Farming records from The University of Nottingham's School of Agriculture at Sutton Bonington, Nottinghamshire, 1738-1951

The records in this collection comprise three distinct groups. The first group (Fr 1-37 and Fr 55-58) are records of individual farms kept by different individuals and covering different areas of the region. They date primarily from the early twentieth century but some go back to the mid-nineteenth century. The records were acquired by members of staff at the School of Agriculture.

The second group (Fr 38-54) apparently comprises records of the Schools' own farms.

A third group (Fr 76-87), a later accrual, consists of a number of fairly slight items without known date, location or origin. One document comes from Hampstead and it is possible that others in this miscellaneous group also have an origin quite outside the East Midlands.

In all, the collection provides only a partial record of the business and administration of the farms in question. Together, however, they offer a range of evidence for the study of agriculture primarily within the East Midlands.

In 1893 University College Nottingham established a Department of Agriculture and with the assistance of a joint agricultural education committee made up of local government representatives, the Midland Dairy Institute was opened at Kingston Fields, Kingston-on-Soar, Nottinghamshire in 1895. The Agricultural Department of University College moved to Kingston in 1900 to form the Midland Agricultural and Dairy Institute. In the same year, the Institute's affiliation with University College ended and it became a college in its own right in 1906. Between 1919 and 1928, the college moved to a 100 acre site at Sutton Bonington, Nottinghamshire. University College established a Faculty of Agriculture and Horticulture and created a Chair in Agriculture in 1943.

On 1 April 1947, the Midland Agricultural College became the School of Agriculture of University College. University College became The University of Nottingham in August 1948. By 2001, the University's agricultural faculty had become the Division of Agriculture and Horticulture within the School of Biosceinces retaining its base at Sutton Bonington.

Farming records came into the hands of the college in two ways. First, there are records, mainly accounts rescued by members of staff of the College in the course of their work among the farming community in the East Midlands. Secondly, records from farms owned by the College itself have also been preserved. The area represented includes Leicestershire, Nottinghamshire, Rutland and Lincolnshire.

The collection is divided into 30 series bringing documents of like provenance and type together. Within these series, items have been arranged chronologically.

ACCESS: Accessible to all registered readers.

REPROGRAPHIC: Reprographic copies can be supplied for educational use and private study purposes only, depending on access status and the condition of the documents.

COPYRIGHT: Permission to make any published use of any material from the collection must be sought in advance in writing from the Keeper of the Department of Manuscripts and Special Collections (email mss-library@nottingham.ac.uk). The Department will try to assist in identifying copyright owners but this can often be difficult and the responsibility for copyright clearance before publication ultimately rests with the person wishing to publish.

LANGUAGE: English

The collection was transferred from The University of Nottingham's School of Agriculture to The University of Nottingham's Department of Manuscripts in 1980. Further material was added in 1989.