Celebrating our collections dating from 780AD to the present day
By Victoria Evans, Searchroom Archivist PH 15815 - A chilly wintery scene of the cathedral from Westgate fields, c. 1900 The usual images that come to mind when thinking of workhouses will resemble that of Oliver Twist, and rightly so. The conditions for those who relied upon the unions would have been implacable, degrading, and cruel…
By Nick Corbo-Stewart, Archivist and Volunteer Coordinator In this series of blogs looking at new collections at West Sussex Record Office (WSRO), I will continue to guide you, the reader, to the variety of work undertaken by the volunteers. Through a culmination of sorting, listing, ordering, cataloguing and packaging; with the ability to inform and…
Back on the 29th of June a group of colleagues from the Record Office took a social trip to Standen House. This particular trip stemmed from two of us having a deep appreciation of William Morris and the Arts and Crafts movement. We do also plan in the future to visit more historic sites that…
Continue reading ➞ The County Archive Squad visit Standen House
By Victoria Evans, Searchroom Archivist The joy of a holiday is a longstanding staple of British summertime. That feeling of the anticipation as the holiday grows closer and closer. And being to put aside any troubles for just a week or two allows for a moment to switch off your mind from the everyday routine…
By Chris Olver, Project Archivist In this blog, our Documenting HIV Epidemic Project Archivist provides a short history of the impact of HIV on Sex Education teaching in schools in the UK, and how the West Sussex charity, AVERT, contributed to educating young people about the risks of HIV and AIDS, using examples from the…
By Mia Curtis-Mays, Searchroom Assistant Nestled in the forest, on the borderline of West Sussex and a stone’s throw from Hampshire, Stansted House proudly stands in Stansted Park Estate. In SP 1256, the mansion was described as being substantially built of a grey stock brick, stone quoins, and ashleering borders. It boasted 16 Tuscan columns…
By Victoria Evans, Searchroom Archivist Sunset over Cavendish Street, taken by author Having moved to Chichester recently to take up the role of Searchroom Archivist at the West Sussex Record Office, I have been developing my different branches of research that our researchers utilise. Although doing such exercises enables me to provide a better service,…
Continue reading ➞ A Brief History of Cavendish Street – using maps
Matthew Jones, Assistant County Archivist In May, a further series of Sussex archives were launched on Ancestry. Wills and other probate records from 1521 to 1858 were added with over 150,000 records for West Sussex, including over 12,000 probate inventories detailing the contents of houses, farms, pubs, trades and businesses across the county. Probate inventory…
By Nick Corbo-Stewart, Volunteer Co-ordinator and Archivist Volunteers hard at work in the Record Office searchroom This week is National Volunteers' Week and we're taking this opportunity to celebrate the contribution volunteers from the local community make; their hard work has a hugely positive impact on the services the Record Office provides to its researchers.…
Continue reading ➞ National Volunteers’ Week 2023: Volunteers at West Sussex Record Office
By Matthew Jones, Assistant County Archivist If you're someone who enjoys researching your family history, there is a huge amount of archive material available at West Sussex Record Office and it's not unusual for people to trace their roots back to the 1700s or earlier still. Boys at The Lancastrian School, Chichester, 1914 (WSRO E35/19/20)…
West Sussex Record Office 