Celebrating our collections dating from 780AD to the present day
By Nick Corbo-Stewart, Archivist In 1999, a collection recording the administration of water supply in West Sussex was deposited at WSRO. Covering the years 1833 to 1979, the archive included the records of 23 organisations consisting of private companies, local government bodies and regional authorities. Catalogued by volunteers throughout 2024, these papers were given the…
By Lois Bodie, Archives Assistant The Battle of Quebec, also known as the Battle of the Plains of Abraham, took place on 13th September 1759 and, since reading about it several years ago, it has stayed stuck in my mind. Upon starting at the Record Office, I was excited to learn of a Sussex connection…
Continue reading ➞ ‘An Almost Perpendicular Ascent’: The Battle of Quebec and its Sussex Connections
By Victoria Evans, Searchroom Archivist With Spring just beginning, farms across the country will be abuzz with preparations for new life and new crops. Looking to just one collection that documents farm life, we will be delving into East Harting Farm (AM 1134) which was farmed by William Lory Hosking from 1930 to until his…
Continue reading ➞ Farm life during the month of March, 1951
By Jenny Bettger, Archives Assistant (Research) While producing research guides for Quaker and English Civil War records in the Record Office archive I came across the memories of Mary Pennington (MP 3899 and MP 1875), which refer to both the Siege of Arundel and her faith. Mary’s first husband Sir William Springett (or Springate) fought…
Continue reading ➞ The Siege of Arundel and The Springett Family
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…