Celebrating our collections dating from 780AD to the present day
Kate Mosse, novelist, playwright and researcher I first hit the Archive in 2013, researching for my Gothic thriller - The Taxidermist's Daughter - which is set in Fishbourne and Chichester in 1912. I needed maps, I needed information, but I mostly needed to connect with the texture of the period. I love research, so I pored…
Continue reading ➞ Potter’s Museum of Curiosity, 1977 (Lib 12426)
Chosen by Richard Plowman and Barry Aldridge on behalf of The Murray Club Lord Nelson sent a letter to the then Captain George Murray on 13 April 1803 telling him he was ‘fixed as fate’ his first Captain, with the original intention that Murray should be Captain of the Victory. In the event Murray…
Continue reading ➞ Letter from Nelson to Murray, 1803 (AM 760/1/134/3)
Richard Howell of West Sussex Archives Society (WSAS) I love old maps. I love poring over them and imagining a landscape that has probably long since been changed beyond recognition, yet at the same time being able to pick out features which still exist. They provide a juxtaposition of past and present,…
Chosen by West Sussex Federation of Women’s Institutes (text by Holly Wright) This sugar thermometer, deposited by Singleton WI, is certainly an object which embodies the traditional (and stereotypical) ‘Jam and Jerusalem’ image of the Women’s Institute. However, current members of the WI would no doubt be quick to emphasise that it is so much…
Continue reading ➞ Sugar thermometer, early 20th century (AM 930/3/1)
Chosen by Gillian Edom, former member of staff When I was searching for material about the history of Tangmere parish for the Joining up our Heritage project I came across a brief entry in the WSRO catalogue. All it said was Memorandum Book of…
Continue reading ➞ Memorandum book of Thomas Osborn of Tangmere, 1797-1807 (Add Mss 48413)
Chosen by Keith Lawson, volunteer I have volunteered at West Sussex Record Office for a number of years now. A couple of years ago, I was asked to catalogue a collection of 116 valuation books compiled by Wyatt and Son, who were Agricultural Valuers and Auctioneers. Established in 1826, Wyatt and Son moved to Baffins Hall, Chichester,…
Continue reading ➞ Wyatt and Son valuation book no 41, 1914-1917 (AM 692/112)
Chosen by The Royal Sussex Regimental Association (text by Matthew Jones) In 1873 a common depot was established at Chichester for the 35th and 107th Regiments of Foot, and in 1881 the two Regiments were reconstituted as the 1st and 2nd Battalions, The Royal Sussex Regiment. This album, which forms part of the extensive and…
Continue reading ➞ Royal Sussex Regiment photograph album, 1865-1894 (RSR PH/2/1)
Chosen by Richard Childs, former member of staff My favourite document is the map of the Manors of East Dean, Graffham and East Lavington, 1597 (Add Mss 48838). My reason for choosing it is not simply because it is the oldest manuscript estate map in the Record Office, nor that being drawn on paper, it…
Continue reading ➞ Map of the Manors of East Dean, Graffham and East Lavington, 1597 (Add Mss 48838)
Chosen by Katherine Slay, member of staff This photograph shows Eric Pashley flying a bi-plane on the day he won the Shell Trophy at Shoreham in July 1914. In the foreground are the parked vehicles of some of those who had come to watch the flying race. Powered flight was still in its infancy at…
Continue reading ➞ Pashley bi-plane at Shoreham airfield, July 1914 (AM625/3/15)
Chosen by Linda Bowen, volunteer I have been a volunteer at West Sussex Record Office for eight years and, during that time, have transcribed very many Petworth House records, amongst other things. I also took part in the Record Office's externally-funded 'Joining Up Our Heritage' project, which took place in 2009/2010, and it was during my research for this project…
West Sussex Record Office 