A few hundred yards from Fleet Street, at the lower end of Chancery Lane, stands a tall and somewhat forbidding building known as the Public Record Office. Within its walls, unknown to the average passer-by, lies one of the greatest libraries in the world, a library not of books but of unprinted documents, many of them of a value beyond price.
Thirty million manuscripts, stored in 140 strong rooms upon 35 miles of shelves, such is a brief summary of the contents of this vast repository of the nation's archives. Here amidst the accumulated millions of parchments and papers lies the story of 900 years of trial and battle, of treaties and wars; together with the hopes, fears, strifes and ambitions of countless men and women whose lives have moulded the course of English history.
Among the most important collections stored within the P.R.O, today are the records of the Chancery and Exchequer; those of the Courts of the King's Bench, Common Pleas, Admiralty and Star Chamber; in addition to the older documents of all the major Departments of State, including the Treasury, Home Office, Foreign Office, War Office, Admiralty and Board of Trade.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.