Celebrating our collections dating from 780AD to the present day
Chosen by Susan Millard, member of staff This anonymous letter was addressed to the Duke of Richmond and was sent to his estate at Goodwood. We can see from the reverse page that it was considered important enough to be forwarded to his London home. Such letters, written during the agricultural disturbances in the winter…
Continue reading ➞ ‘Swing Riots letter’, 2 Dec 1830 (Goodwood Mss 1446 fA18)
Chosen by Lady Emma Barnard This remarkable notebook was kept by my great-aunt Veronica, the daughter of Clive and Alicia Pearson, who lived at Parham. Veronica deposited it with West Sussex Record Office before her death in 1993; it is a moving record of wartime life on the estate, a vignette of an extraordinary time.…
Continue reading ➞ ‘Parham in the War’, 1940-1947 (Parham 1/4/10/3/3)
Chosen by Tim Hudson, former Victoria County History Editor Incumbents of Anglican parishes must often keep lists of their parishioners with details about them; but most probably destroy them when they move on, as being too private and personal. The West Sussex Record Office has two such lists, compiled by the same man first as…
Continue reading ➞ Incumbent’s register of parishioners, c.1850 (Par 174/7/1)
Chosen by Matthew Jones, member of staff We can get a very personal insight into someone’s life by looking through their probate records, and inventories can be the most fascinating of all. We have over 12,000 probate inventories and one of them relates to Mary Cooper, a widow of Midhurst who ran a brewhouse in…
Continue reading ➞ Probate inventory for Mary Cooper of Midhurst, 1743 (Ep/I/29/138/235)
Chosen by Jennifer Mason, member of staff This register, from the archive of Marine and General Mutual Life Assurance Society of Worthing, provides a fascinating insight into life at sea in the 19th century. The entries record the far-flung cities sailors visited, from Alexandria to Hong Kong, Bombay to Balaklava. The volume also records the…
Continue reading ➞ Marine and General Mutual register of life claims, 1853-1895 (Acc 17933)
Chosen by Andy George, member of staff Police occurrence books were daily diaries containing a record of every official occurrence reported within the Division. The books contain reports of enquiries and observations made by the police whilst out on patrol; incidents attended by the police; attendance of person at a police station, and many notes.…
Continue reading ➞ Ballooning incident in Horsham Police Occurrence Book, 1891-1899 (Pol/W/H/1/1)
Chosen by Chris Hare on behalf of Worthing Society for the Blind Worthing's 'A Journey in Time' project is a lottery-funded project being run by Worthing Society for the Blind to fully explore the fascinating history of the sight-impaired community in Worthing and record this heritage for posterity. Volunteers are undertaking archival research and recording…
Continue reading ➞ Worthing Home for the Blind Management Committee minutes, 1937-1960 (WOC/CM64/5)
Chosen by Alison McCann, former member of staff Wednesday 20 July sees the 47th anniversary of the first manned mission to land on the moon. However, West Sussex Record Office has connections to lunar exploration centuries before Neil Armstrong took his famous steps, with a map drawn by a British astronomer in the seventeenth century.…
Continue reading ➞ 1610 Map of the Moon (PHA HMC 241/9 f.17)
Chosen by James Peill, Curator at Goodwood House This thin sheet of heavily-folded paper is probably the single most important document in the Goodwood archive. It is the earliest known written rules of cricket in existence. They were drawn up for matches between the 2nd Duke of Richmond’s XII (instead of the ususal XI) and Mr…
Continue reading ➞ The Earliest Known Written Rules of Cricket, 1727 (Goodwood Mss 1884)
Chosen by Lauren Clifton, member of staff George Hilton & Sons was a business in Haywards Heath for over a century, starting as an upholstery, cabinet makers and house furnishers in 1882, the family company developed to include removals and warehousing, an undertakers, and became Hiltons Department Store 100 years later in 1982. From the…
Continue reading ➞ Album/Scrapbook History of George Hilton & Sons, 1872-1992 (Add Mss 54798)
West Sussex Record Office 