Celebrating our collections dating from 780AD to the present day
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 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. The…
By Jo McConville, Project Archivist As I write, it’s been around two months since I went into work at the Record Office and my old routine – commuting on the train, colleagues in the office, tea in the staffroom – has become a hazy memory. As described in this recent blogpost, WSRO staff have been…
By Nichola Court, Archivist As a mother to three young children (6, 4 and 3 at the time of writing), coming to work is something of a break from the whirlwind of life at home; a chance to use my brain for something other than citing the members of the Justice League and Avengers teams…
By Martin Hayes, County Local Studies Librarian, with thanks to Christine Kilby for document transcriptions On this 75th anniversary of VE Day, not only do we wish to celebrate the day, as best we can during lockdown, but also let us remember and give thanks to all those who served, died and suffered, overseas and…
Continue reading ➞ VE Day in West Sussex – Part Two: Records
By Martin Hayes and Alan Readman As we approach the 75th anniversary of VE Day, not only do we wish to celebrate that day, as best we can during this challenging period, but also we remember and give thanks to all those who served, died and suffered, overseas and at home, in the Second World…
Continue reading ➞ VE Day in West Sussex 8th May 1945 – Part One: an Overview
By Nichola Court, Archivist Mr Richard Carver lighting the lamps in Lombard Street, Petworth, 1931 [Garland N4333] George Garland was one of the county’s best known photographers and his archive is one of West Sussex Record Office’s most popular collections. On what would have been his 120th birthday, Archivist Nichola Court looks back on his…
By The Staff of West Sussex Record Office Photograph by Abigail Hartley. Featuring trusty coworkers Mr Brown and Rex the Dog. Last week Immie gave a wonderful update to what she had had been working through in the time since the Record Office staff have been working from home. We thought we would give other…
By Imogen Russell, Searchroom Assistant. Wednesday 1st April 2020. This is a bit like the assignment you’d get, as a child, when your teacher would ask you to write about What You Did On Your Holiday. Well, we’ve been asked by our Social Media officers - Abbie and Alice - to write about what we…
Continue reading ➞ A Day In the Life… of a Searchroom Assistant
By Nichola Court, Archivist West Sussex Record Office is fortunate to hold the collections of a number of professional photographers and studios, including those of George Garland, Walter Kevis and Chichester Photographic Studio. These collections provide an immediate visual representation of the past, albeit – usually – a carefully managed and planned representation, according to…
Continue reading ➞ ‘Snapping the centuries’: the photographs of John Smith
