Celebrating National Volunteering Week
May 26, 2026 | Holkham voices | 6 minute read
Digitalising the Holkham Game Books
We are fortunate enough to have a wonderful group of volunteers who help to care for various part of the Hall, Walled Garden and monitor the seals on Wells Beach during the season. Today we hear from Helen, who is part of our volunteering team as she takes us through what she has been working on over the last few months.
Since becoming a Hall Volunteer at Holkham in February 2023 I have been extremely fortunate to be involved in one of the current conservation projects, The Holkham Game Books. These books date from the 1750s to the present day and provide a detailed historical record of each shooting season.
The project has two aims, first to transcribe the Game Books so that the data can be more easily analysed without needing to consult the original, and secondly the data is going to be used to update the historical charts displayed in the Old Servants’ Hall. So far, we’ve worked through about fifteen Game Books!
Each week, together with my co-volunteer, Linda, we accurately transcribe all the information on the page on to spreadsheets, which will be added to the Holkham Archives. We also add biographical information which will help future research in this important part of Holkham’s history.
The biggest challenge has been deciphering the handwriting; the style is so different to what we use now, and there lots of variations, particularly in joining letters. Multiple people will have entered the information on the same page so there is a lack of consistency and over time the ink has faded, but the blots have not!
Whilst working on this project, we have access to both web-based resources and the reference books held in Holkham’s library, which has been very useful to work out who was who and to unravel the tricky handwriting when we are stumped.
Our journey through the Game Books has led to many discoveries including seeing how Holkham, was the first ‘driven’ estate in the UK, the record numbers of English and French partridges during the mid-1850s and how historic events have shaped Holkham, for example the sight of wild turkeys roaming the park during the Second World War, and how changes in the climate would influence of the field.
We have learnt about the ‘Coke’ Hat, more commonly known as the Bowler. It was commissioned by Edward Coke, (brother to the 2nd Earl), in 1849 from his hatters, Lock and Co of St James, London. He wanted them to design a suitable close fitting, low, round hat to protect the Holkham gamekeepers. The ‘Bowler’ or ‘Coke’ hat is still worn by them today.
One of the most interesting aspects of the project has been researching the famous guns (the name for those who participated in the field) recorded in the Game Books. These include Admiral Lord Nelson, the Maharajah Duleep Singh together with British politicians, aristocracy from across the United Kingdom, as well as local gentry from Norfolk and Suffolk. It has been intriguing in connecting the various members of the extended Coke family who would regularly come back and spend time at Holkham. In our current book we have also come across some rare, well-preserved sketches of the Maharajah Duleep Singh dated 1877.
We have also seen how our own Royal Family regularly enjoyed days at Holkham confirming the strong links between the Earls of Leicester and the monarchy. These started with the new owner at Sandringham, the Prince of Wales, later King Edward VII, King George VI and more recently Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Phillip Duke of Edinburgh.
From 1927 we have followed the Hon. David Arthur Coke, son of the fourth Earl, who was frequently noted in the Holkham Game books but curiously disappeared. Through our research and conversations with Katie, Laurane and Lucy, we discovered that David Coke served in the Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve, during which time he became friends with the author Roald Dahl, who was also a pilot. Details of their friendship are recorded in Dahl’s autobiography Going Solo. David flew in the Battle of Britain but was sadly killed in action on the 9th December 1941.
We’re still got nearly a century of Game Books to transcribe and research, so still lots to reveal and discover which will probably take a few more years. It has been a privilege to work on this project has been fascinating learning about the Coke family, the Earls of Leicester, and this important part of Holkham’s rich heritage.
