Celebrating our collections dating from 780AD to the present day
By Victoria Evans, Searchroom Archivist The Rolling Stones in April 1967 (cropped from original) With the upcoming release of ‘Redlands’ at Chichester Festival Theatre (running 20th September to 18th October), we wanted to take this chance to delve deeper into the true story behind the stage adaptation. Looking to the records we hold at the…
By Nick Corbo-Stewart, Archivist and Volunteer Coordinator The volunteers at West Sussex Record Office (WSRO) work with a wide variety of collections. They sort, list, order, catalogue and package. Once ready, these are opened for use to our researchers. Within this, the first of a series of blogs, I will introduce you, the reader, to…
By Victoria Evans, Searchroom Archivist The joy of a holiday is a longstanding staple of British summertime. That feeling of the anticipation as the holiday grows closer and closer. And being to put aside any troubles for just a week or two allows for a moment to switch off your mind from the everyday routine…
By Alice Millard, New Jerusalems Project Archivist Crawley has been synonymous with Gatwick Airport for almost as long as the new town has been in existence. Residents of West Sussex are well aware of Crawley’s impact on the county, but for those outside of the county, many discover the town in relation to Gatwick as…
Continue reading ➞ Cataloguing Crawley New Town: Gatwick Airport
By Chris Olver, Project Archivist In this blog, our Documenting HIV Epidemic Project Archivist provides a short history of the impact of HIV on Sex Education teaching in schools in the UK, and how the West Sussex charity, AVERT, contributed to educating young people about the risks of HIV and AIDS, using examples from the…
By Matthew Jones, Assistant County Archivist Residents of towns and villages along the south coast of England would have been only too aware of the huge build-up of military personnel, vehicles and equipment as the preparations for D-Day gathered pace in early 1944. Bognor Regis: airborne assault glider being towed by an aircraft, 6 June…
By Alice Millard, New Jerusalems Project Archivist Please be aware that this blog post discusses mental health issues and drug use. No, the 'New Town Blues' were not a football club, but rather the name given by the British press and several 20th century sociologists to a perceived phenomenon occurring in the country's new towns…
Continue reading ➞ Cataloguing Crawley New Town: The New Town Blues
By Imogen Russell, Searchroom Supervisor Figure 1 - Kevis 1-D45 - Miss Daintrey's Rat As with previous blog posts an animal has invariably had an intriguing impact on the subject matter, and this blog post is no exception. When looking at the catalogue description for Par 65/9/1 – the churchwardens accounts for West Dean, just north…
Continue reading ➞ The Wonderful World of Churchwardens Accounts
By Alice Millard, Project Archivist After a year of cataloguing, the Crawley New Town archive is now available to the public at West Sussex Record Office. It is the first time these 3000+ records have been fully accessible, and researchers can search the catalogue online via our website. So, what's in the archive? The nucleus…
Continue reading ➞ Cataloguing Crawley New Town: The Catalogue is Live!
By Alice Millard, archivist Toussaint Louverture on horseback, 1802, anon. The Met. Before Haiti was so named it was called Saint Domingue, having been colonised by the Spanish in the 15th century then controlled by the French in the 17th century. As with most other Caribbean islands at the time, Saint Domingue's economy was dependent…
Continue reading ➞ The Mysterious Truth of Toussaint Louverture Jr in Chichester
West Sussex Record Office 