Celebrating our collections dating from 780AD to the present day
By Catherine Tite, Volunteer Over the course of 2023, many volunteers devote their time to listing and cataloguing the collections of West Sussex Record Office (WSRO). Catherine, a regular volunteer, recently completed a project to do this with the papers, notes and photographs of former Bognor Regis and Barnham resident Edmond Martin Venables. An amateur…
Continue reading ➞ West Sussex Polymath: Edmond Martin Venables 1901-1990
By Alan Green - Guest Speaker In this talk local historian and author Alan Green will, with the aid of Stella Palmer’s slides and some others, take you on a tour of the city as it was fifty years ago; a city preparing for pedestrianisation but still ruled by the motor car. You will see…
Please note that this blog post contains some graphic descriptions of injury. By Victoria Evans, Searchroom Archivist Working in an archive allows you the opportunity to stumble upon unexpected pieces of history and how it was recorded. As we answer enquiries on all manner of subjects it is sometimes too easy to fall down a…
Continue reading ➞ Murder, They Wrote…in the register of baptisms
Ian Everest - Guest Speaker Some forty years ago Ian Everest started out on the journey of researching his family history and just like many others who embark on the same path, his life has never been the same since! It brought about change of career into an occupation which was directly related to his…
Continue reading ➞ Tuesday Talk: The Women’s Land Army – a Sussex connection
Manor Royal is a distinctive district of Crawley. It was earmarked early in the New Town's planning stage as the perfect area to contain the town's industrial pursuits. From its opening in the early 1950s, it has been home to factories, big and small, large warehouses, and offices. However, where once the district was a…
Continue reading ➞ Cataloguing Crawley New Town: An Industrial Haven
By Nichola Court, Archivist Extract from the anonymous Flapper's diary, noting her journey down to Chichester and various activities in the area (ref AM 75/1) In 2008, WSRO purchased at auction an item listed as ‘a “flapper’s” social diary’ (catalogued as AM 75/1). Although the diary is short, covering barely three months, the auctioneers noted…
Continue reading ➞ ‘Who’s that girl?’ The anonymous diary of a 1920s flapper (part 1)
Matthew Jones, Assistant County Archivist In May, a further series of Sussex archives were launched on Ancestry. Wills and other probate records from 1521 to 1858 were added with over 150,000 records for West Sussex, including over 12,000 probate inventories detailing the contents of houses, farms, pubs, trades and businesses across the county. Probate inventory…
Each development corporation managing the building of a new town produced a master plan. This document, or documents, outlined the vision for the new town and went into detail about the provision for housing, amenities, shops, schools and leisure places. Accompanying the documents were a series of large scale planning maps which visualised aspects of…
Continue reading ➞ Cataloguing Crawley New Town: The Master Plan(s) and Planner(s)
By Nichola Court, Archivist Shippams 4/1/2, detail from price list (c1965) Diary extract recording work carried out and weather conditions, October 1976 (catalogue reference Peter Bailey 3/1/2) On 10th June, Explore Your Archives will be celebrating business records. West Sussex Record Office holds the records of many of our county's businesses, from farms to estate…
Continue reading ➞ Brilliant business records: an update on the Shippam’s collection
By Nick Corbo-Stewart, Volunteer Co-ordinator and Archivist Volunteers hard at work in the Record Office searchroom This week is National Volunteers' Week and we're taking this opportunity to celebrate the contribution volunteers from the local community make; their hard work has a hugely positive impact on the services the Record Office provides to its researchers.…
Continue reading ➞ National Volunteers’ Week 2023: Volunteers at West Sussex Record Office
West Sussex Record Office 