Time to kick off the new year with a brand new lucky dip. Aisle 5 now, which consists of documents packaged in archive boxes, rather than loose on the shelves (hurrah)!

Here’s the one I picked, with a mysterious temporary label that says “CV – Vouchers 1799-1801.”

Opening it up, we see bundles of paper receipts, in years from 1799 to 1801. They are in neither original nor modern preservation grade packaging, but bear the distinctive labels of material processed in Giles’ era (c.1900). These bundles are listed (by year, not in detail) in the Giles catalogue under C class.

So what have we got here? Let’s dive in and see! I picked the bundle already opened so as not to wrestle with century-old string.

Inside we find small pieces of creamy18^th-century rag paper, consisting of receipts and invoices. Whilst the accounts in Lucky Dip #4 record transactions in a formal way, these are the actual bills and invoices written by those providing goods and services to the council, often in their own hand, with additional notes by the Chamberlains that payment was made, and sometimes even with receipts of payment glued onto them.

They are in date order, let’s have a look what was happening in the winter of that year.

One that caught my eye was this printed bill, which is for catering some kind of event – drinks, food and servants. Turning it over, a note is written that it is for the Sessions dinner and it has been authorised by three members of the Corporation including the mayor, just like we would expect modern expenses claims to be authorised.

Other items are less visually impressive but reveal insight into city history. I noticed a few mentioning New Walk, which was the riverside walk opened up as part of an attempt to beautify the city and encourage visitors in the 1730s. You can read about it in the VCH here.

It clearly took upkeep to maintain as in this bundle there are regular invoices for labourers’ wages working on New Walk – a chilly job at this time of year! The invoices are all written by one hand, a foreman representing or employing several labourers. It doesn’t say what work specifically they were doing but lists their names and the days they worked.

To find out more, I kept looking to see what other supplies might be required and  lo and behold we have an invoice for the purchase of elm trees in December from a man of Telford. I wonder if these were to replace trees which had died or been damaged since the 1730s, or for an extension.

These records of business transaction on the micro level, are authentic unique sources of the little actions that go into maintaining and developing a city like York over the centuries. I could happily sit for hours and read through this box, and the great thing is that so could anyone. They are written in English, the handwriting is cursive but generally straightforward and there is no reason at all why you couldn’t order up a box and browse through for leisure, or to look for specific information on certain types of expenditure.

A postscript: You see the pale pink tape that ties this bundle? Pink  legal tape was used to tie up bundles of records and makes archivists shudder because the dye is unstable and runs if it gets wet. I havn’t seen it quite so faded before though, perhaps this was caused by flooding? Paper and ink from this period could survive a wetting, but maybe the pink dye leaked out in one of the flooding incidents in the 19^th century. This is pure speculation, but another reminder of the avenues of exploration you can find yourself in by looking at physical records!

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