Celebrating our collections dating from 780AD to the present day
By Lois Bodie, Archives Assistant The Battle of Quebec, also known as the Battle of the Plains of Abraham, took place on 13th September 1759 and, since reading about it several years ago, it has stayed stuck in my mind. Upon starting at the Record Office, I was excited to learn of a Sussex connection…
Continue reading ➞ ‘An Almost Perpendicular Ascent’: The Battle of Quebec and its Sussex Connections
By Nichola Court, Archivist Chichester Observer 21/10/1960 - ground record Oaklands Park is Chichester’s largest open space, famous for housing the annual Sloe Fair, the Festival Theatre, a large mansion hidden in the trees, now used by the University, and many of the city’s sporting clubs. These clubs include Chichester City United football club, which…
Continue reading ➞ Oaklands Park: Chichester’s ‘Field of Dreams’?
By Victoria Evans, Searchroom Archivist With Spring just beginning, farms across the country will be abuzz with preparations for new life and new crops. Looking to just one collection that documents farm life, we will be delving into East Harting Farm (AM 1134) which was farmed by William Lory Hosking from 1930 to until his…
Continue reading ➞ Farm life during the month of March, 1951
By Nick Corbo-Stewart, Archivist and Volunteer Coordinator In this series of blogs looking at new collections at West Sussex Record Office (WSRO), I will continue to guide you, the reader, through the variety of work undertaken by the volunteers. Through a culmination of sorting, listing, ordering, cataloguing and packaging, their completed collections are now open…
By Imogen Russell, Archives Assistant PH 30099, 30084, 30138,30103 & 30085 Every few years or so, we get an enquiry about the "Men of Bosham". It has always intrigued me and I've wondered why it is so important to the history of Bosham and Chichester. According to several sources, including Maurice Hall’s book on the…
Continue reading ➞ The Men of Bosham – who are they and what do they want
By Jenny Bettger, Archives Assistant (Research) While producing research guides for Quaker and English Civil War records in the Record Office archive I came across the memories of Mary Pennington (MP 3899 and MP 1875), which refer to both the Siege of Arundel and her faith. Mary’s first husband Sir William Springett (or Springate) fought…
Continue reading ➞ The Siege of Arundel and The Springett Family
By Victoria Evans, Searchroom Archivist Please note that the following blog post includes content that some may find upsetting. This year’s Holocaust Memorial Day marks the 80th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau. It is a time to reflect on the atrocities committed and to remember those who were murdered. Within this blog post we…
Continue reading ➞ Holocaust Memorial Day – The Worthing Refugee Committee
Cataloguing sales particulars for a New Town By Nick Corbo-Stewart, Archivist and Volunteer Coordinator Post-war re-development of Crawley led to a large scale planned expansion of the town, creating areas for industry, retail, and urban living. Classified by the government as a ‘New Town’ and overseen by the Crawley Development Corporation (CDC), this was one of…
By Mia Curtis-Mays, Searchroom Assistant CPS 1485/5 - 1 Nov 1962 The beloved department store is something that is sorely missed in the current climate of high street shopping. In Chichester, West Street lost House of Fraser in recent years. This was, surprisingly, not the only department store St George’s House hosted. Before House of…
Continue reading ➞ J D Morant Ltd – West Street’s forgotten department store
By Victoria Evans, Searchroom Archivist PH 15815 - A chilly wintery scene of the cathedral from Westgate fields, c. 1900 The usual images that come to mind when thinking of workhouses will resemble that of Oliver Twist, and rightly so. The conditions for those who relied upon the unions would have been implacable, degrading, and cruel…
West Sussex Record Office 