Celebrating our collections dating from 780AD to the present day
By Alice Millard, project archivist Behind the development of Crawley New Town was a phenomenal group of people. As well as the ten or so members of the executive committee, there were more than 100 employees across planning, estate, legal, administrative, financial and housing departments. These employees were some of the best architects, engineers, town…
Continue reading ➞ Cataloguing Crawley New Town: The Team Behind the Corp.
By Alice Millard, Research Assistant During our survey of parish registers for entries relating to people of African, Afro-Caribbean, and Indian heritage*, we found the baptism of a teenaged boy called George Diamond Yacoodh in New Shoreham, 1869. George's baptism entry notes that he was a "native of Zanzibar", but was living at St Saviour's…
Continue reading ➞ Stories from the Parish Registers: George Diamond Yacoodh
By Jennifer Mason, Assistant County Archivist (Collections Management) Anyone who lives and works in West Sussex is likely to be well aware of what an important role agriculture has played in the history of the county. At WSRO we have photographs, farm diaries, account books, and maps all of which record agricultural activity through the…
Continue reading ➞ All Creatures Great and Small: the story of a Chichester veterinarian
By Alice Millard, Research Assistant Puglism, n. The art, sport, or practice of fighting with fists; boxing. In the few years that I have been working at West Sussex Record Office, I have stumbled across several 19th century documents relating to pugilistic pursuits in the county. I had wrongly assumed prize fights were the domain…
Continue reading ➞ A Pugilist’s Paradise: Prize Fighting in 19th Century West Sussex
After almost three years, our Transatlantic Ties project came to a joyful conclusion on Saturday 11th June with a symposium at the University of Chichester. With all the challenges of the last few years, we were delighted to be able to hold the event as originally intended, and the appearance of our often elusive British…
Continue reading ➞ A celebratory end to the Transatlantic Ties project!
Chichester Festival Theatre, 1959-1962 Sixty years ago, in 1962, Chichester's brand new Festival Theatre opened. Looking rather like a mid-century spaceship, the theatre had come into existence so quickly it may have indeed appeared out of thin air. It was the brainchild of optician Leslie Evershed-Martin, who, in just two years, had planned, funded, built,…
Continue reading ➞ West Sussex Unwrapped III: Summer – Chichester Festival Theatre, 1959-1962
By Alice Millard, Research Assistant Cecil Pashley's pilot's licence. Specifically, a CA Form 88 issued by the Air Ministry. He was licenced to fly an AVRO 504K aircraft carrying passengers or goods for hire or reward. 1 June 1920 - 23 September 1921. WSRO Ref AM 625/4/1. The history of early aviation in Britain is…
By Alice Millard, Research Assistant Following on from the blog on Charles Douglass and Ann Glanville, published in October 2021, this blog explores the story behind another entry in the parish registers. This time, we are looking into the life of Maria Sophia Rose; a Bengali woman who, at a young age, was brought to…
Continue reading ➞ Stories from the Parish Registers: Maria Sophia Rose, from Bengal to Ifield
By Alice Millard, Research Assistant As part of West Sussex Record Office's Transatlantic Ties project, and ongoing work surrounding intersectionality in the archive, a survey of the county's parish registers for individuals of African, Asian, and Caribbean heritage is underway. London Metropolitan Archives undertook a similar project which began in 2000, the results of which…
Continue reading ➞ Stories from the Parish Registers: Black residents of West Sussex
Oh! the Downs high to the cool sky;And the feel of the sun-warmed moss;And each Cardoon, like a full moon,Fairy-spun of the thistle floss;And the beech grove, and a wood-dove,And the trail where the shepherds pass;And the lark’s song, and the wind-song,And the scent of the parching grass! By John Galsworthy Linseed mowing at Strood,…
Continue reading ➞ West Sussex Unwrapped II: Month 5 – South Downs National Park
West Sussex Record Office 