Law behind Bonfire Night among records sent from parliament to National Archives
Summary
The National Archives at Kew has completed a five-year transfer of 4 million records from the archives of the UK Parliament. The records include documents about the 1605 Gunpowder Plot and the law that established annual services on 5 November, as well as objects linked to later parliamentary history; they are catalogued and available for public viewing.Key Facts
- The 1605 Thanksgiving Act called for church services every 5 November to mark the failure of the Gunpowder Plot.
- The plot targeted King James I, the House of Lords and the House of Commons at the opening of Parliament in 1605.
- A House of Commons journal entry dated 5 November 1605 records the discovery of 36 barrels of gunpowder and Guy Fawkes in the Palace of Westminster cellars.
- A separate act declared Fawkes and his co-conspirators guilty of treason and sentenced them to be hanged, drawn and quartered.
- The transfer to Kew took five years and added 16.5 linear kilometres of records to the National Archives collection.
- The transferred records have been catalogued and marked with individual registration barcodes, and the public can order and view them for free.
- The collection includes a suffragette banner brought into the House of Commons in 1908, as well as a gravestone fragment, a sword and a uniform.
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