Celebrating our collections dating from 780AD to the present day
By Mia Curtis-Mays, Archives Assistant I am currently part of a digitisation project scanning the glass negatives from the Chichester Photographic Services collection (CPS). Through wanting to find out more about the collection I was working on, I discovered that the founder of Chichester Photographic Services has a legacy in the realms of film and…
Continue reading ➞ Harry Guermonprez: Founder of Chichester Photographic Services Ltd
By Bill Gage, Guest Speaker My first recollections of Bognor Station go back to the mid 1950s, when my family would travel down by train from Essex for holidays. As our electric train approached the station I would hope to see a steam locomotive on the local goods train, waiting in the sidings. Once on…
Continue reading ➞ Tuesday Talk: The Bognor Branch – 160 years of railways in Bognor
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 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…
Between the centenary of the Representation of the People Act on 6th Feb 2018, which granted the first women the right to vote, and International Women's Day on 8th March, we have been using Twitter and Instagram to share some of the notable West Sussex women involved in the campaign for suffrage. Using the tag #WestSussexWomen you can follow…
Continue reading ➞ International Women’s Day: West Sussex Women and the Centenary of Suffrage
‘Earlier today, apparently, a woman rang the BBC and said she heard there was a hurricane on the way. Well, if you’re watching, don’t worry, there isn’t’ Many will remember the immortal words of weatherman Michael Fish, whose casual dismissal of the approaching storm left the UK public completely unprepared for the weather front that…
Continue reading ➞ Wild Was the Wind in West Sussex: The Great Storm of 1987
Chosen by The Sussex Family History Group This chemist’s prescription book from Bognor was bought by the Record Office using a grant from the Sussex Family History Group in 2015. It records a patient index and ingredients for prescriptions, and not only provides a unique look into the ailments and cures available in the…
Continue reading ➞ Bognor chemist’s prescription book, 1874-1876 (AM944/1)
West Sussex Record Office 