Celebrating our collections dating from 780AD to the present day
By Jennifer Mason, Assistant County Archivist (Collections Management) It’s definitely feeling wintry in West Sussex as we head towards Christmas. Today’s blog looks back at past West Sussex winters and celebrates a variety of cold weather activities. View of snow on the Downs at Fittleworth, 1947 (John Smith PH 13/156) We’ve had quite a mild…
By Jennifer Mason, Assistant County Archivist (Collections Management) Acc 14373 - Guinea Pig Club Christmas Magazine, 1948: Drinks with McIndoe! ‘The entrance fee is something most men would not care to pay and the conditions of membership are arduous in the extreme’ These words from renowned plastic surgeon Sir Archibald McIndoe describe the famous Guinea…
CPS 1876/4: Roman remains at Fishbourne, 28 July 1963 By Jenny Mason, Team Leader (Collections Management) Britain’s Roman past has long captured the imagination of antiquarians and archaeologists alike and surveys and excavations of Romano-British sites have taken place since the 16th century. One of the earliest, and most famous, Roman finds in Chichester was…
Continue reading ➞ Digging into the Past: Excavating Chichester’s Roman remains
WSRO Acc 19802 - Ernest Wilson standing in the Highdown gardens By Jennifer Mason, Senior Collections Management Archivist In two prior blog posts staff at WSRO have talked about the work that they’ve been doing at home through the pandemic. Today’s blog post is just one example of how we’ve been able to continue to…
Continue reading ➞ Explorations in the Highdown Gardens Archive
Today Crawley is a thriving town of over 110,000 people and is the largest inland town in West Sussex. However, what is now a bustling metropolis started life as the quiet rural villages of Crawley, Ifield, and Three Bridges. Read on to find out how and why this changed. Crawley on Film Queen Elizabeth II…
Continue reading ➞ West Sussex Unwrapped II Month 1: Crawley New Town
By Jenny Mason, Senior Archivist Last week we asked if you might consider keeping a diary of your experience of the Covid-19 pandemic and how it is affecting you – recording your experiences, thoughts and feelings. We thought this would be an appropriate time to share some of the hundreds of diaries we hold at…
Continue reading ➞ A Journey into the Past: Exploring Historic Diaries
When Lauren suggested a series of blogs based around historical recipes I went straight for this recipe for cinnamon biscuits from a book belonging to a Mrs Goacher of Jessops Farm, Ashurst, and dating from 1867 (Add Mss 14940). I love anything cinnamon flavoured and with only five ingredients this sounded like my kind of…
Continue reading ➞ Historic baking – 19th century cinnamon biscuits
Chosen by Jennifer Mason, member of staff This register, from the archive of Marine and General Mutual Life Assurance Society of Worthing, provides a fascinating insight into life at sea in the 19th century. The entries record the far-flung cities sailors visited, from Alexandria to Hong Kong, Bombay to Balaklava. The volume also records the…
Continue reading ➞ Marine and General Mutual register of life claims, 1853-1895 (Acc 17933)
West Sussex Record Office 