Heritage and culture

Warwickshire County Record Office offers a Paid Research Service for those enquirers unable to visit the office in person. Our experienced staff provide a comprehensive research service at Warwickshire County Record Office and have an in-depth knowledge of its holdings.

• The charge for the Paid Research service is £30 per hour, or part thereof.
• You can apply online (and pay) at Warwickshire Direct, OR…
• You can apply by post by downloading your paid research service application form (PDF, 49 KB) and pay:
  • By a cheque, in pounds sterling, made payable to Warwickshire County Council.
  • By credit card. Please call us on 01926 738959.
• Please note our refunds policy - refund policy (PDF, 62KB)

We will initially accept payment for one hour of research only. Should we be unable to complete your enquiry within the hour paid for we will accept subsequent applications for the same search in portions of two hours at any one time. This allows us to fairly apportion the time of the researcher amongst all the applications that we may receive at any given time.

Records we can search

• Parish registers and records
• Records of nonconformity
• Census returns for Warwickshire for 1841-1911
• General Register Office indexes of births, marriages and deaths, 1837-1983
• Wills
• Solicitors’ Collections
• Hospital Records
• Records relating to crime and punishment
• Newspapers
• Ancestry
• Family Search and the IGI
• National Burial Index.

What we need from you

We are able to carry out research into many of the records held at the County Record Office. As part of your initial enquiry, it is important that you state clearly what records you would like us to search for you and what you hope to find out. It is also important to include any information that you already have which might help us in our search. We will advise you which records may be worth searching for the information required and how long this is likely to take. In a minority of cases, we will need proof of your identity (for instance if you are asking us to release information which is unavailable for general access). If this is the case, we will advise you of what information we need.

We cannot, of course, guarantee that in every case the answer will be found.

What is included in the £30 fee?

We will complete as much of the research as time allows and if we do not complete the search we will advise you, where possible, how much more time we will need to complete the enquiry. Once the enquiry is completed we may be able to suggest further lines of research and will continue if there is enough time. If not, we will advise you on the records we think still need to be searched and, where possible, how long it will take.

We will send you a written report which will confirm which records we have searched, and what information we have found. The £30 fee also includes the cost of limited copies.

Freedom of Information Act and requests for information held in records unavailable for general access

If you have made a request for information under the Freedom of Information Act, or have contacted us about information which may be held in records which are unavailable for general access, we may refer you to our Paid Research Service in order for us to establish whether or not we have information which is relevant to your enquiry. If we do find relevant information, we may have to consult with a third party before we can determine whether or not the information can be released to you. We will let you know what is happening at each stage of your enquiry.