Celebrating our collections dating from 780AD to the present day
By Abigail Hartley, Searchroom Archivist West Sussex County Council Logo It’s hard to miss the numerous badges and arms of a blue shield with yellow birds dotted around West Sussex. You may be surprised to learn, however, that no English county had any arms officially granted to it until after the 1889 Local Government Act.…
Continue reading ➞ Sussex Coat of Arms: Martlets (not) in Flight
Prior to the British Witchcraft Act of 1735, the infamous witch trails of the Early Modern period saw widespread moral panic sweep through a religiously unstable Europe, resulting in the horrific punishment of individuals for their supposed sorcery. Although no instances of witch drowning or burning have been evidenced in West Sussex, accusations of witchcraft still led to the persecution…
Continue reading ➞ Witchcraft and the ‘Wicked Women’ of Sussex
Chosen by Sue Hepburn, researcher In five manuscript volumes and an edited typed text, entitled 'A March with the Infantry', the memoirs of Ralph Ellis are a powerful and compelling record of the life of a soldier serving in the Royal Sussex Regiment on the Western Front in the Great War. Ellis, an artist and inn-sign painter, lived in…
Continue reading ➞ Great War memoir, 1914-1917 (Add Mss 25001-25006)
West Sussex Record Office 