 as well as photos of the Normansfield Hospital.

In just a brief visit I found the information fascinating. It was also good to see St. James's Church listed under London Churches with all the papers we have lodged there and our recently published Churchyard records. If anyone would like more details of how to get to the LMA we have some leaflets available."

Source: Janet Nunn, The Spire Magazine - 2005 April