Celebrating our collections dating from 780AD to the present day
By Jo McConville, Transatlantic Ties project archivist. You can read more on the TT project here. For a long time, I didn’t really ‘get’ Thanksgiving. Perhaps not so surprising, given that it’s such a distinctively American holiday which doesn’t register on our British calendars. My main exposure to it came during my 1990s Friends obsession,…
Continue reading ➞ Thanksgiving: A Transatlantic Ties update
By Nichola Court, Archivst A few weeks ago, a series of remarkable photographs cropped up in some of my social media feeds. Dating from the 1840s, the photographs captured the inhabitants of Horsham and their surrounds and were taken by Captain Thomas Honywood, a local man with a keen interest in archaeology as well as…
Continue reading ➞ A Mystery Snapper’s Sojourns Through Sussex
By Alan Readman and Martin Hayes The Battle of Britain, fought mainly in the skies above Sussex and Kent, took place between July and October 1940 and this month marks its 80th anniversary. September 15th has been designated Battle of Britain Day to commemorate RAF Fighter Command’s decisive victory over the German Luftwaffe. Key events…
Continue reading ➞ West Sussex Airfields and the Battle of Britain 1940
By Nichola Court, Archivist WSRO holds a large and rich photographic archive of the county, dating from the earliest days of photography up to the modern day. One of our most compelling collections is that of the amateur photographer John Fletcher, a local man whose life was tragically cut short by World War I. In…
By Imogen Russell, Searchroom Assistant Alice, one of our Social media fairies, posted images of this document at the beginning of lockdown. Click here for the original post on Facebook. I managed to gain copies before beginning to work from home, allowing me to write about the subject of this week's blog post - The…
By Nichola Court, Archivist As a mother to three young children (6, 4 and 3 at the time of writing), coming to work is something of a break from the whirlwind of life at home; a chance to use my brain for something other than citing the members of the Justice League and Avengers teams…
By Martin Hayes, County Local Studies Librarian, with thanks to Christine Kilby for document transcriptions On this 75th anniversary of VE Day, not only do we wish to celebrate the day, as best we can during lockdown, but also let us remember and give thanks to all those who served, died and suffered, overseas and…
Continue reading ➞ VE Day in West Sussex – Part Two: Records
By Martin Hayes and Alan Readman As we approach the 75th anniversary of VE Day, not only do we wish to celebrate that day, as best we can during this challenging period, but also we remember and give thanks to all those who served, died and suffered, overseas and at home, in the Second World…
Continue reading ➞ VE Day in West Sussex 8th May 1945 – Part One: an Overview
By Nichola Court, Archivist West Sussex Record Office is fortunate to hold the collections of a number of professional photographers and studios, including those of George Garland, Walter Kevis and Chichester Photographic Studio. These collections provide an immediate visual representation of the past, albeit – usually – a carefully managed and planned representation, according to…
Continue reading ➞ ‘Snapping the centuries’: the photographs of John Smith
By Jenny Mason, Senior Archivist Last week we asked if you might consider keeping a diary of your experience of the Covid-19 pandemic and how it is affecting you – recording your experiences, thoughts and feelings. We thought this would be an appropriate time to share some of the hundreds of diaries we hold at…
Continue reading ➞ A Journey into the Past: Exploring Historic Diaries
West Sussex Record Office 