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Who will save the historical treasures that inspired Downton Abbey? - Telegraph In Lancashire, however, one astonishing chronicle exists – tens of thousands of documents, ranging from royal commands from King Henry VIII, gossipy letters from the Restoration Court, estate planning in the 1800s, stewards’ accounts, wage books, and household bills – all originating on a single estate, continuously occupied by one family. It is this treasure trove that inspired and informed the ITV series Downton Abbey, and its inhabitants are the ancestors of the show’s creator, Julian Fellowes. From the Reformation to the birth of Industrial Britain, this family has borne witness to, and at times played a central role in, the nation’s history. Yet now, their archive, which dates from 1199 to 1947 and includes plague diaries, recipes for mulled cider, railway plans and fortnightly accounts from the 1830s – and deemed of vital local and national historical importance – has been put up for sale. Experts fear the papers could end up scattered across the world should an auction take place, and have launched an urgent appeal to save them. http://bit.ly/13tJZIO Source: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/tvandradio/downton-abbey/11201521/Who-will-save-the-historical-treasures-that-inspired-Downton-Abbey.html See if people are clicking on this link: http://bit.ly/13tJZIO+ Try the bitly.com sidebar to see who is talking about a page on the web: https://bitly.com/pages/sidebar Contact the list owner for assistance at [log in to unmask] For information about joining, leaving and suspending mail (eg during a holiday) see the list website at https://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/cgi-bin/webadmin?A0=archives-nra