Francis Hornor Memorial Archive
- HNR
- Fonds
- 16th century-20th century
The Archive includes the firm's own office and business administration records, dating from the time of Charles Hornor's involvement with the firm. These include office cash books, client ledgers, office copy correspondence, scaling books, office diaries, office copies of OS sheets of various scales and partners' memoranda and valuation books.
The Parliamentary enclosure and tithe commission work undertaken by Robert Pratt, Charles Hornor and others is represented by a large body of draft plans, copy commissioners' minutes, and related records. Many of these were listed in a summary fashion over 25 years ago and include copies of the Parliamentary Acts, surveyors' scaling books, sketches, rough surveys, notices of allotment and accounts.
One strand of the Archive derives from the role of the partners of the firm who, from the late nineteenth century onwards, were stewards and clerks of important Norwich-based charities and trusts. These include the Norwich Town Close Charity, the Norwich Great Hospital, Alderman Norman's Foundation, the Bethel Hospital and others. Present, therefore, are minutes of trust meetings, accounts, and correspondence, and, as land agents to those same institutions, the firm also created plans, surveys, and rentals/rent accounts for their estates. The collection also contains a swan roll, dated 1674.
Amongst the oldest records in the Archive are those relating to private landed estates in Norfolk and elsewhere. Of these, many are older than the firm itself and were gathered together through the administration of these estates; others were created by Hornors in the course of that administration. The former include manorial court records from the sixteenth century onwards, over 1,500 estate plans dating from the early eighteenth to the twentieth centuries, clients' family papers, surveys and particulars. Records of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries - a time when landed estates were undergoing irrevocable change - include estate accounts and agents' correspondence with landlords, tenants and tradesmen.
The Archive contains over 37 cubic metres of material and occupies about 170 linear metres of shelving at The Archive Centre. Most of the Archive is in a good state of repair, with only a few of the larger plans being currently too fragile for public use. However users of the plans currently catalogued as BR 276, should be aware that many of these records are dirty.
Francis.W. Hornor; 1859-1932; land agent, valuer, steward, surveyor, Sheriff of Norwich; Norwich, Norfolk.