A TROVE of historic local paperwork documenting land and property sales, school records and even medical procedures at a town’s former cottage hospital, is set to potentially be relocated outside the county.

Documents, including some auction catalogues and deeds dating as far back as the 15th century, plus medical records from Monmouth General Hospital, which was based on the Hereford Road opposite the Haberdashers’ school site, are currently held by Monmouthshire Council’s museum service.

Cottage Hospital
The former cottage hospital in Monmouth (Tindle)

And having received funding from the Welsh Government to employ an archivist to dig through its mounting collection of dusty documents gathered over time they could now be transferred to the Gwent Archives in Ebbw Vale.

The museum service has been reviewing its collection, including papers deposited for its archive, ahead of Monmouth Museum, moving from the Market Hall, where it has been closed since the 2020 Covid pandemic, to the town’s revamped Shire Hall .

Monmouth Museum currently holds school records and hospital notes from Monmouth General Hospital which detail medical records, procedures and operations from 1926 to as recently as 1986.

Though the school and hospital papers are public records, as they contain sensitive information, they are subject to a “closure period”.

A report for Monmouthshire Council’s cabinet member responsible for museums, Sara Burch, states that the school and hospital records would “benefit from being in a county record office, which can more able provide controlled access”, despite that being nearly 30 miles away from Monmouth outside the county.

It also said museum staff currently don’t have capacity to provide controlled access to the records.

Also set to move to the Gwent Archives could be papers related to land and property sales.

The council has some seven boxes full of property deeds and conveyances from the the 15th century through to the 1940s and 50s.

They have been deposited from local solicitors in and around Monmouth who previously stored such deeds, and the report said the public will have easier access to them at the Gwent Archives.

Many people continue to search these records to help settle boundary disputes and when researching homes and house purchases.

Three full boxes of auction catalogues, some of which date back to the 17th century, and contain information on house purchases and land exchanges through to the 1950s, are also set to be placed at Gwent Archives to make them more accessible.

The transfer proposal is due to be considered by Cllr Burch, and the report also sets out the guidance and advice followed by the council when considering the rationalisation of its museum collection.

If Cllr Burch was to decide against transferring the items, the council would have to continue to meet ongoing costs of storing them, as well as potential future cost of re-boxing, and of making them accessible for the public, adds the report.

It explains that “accessioning” is the process of formally recording that a museum’s governing body has taken legal ownership of objects and committed to care for them over the long term while “deaccessioning” is the formal decision to take objects out of the “accessioned collection” and manage their disposal or transfer.