A GROUP of historians are in a race against time to stop the records of an aristocratic family - who lived in Bolton for almost a millennium - from going into private ownership.

The Hulton Archive is being sold for £95,000 by family member who is not a direct descendant.

When Sir Geoffrey Hulton died in the 1990s, he was the last in a line of Hultons which go back to 1167.

For the past 70 years, The Hulton Archive has been in the safekeeping of Lancashire County Council’s Lancashire Records Office. It was deposited there in 1943 by Sir Roger Hulton, third baronet and 29th Lord of Hulton.

During that time, it has been freely available to the public for research and exhibition.

Archivists have catalogued the core collection, and created draft lists of more recent deposits, while conservation work has been carried out on many individual items.

Now the present owner of the archive wants to sell it and the Friends of Lancashire Archives is leading the campaign to help raise the £95,000 required by the end of November.

The group has already been assured £40,000, but another £50,000 is required.

Lancashire County Council’s Archive Service manager, Jacquie Crosby said: “If we are unable to raise the money, there is a real risk that it will be split up and that some of the material will go overseas.

“The Hultons were among the leading gentry families in the North West of England from the 12th century and many of them held public office in Lancashire as justices of the peace, deputy lieutenants, high sheriff (in 1789 and 1810) and constables of Lancaster Castle.”

William Hulton (1787—1864) achieved fame, or notoriety, for ordering the cavalry to charge at the Peterloo Massacre in Manchester on August 16, 1819.

The Hulton Archive collection consists of more than 1,000 separate items drawn from all parts of the ancient county of Lancashire.

It contains sections concerning turnpike roads, canals, railways, collieries, commons, churches, heraldry and genealogy, charting the emergence of the country from a rural mediaeval society to one of the world leaders of the industrial revolution.

The Hultons occupied a 1,000-acre estate which had been in the hands of the Hulton family since 1167, though it is believed their links with the site stretched back to 989.

The sprawling estate, between Chequerbent, Over Hulton and Atherton, was bought for an undisclosed sum by The Peel Group, an infrastructure, transport and property investment company.

Donations to the campaign can be made by visiting flarchives.co.uk.