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Speaker Meeting January 11th 2021: City of Bristol Archives, Allie Dillon City of Bristol Archivist
We welcomed our speaker Allie Dillon our first speaker in 2021. She started by describing the purpose and importance of the archives which are based at the Create Centre in B Bond Warehouse close to Cumberland Basin. The team of 19 maintain the archives of the City of Bristol and surrounding areas, as well as the British Empire and Commonwealth Collection. Some are stored as hard copy and some have been digitised. It is both an historic and cultural resource. The public have access free of charge and the records are used for many reasons including accessing records for public enquiries. Bristol Archives was established in 1924 and it was the first borough record office in the United Kingdom and holds documents going back to the 12th century. There are many valuable documents such as the Royal Charter circa 1190 (this is still a valid