Clergyman's archive to stay in Norfolk


26 September 2006 16:10

The internationally important archive of 18th-century Norfolk clergyman, Rev William Gunn, which was threatened with export to the USA earlier this year, has been saved for Norfolk.

The Norfolk Record Office has successfully raised the purchase price of £83,050 and the Gunn archive is now safely housed in Norfolk County Council's state-of-the-art Archive Centre at County Hall in Norwich.

The Museums, Libraries and Archives Council (MLA) announced in June that the culture minister, David Lammy, had placed a temporary bar on the export to the USA of the archive of the Norfolk gentleman scholar-parson, Rev William Gunn.

The decision on the export licence application was deferred for a period ending on 22 October, if a serious intention to raise funds to purchase the archive at the recommended price of £83,050 were expressed.

The Norfolk Record Office immediately indicated to the Joint Secretary of the Reviewing Committee its intention to acquire the Gunn archive and began seeking funds to support this purchase.

The Record Office launched a public appeal via the local media and also approached a number of grant-awarding bodies. The campaign has been so successful that the Record Office has raised the purchase price well in advance of the October deadline.

The Gunn archive is of international importance: it contains an enormous amount of material relating to the Grand Tour of Europe at the end of the 18th century and to the world of a significant connoisseur, antiquary and writer on art and architecture.

There are, for example, letters from great artists such as John Flaxman and Antonio Canova in the collection, and a whole wealth of information about Gunn's dealings with other leading art collectors and antiquaries of his age. The archive also sheds considerable light on Gunn's role in officiating at the clandestine marriage in Rome of Prince Augustus Frederick, the sixth son of George III.

Most particularly, from Norfolk's point of view, it provides an exceptionally detailed picture of the county's society during an extended period from the late eighteenth to the early nineteenth century, both in its local workings, and in illustrating the impact of larger events on the region.

The acquisition of the Gunn archive was made possible through the Record Office's public appeal and also from significant grants from a number of organisations.

The Heritage Lottery Fund made a grant of £50,000, while other bodies which gave generous support included the MLA/V&A Purchase Grants Fund, the Friends of the National Libraries, the Mercers' Company, the Norfolk Record Society and the Parson Woodforde Society.

Dr John Alban, Norfolk County Council's County Archivist, said: "We felt it imperative that this exceptional archive should be added to Norfolk Record Office's MLA-Designated collection and not go overseas.

"I was overwhelmed by the levels of support which we received and am delighted that we were able so quickly to raise the funds to enable us to acquire the archive. I am immensely grateful to the various grant-awarding bodies whose generous support has made this possible, and, in particular, I would like to thank to the people of Norfolk, who, once again, responded so wonderfully to our public appeal."

County councillor Christopher Lloyd Owen, Chairman of the Norfolk Records Committee, said: “This is a stunning collection of documents, and as soon we heard about the export ban, we went for it. We were also determined that the Norfolk Record Office is where this archive should be. I am thrilled that Norfolk has got it, and that we had such widespread support with the purchase, not just from grant-aid bodies, but many private individuals as well.”

The Record Office's conservation experts have already inspected and repackaged the Gunn archive. The next stage is for its detailed cataloguing by archivists to begin, so that it can be made available for public research in the course of 2007. Before that, it is planned that elements of the archive will go on exhibition in the Long Gallery at The Archive Centre in January.

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