From BAHS member Margaret Bird, 19 March 2023:

In October 2022 a highly significant body of manuscripts, photographs and maps from the Cozens-Hardy Collection was lodged in the Norfolk Record Office (NRO) by Caroline Holland, née Cozens-Hardy. Caroline is a BAHS member and is descended from the Letheringsett diarist Mary Hardy. This news item is posted with her permission.

Those researching the history of the Glaven Valley villages and Holt will find the deposit a treasure trove. I used it extensively for 32 years while working on my published volumes on Mary Hardy. With the consent of the extended Cozens-Hardy family I quoted at length from these extremely valuable papers and used them for hundreds of illustrations. I am extremely grateful to the family for access over the years and for keeping the collection in their possession until my work was complete.

Many of the papers date from the 18th century; the photographs date from 1880 onwards. Caroline inherited the care of them from her father Jeremy, the son of the distinguished lawyer and local historian Basil Cozens-Hardy (1885-1976). Their provenance is known as they were passed down in the family from the time of Mary Hardy (1733-1809).

In January 2023 the archivists at the NRO gave the deposit this holding reference: ACC 2022/106. It is not known when they will be able to catalogue them individually. It is a huge task: there are dozens of albums, dozens of boxes of papers and correspondence, probates and also the original manuscript diaries of the Letheringsett brewery apprentice Henry Raven, written daily 1793-97, and of the owner of the Letheringsett estate 1842-95 William Hardy Cozens-Hardy, written 1833-95.

The three images accompanying this news item give some insight into the importance of this vast collection. The first shows the south front of Letheringsett Hall in 1880. We know the date of the Greek Doric portico through one of the manuscripts now lodged in the NRO: the surgeon and artist Edmund Bartell junior’s 1809 commentary on the Hall is the sole source pointing to its construction in the spring of 1809.

The second photograph shows a Cozens-Hardy family gathering in front of the Hall in 1880 to celebrate William H. and Sarah Cozens-Hardy’s Golden Wedding. Many prominent local figures are seen here.

The third is an extract from the farm and brewery diary of Henry Raven for December 1795 referring to bread riots in the area during a wheat famine. His is the only diary of a brewery apprentice known to survive from the 18th century. He worked for eight years 1792-1800 in the maltings and brewery on the A148 at Letheringsett, converted in 2013 to housing.

More details of these deposits are given by Margaret Bird on the Burnham Press website:
https://www.burnham-press.co.uk/jan-2023-major-items-from-cozens-hardy-private-archive-lodged-at-norfolk-record-office/