Celebrating our collections dating from 780AD to the present day
By Tim Hudson (guest blogger) What types of historic documents do architectural historians use? Continuing with our guest written series, the once Editor of the Sussex Victoria County History and co author of the updated Pevsner guide to West Sussex, Tim Hudson, will be exploring the types of records used when researching built heritage. Each…
By Katherine Slay, Archives Assistant In our latest blog post, Katherine Slay explains more about our on-going project to catalogue the tens of thousands of employee cards of the Southern England Railway company. These are gradually being made available whilst being indexed at the same time. Family historians will be able to find out more…
Continue reading ➞ The Railway Card Project: ‘B’ surname cards
By Alice Millard, Research Assistant Written accounts of serpent-like creatures, often referred to as dragons, appear throughout British history. They’re comparable to today’s sensationalist news stories about spooky big cat sightings. Both are creatures who normally cannot be accurately described - yet people have attempted to convince others of the existence of monsters for millennia.…
Continue reading ➞ The monstrous serpent of St Leonard’s Forest
By Tim Hudson (guest blogger) What types of historic documents do architectural historians use? Continuing with our guest written series, the once Editor of the Sussex Victoria County History and co author of the updated Pevsner guide to West Sussex, Tim Hudson, will be exploring the types of records used when researching built heritage. Each…
Continue reading ➞ Historic records and architectural histories: drawings and models
By Martin Hayes, County Local Studies Librarian William Penn is best known as the founder of Pennsylvania, among the most successful of all American colonies, and as a leader of the fledgling Society of Friends, better known as Quakers. He was the only man in the 17th century to achieve as much in ‘Olde England’…
By Tim Hudson (guest blogger) What types of historic documents do architectural historians use? Continuing with our guest written series, the once Editor of the Sussex Victoria County History and co author of the updated Pevsner guide to West Sussex, Tim Hudson, will be exploring the types of records used when researching built heritage. Each blog, Tim will look at a significant West Sussex building through a variety of historic documents available at the Record Office. Today we look at the maps of Selsey.
Adjusting to a new home, integrating (or lack thereof) with the local children, and living with complete strangers... It was a lot to ask of the evacuees that came to London 80 years ago this month!
In 2017 the Sussex Record Society published a fascinating volume of church court proceedings taken from the Diocesan Archives held at the Record Office. Depositions, which can be found in the Ep/I/11 series, are the accounts of cases held at the Bishop of Chichester’s Consistory Court. These courts covered a plethora of local issues and disputes including quarrels over wills, tithe disputes, matrimonial disagreements, and the ever amusing defamation cases. However they can be difficult to read and interpret for the modern reader, which is where the Sussex Record Society and Peter Wilkinson got involved.
By Abigail Hartley, Searchroom Archivist One of the most crucial aspects that our volunteers tirelessly work towards is the accessioning of our smaller collections. AM (Additional Manuscripts) contain some of our most visually interesting and varied documents. Within the last 12 months, here is a quick overview of just some of the items we have…
By Alice Millard and Abigail Hartley We are beginning a brand new blog project, which will continue over the next year or so on this page. We hope to have each member of staff talk about their role in the Record Office to reveal what it is we do, and why we do what we do. First…
Continue reading ➞ A Day in the Life of…A Searchroom Archivist
West Sussex Record Office 