Federation Of Family History Societies

The Sale of the Broadlands Archives

The archives contain some 4,500 boxes, dating from the sixteenth century to the present, centred on the Temple (Palmerston), Ashley, Cassel and Mountbatten families. It is an exceptional collection, including many materials of the first rank for the history of the UK and its relations with its colonies and foreign powers. The Mountbatten papers are effectively the foundation archive for the modern states of India and Pakistan, and in addition illuminate Britain’s first major act of post-war decolonisation; the papers of the third Viscount Palmerston include some 40,000 letters, many from his private correspondence as Foreign Secretary and Prime Minister; and the diaries of the seventh Earl of Shaftesbury, reformer and philanthropist, are one of the great monuments to social progress in Victorian England.

The Trustees of the Broadlands Archives have determined to sell the collection and have offered it to the University of Southampton. The expectation is that if negotiations fail, the collection will be sold at auction, and may well be broken up and dispersed, with many parts not finding places in public repositories. The net price is a substantial one, £2.85 million, and the University believes it has 6 months to complete the transaction. The University is undertaking a major fund-raising campaign to assure the future of the collection. It is working with funding bodies including the National Heritage Memorial Fund, but will need to raise considerable sums from other sources.

More information about the archives can be obtained at www.southampton.ac.uk/archives/Broadlands/index.html, while information about the fundraising campaign is at www.soton.ac.uk/supportus/broadlands/index.shtml.

Roger Lewry
FFHS Archives Liaison

14 December 2009