The County Archive Squad visit Standen House

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…

The Rolling Stones’ Redlands Drugs Bust

By Victoria Evans, Searchroom Archivist The Rolling Stones in April 1967 (cropped from original) With the upcoming release of ‘Redlands’ at Chichester Festival Theatre (running 20th September to 18th October), we wanted to take this chance to delve deeper into the true story behind the stage adaptation. Looking to the records we hold at the…

Building, Acting and Relaxing: A brief dip into new collections at West Sussex Record Office

By Nick Corbo-Stewart, Archivist and Volunteer Coordinator The volunteers at West Sussex Record Office (WSRO) work with a wide variety of collections. They sort, list, order, catalogue and package. Once ready, these are opened for use to our researchers. Within this, the first of a series of blogs, I will introduce you, the reader, to…

The Log of the Jogolong – a caravanning holiday through Surrey, Sussex and Hampshire

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…

Cataloguing Crawley New Town: Gatwick Airport

By Alice Millard, New Jerusalems Project Archivist Crawley has been synonymous with Gatwick Airport for almost as long as the new town has been in existence. Residents of West Sussex are well aware of Crawley’s impact on the county, but for those outside of the county, many discover the town in relation to Gatwick as…

The birds and the bees (and contagious disease): A short history of HIV in Sex Education, 1980s-1990s

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…

Fire, festivities and revolvers: The story of George and Una Wilder at Stansted House

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…

National Volunteers Week, 3-9 June 2024-Volunteers at West Sussex Record Office

By Nick Corbo-Stewart, Volunteer Coordinator and Archivist In the week that celebrates the 40th anniversary of this event, organised by the NCVO (The National Council for Voluntary Organisations), we at the West Sussex Record Office (WSRO) would like to thank all our volunteers from the local community who make a positive contribution towards the services…

D-Day 80: Memories of local residents

By Matthew Jones, Assistant County Archivist Residents of towns and villages along the south coast of England would have been only too aware of the huge build-up of military personnel, vehicles and equipment as the preparations for D-Day gathered pace in early 1944. Bognor Regis: airborne assault glider being towed by an aircraft, 6 June…

Cataloguing Crawley New Town: The New Town Blues

By Alice Millard, New Jerusalems Project Archivist Please be aware that this blog post discusses mental health issues and drug use. No, the 'New Town Blues' were not a football club, but rather the name given by the British press and several 20th century sociologists to a perceived phenomenon occurring in the country's new towns…