Key facts
- The transfer added 16.5 linear kilometers of records to the 174.5 linear kilometers already at Kew.
- The 1605 Thanksgiving Act, passed after the Gunpowder Plot, is among the transferred documents.
- A House of Commons journal entry from November 5, 1605 records the discovery of 36 barrels of gunpowder.
- The National Archives now holds 20 million records, with one-third stored in a facility in Cheshire.
- The longest transferred document is the 1821 Land Tax Act, measuring 348 meters across 348 membranes.
The UK Parliament has completed the transfer of 4 million records from its historic archive in Victoria Tower at the Palace of Westminster to the National Archives at Kew, south-west London, a project that began five years ago. The transfer added 16.5 linear kilometers of records to the 174.5 linear kilometers already held at Kew, and the documents are now cataloged and available for public viewing.
Among the records is the 1605 Thanksgiving Act, passed by James I after the failure of the Gunpowder Plot, which directed church services every November 5 to commemorate the foiling of the plot. A House of Commons journal from November 5, 1605 contains a handwritten entry recording the search of the Palace of Westminster cellars and the discovery of 36 barrels of gunpowder along with Guy Fawkes. A separate scroll, an Act of Attainder, declared Fawkes and his co-conspirators guilty of treason.
The collection also includes a suffragette banner from October 28, 1908, which was secretly taken into the Ladies' Gallery in the Commons chamber. The largest document is the 1821 Land Tax Commissioners Act, which measures 348 meters across 757 vellum membranes. The National Archives now holds 20 million records in total, with one-third housed in deep storage in Cheshire, according to chief executive Saul Nassé.