Conservation of the Miscellaneous Court Papers

By Carina Rosas, Senior Conservator Within the church court records of the Chichester Diocese, a series labelled as miscellaneous court papers, dated 1550’s to 1850’s, was suspected to contain a wealth of information on day-to-day life in West Sussex. It had suffered some damage in the past and the vulnerability of many documents meant cataloguing…

The ‘Sussex Declaration’ of Independence held at West Sussex Record Office

Many of our followers will recall the news last year of the 'Sussex Declaration', an early copy of the US Declaration of Independence, and the only other ceremonial copy of the Declaration known to exist besides the signed 1776 copy now displayed at the National Archives in Washington, D.C. Although the manuscript has been catalogued and stored here at West Sussex Record…