Celebrating our collections dating from 780AD to the present day
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 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 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…
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, to the variety of work undertaken by the volunteers. Through a culmination of sorting, listing, ordering, cataloguing and packaging; with the ability to inform and…
By Katherine Slay, Archive Assistant The biggest collection of black and white railway photographs held at the Record Office is now available to search via our online catalogue. Bill Sumner was a very keen photographer, taking thousands of images, all of which came to the Record Office in 2009. William George 'Bill' Sumner was born…
In August 2024, the Record Office was awarded a grant by Lloyd's Register Foundation as part of their small grants scheme to fund the cataloguing of the Marine and General Mutual Life Assurance Society Archive, deposited at WSRO in 2015. The work has now been completed, and the collection is accessible to users in our…
By Bill Gage, Guest Speaker My first recollections of Bognor Station go back to the mid 1950s, when my family would travel down by train from Essex for holidays. As our electric train approached the station I would hope to see a steam locomotive on the local goods train, waiting in the sidings. Once on…
Continue reading ➞ Tuesday Talk: The Bognor Branch – 160 years of railways in Bognor
By Victoria Evans, Searchroom Archivist With it being the month of ghosts and ghouls, we thought it only right to write a short piece about the famed British ghost hunter and physical researcher, Harry Price. Harry Price, c.1930, creator: David Jackson, ©University of London Born on the 17th of January 1881 in Red Lion Square,…
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