Medieval Treasures at the National Archives

Gone Medieval

History Hit

History

4.6 • 2.2K Ratings

🗓️ 23 October 2021

⏱️ 42 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

The National Archives can be seen as any medieval historian's candy store. It's filled with an amazing variety of materials, from the Magna Carta to mummified rats. In this episode of Gone Medieval, Matt is joined by Principal Records Specialist at The National Archives (TNA), Dr. Euan Roger. Euan takes us through the fascinating ancient documents, materials, and upcoming endeavours that the TNA has to offer, even including a riddle. Can you help us make sense of this early Tudor puzzle?

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	Have you ever wondered why one of Ruan Cathedral's towers is called the Tower of Butter, or what
0:06.2	animals have faced trials in courts for, or even how the black country got its name?
0:12.4	Well, you can find the answers to questions like these and hundreds more in our new book,
0:18.4	The History Hit Misscellanie. It's the perfect present for any history fan.
0:23.3	It's available to buy now from your favourite bookshop or by visiting historyhit.com forward slash
0:30.0	book. Welcome to this episode of Gone Medieval from History Hit, I'm Matt Lewis. The national
0:39.4	archives is any medieval historians treasure trove. Ancient documents, some of them central to
0:45.7	the greatest stories in history, fill boxes, aisles and whole rooms. My guest today is you and Roger,
0:53.5	the principal medieval record specialist at the National Archives and a man whose job title might
0:58.8	as well to me be child in a sweet shop. Thank you very much for joining us you in.
1:03.0	Thanks Matt, it's great to be here. Brilliant. So just as our opener, what is the national archives?
1:09.1	How did it come to be this big depository of important documents?
1:13.0	Yes, so the national archives or TNA for sure. It used to be known as the Public Record Office or
1:18.5	PRO and with the official archive and publisher for UK Central Government and for England Wales.
1:24.1	And we hold records sent to us from UK Central Government and the central law courts for permanent
1:28.8	preservation. So our collections contain over a thousand years of iconic national documents
1:34.1	from Doomsday to Downing Street Tweets. And the Public Record Office was founded in 1838
1:40.2	to safely keep the public records after centuries of rather suspect record keeping across different
1:46.2	archives associated with each part of government and the law courts. So originally at the time of
1:51.9	the Norman Kings, the monarch would have conducted the practical business of state through an
1:56.8	itinerant court so following the king around the country in the course of his travels. And the
2:02.5	business of the court produced written records which formed part of the king's treasure. And so they
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from History Hit, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of History Hit and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.