top of page

Be a Heritage Detective

thisispaston.jpg

This website you are currently visiting details the Paston walks with associated drama, history, digital, wellbeing and child-friendly resources. This is also a platform to celebrate the 21st century chapter of Paston interpretations, where we publish creative and cultural contemporary storytelling. 

 

After your walk, if you are inspired to discover much more, listen to readings of the letters, visit the archives in Norwich, or dig deep into the story by using the options below to enter our online Paston heritage portal.  

​

Have an Archive Experience

Reading from the Archives: Early Pastons
20:37
Norfolk Record Office

Reading from the Archives: Early Pastons

This special edition of our popular Reading from the Archives event looks at some of the letters written by the Paston family and their correspondents. This film will include the world’s earliest Valentine’s letter, from Margery Brews to John Paston III, Feb 1477 read in middle English and a letter by Sir John Fastolf to John Paston in 1455. Supported by the National Heritage Lottery Fund, Paston Footprints is a collaboration between the University of East Anglia, the Paston Heritage Society and Norfolk Record Office.
Reading from the Archives: Later Pastons
22:08
Norfolk Record Office

Reading from the Archives: Later Pastons

This special session of our popular Reading from the Archives event looks at some of the letters written by the Paston family and their correspondents. This session focuses on the 'Later' Pastons, Rebecca Paston and John Clayton’s letters to Sir Robert Paston describing his experiments with alchemy. Supported by the National Heritage Lottery Fund, Paston Footprints is a collaboration between the University of East Anglia, the Paston Heritage Society and Norfolk Record Office.
‘Paper is Deynty’: The Significance of Paper in the Paston Letters
01:07:06
Norfolk Record Office

‘Paper is Deynty’: The Significance of Paper in the Paston Letters

Paper is the main tool of communication in fifteenth-century England. The Paston family’s letters and network of acquaintances show that paper had made the transition from being a technological novelty to becoming a familiar tool, an essential instrument in everyday life. In this talk, Orietta Da Rold discusses how paper established itself as a commodity in epistolary culture and the stories paper can tell about medieval society and modes of communication.
Archives Hacks Course; Darren Leader Design Studio with Norfolk Record Office and UEA
03:41

Archives Hacks Course; Darren Leader Design Studio with Norfolk Record Office and UEA

Palaeography: 16th-18thc Norfolk Handwriting Course (2021): Darren Leader Design Studio with the Norfolk Record Office and UEA
03:48

Palaeography: 16th-18thc Norfolk Handwriting Course (2021): Darren Leader Design Studio with the Norfolk Record Office and UEA

Explore Original Paston Letters
in the Norfolk Record Office​​​
​

One of Paston Footprints' key partners, the NRO, digitised the Robert Paston and Lady Katherine Paston seventeenth century letters that are held in the Record Office, beside County Hall on Martineau Lane, in Norwich. The later Paston letters are available online at our heritage portal for the first time.

 

We also co-developed with the graphic designer Darren Leader Studio, a 17th-18th century Norfolk palaeography course (samples above), which the NRO continue to run.

​

Check out the NRO site for current 

archive experiences and talks

NRO%20logo_edited.jpg
bottom of page