The Essex Record Office collects and preserves the written, oral and visual heritage of Essex. We do this so that our history remains available to both present and future generations. You can use the collections to research your family history, house history, community history and local geography.

The Essex Record Office is one of the oldest county record offices in the country and was established before the Second World War to hold the archives of the county of Essex. Many of the records were created by official bodies in the current administrative county such as the Essex Quarter Sessions, the Boroughs of Colchester and Maldon, Poor Law Unions, as well as local churches, magistrate courts, local authorities, societies, organisations and businesses. The Essex Record Office is also the record office for the diocese of Chelmsford, which covers the whole of the ancient county of Essex from West Ham to the Suffolk and Cambridgeshire borders. This means that we hold records of the Church of England parishes within the diocese, including registers of baptisms, marriages and burials.

As well as official records, there are those created by families and individuals, these can include manorial and estate records from the 16th century onwards, as well as records of people’s childhoods, education and memories of their lives.

The oldest document in the Essex Record Office is an Anglo-Saxon charter dating from 962 during the reign of King Edgar; the newest record could be dated today. Records are usually written on parchment (sheep skin) or paper, although they can also be sound, film, video or in computer format.

All of these records build up a picture of how people lived and worked in Essex throughout the ages. They are unique and irreplaceable records, which are preserved by the Essex Record Office for use today and for future generations.

Our users include family historians, people tracing the history of their house or their local community, university and school students, academics, and people who are curious about some aspect of the history of the county or its residents.

Our qualified archivists answer all of the enquiries, letters and e-mails that we receive from people all over the world about the records and the history of the county of Essex. They are able to read old handwriting (palaeography), and can advise members of the public about the sources.

Deposits (or ‘accessions’) of records come in many different forms ranging from a single piece of paper to a hundred or more boxes. When they arrive the archivists sort and list the documents and store them. Our repositories (storage rooms) conform to British Standard (BS 5454) which states the requirements for the storage of archival documents. There are over 8 miles of shelving in the Essex Record Office and the documents are stored in repositories with controlled temperature and relative humidity levels which helps to preserve them.

Once the documents have been accessioned the archivists will list or catalogue the records. Today all of this is done on Seax, the Essex Record Office's computer system. A catalogue is a much more detailed description of the individual documents than the information recorded at accessioning.

Our conservators work to conserve the paper and parchment documents which become fragile as they age. They aim to strengthen documents to prevent further damage from handling and age. All repairs are visible and reversible and require many hours of patient work. The documents are carefully stored in appropriate acid-free folders and boxes.