Celebrating our collections dating from 780AD to the present day
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…
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
Today, we mark International Women’s Day by taking a look at one of the lesser-known but no less important political groups which advocated women’s suffrage during the early 20th century. The activities of the National Union of Women’s Suffrage Societies (NUWSS) and the Women’s Social and Political Union (WSPU) and their leaders – Millicent Fawcett…
Today Crawley is a thriving town of over 110,000 people and is the largest inland town in West Sussex. However, what is now a bustling metropolis started life as the quiet rural villages of Crawley, Ifield, and Three Bridges. Read on to find out how and why this changed. Crawley on Film Queen Elizabeth II…
Continue reading ➞ West Sussex Unwrapped II Month 1: Crawley New Town
By Nichola Court, Archivist Mr Richard Carver lighting the lamps in Lombard Street, Petworth, 1931 [Garland N4333] George Garland was one of the county’s best known photographers and his archive is one of West Sussex Record Office’s most popular collections. On what would have been his 120th birthday, Archivist Nichola Court looks back on his…
By Abigail Hartley, Searchroom Archivist PD 1159 - The Salvation Army Riots in Worthing No this isn’t a skeleton Halloween post! In fact, if anything, it is more suited to Dry January! For context, during our 2019 December Closed Fortnight, I gave myself the task of going through our Prints and Drawings Collections, cataloguing and…
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
Rationing began in the early stages of the Second World War, but it's impact was immediate and long lasting. What restrictions were there on meat, petrol, sugar, fabric, and - most important of all - tea? And how long did it last?
Something light and fluffy this time, a diary entry of sorts of trip north west to some colleagues, catching the last of the good weather and enjoying endless amounts of cake!
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…
Continue reading ➞ The ‘Sussex Declaration’ of Independence held at West Sussex Record Office
West Sussex Record Office 