Celebrating our collections dating from 780AD to the present day
Peek into the history of West Sussex's traditions, some you may know and some you may not. A few are shared with other counties but others are unique to West Sussex. Traditions have, by their nature, changed with time and many are no longer practised. If you've experienced a 'West Sussex tradition' let us know…
Continue reading ➞ West Sussex Unwrapped Week 6: Rural traditions
Though 2020 has not really been the year for street gatherings, if there's one thing people like to do - it's have a celebration! Royal Jubilees and Coronations have been some of the easiest excuses for communities to gather together and have a bit of a party. Taking a look through the centuries, we're able…
Continue reading ➞ West Sussex Unwrapped Week 5: Jubilees and Coronations
Map of Sussex, and its extensive coastline, by James Wyld, c1860, PM 124 The coast of West Sussex is beautiful, but also deadly. The sea, with its unpredictable swells and lack of shelter from squally storms, has claimed many lives and countless vessels. Although the United Kingdom is an island with a deep connection with…
To match up with Screen Archive South East's Day in Horsted Keynes Women’s Institute film, this week we are taking a look at what WSRO hold from up and down the county regarding WIs. There's a lot of places to visit, and a lot of memories to recall and people to see, so let's get…
Continue reading ➞ West Sussex Unwrapped Week 3: Food, Certificates and Scrapbooking of the WI
By Nichola Court, Archivist WSRO holds a large and rich photographic archive of the county, dating from the earliest days of photography up to the modern day. One of our most compelling collections is that of the amateur photographer John Fletcher, a local man whose life was tragically cut short by World War I. In…
Arguably, the profession of nursing offered the same essential experience for every nurse. Yet, it was the experiences born from a specific place and time which gave each nurse their own unique story, and West Sussex has been home to a number of historically significant institutions. From the medieval hospitality of St Mary's Hospital in…
With around 50 miles of picturesque coastline, it's no surprise that West Sussex has been a popular summer destination since the 1700s. As a result, resort towns like Bognor, Littlehampton, Worthing and the Witterings developed rapidly and have all been home to beachfront villas, donkey rides, boarding houses, bathing machines, and of course ice cream!…
Continue reading ➞ West Sussex Unwrapped: A Sussex Summertime
By Imogen Russell, Searchroom Assistant Alice, one of our Social media fairies, posted images of this document at the beginning of lockdown. Click here for the original post on Facebook. I managed to gain copies before beginning to work from home, allowing me to write about the subject of this week's blog post - The…
By Georgia, Record Office Volunteer Spanning the years 1771 to 2003, the collection of deeds relating to The Midhurst Club tell the history of a long-standing property on Midhurst’s North Street. Although the collection is titled ‘Deeds relating to The Midhurst Club, Midhurst’, there is almost two hundred years of deed history before the Club…
Continue reading ➞ Finding stories in property deeds: A history of The Midhurst Club
By Alice Millard, Research Assistant Doreen Peskett (née Strange) was an avid diary keeper throughout the Second World War. So avid, in fact, that this blog only focuses on her entries up to December 1941. She was one of many thousands of women who joined the Women's Land Army and provided much needed agricultural support.…
West Sussex Record Office 