East Sussex Record Office Report of the County Archivist April 2008 to March 2009 Introduction
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eastsussex.gov.uk East Sussex Record Office Report of the County Archivist April 2008 to March 2009 Introduction The year was again dominated by efforts towards achieving The Keep, the new Historical Resource Centre, but the core work of the Record Office continued more busily than ever and there was much of which to be proud. In July 2008 we took in our ten-thousandth accession, something of a milestone in the office’s own history of almost 60 years. An application to the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF) for £4.9million towards the costs of The Keep was submitted by the Record Office on behalf of the capital partners, East Sussex County Council, Brighton & Hove City Council and the University of Sussex, in September. This represented around 20% of the anticipated costs of the building, since the partners remain committed to find the remainder. In December we learned our fate: that we had been unsuccessful. Feedback from the HLF indicated that ours had been an exemplary application, and one which they would have liked to have supported but, in a year when the effect of diverting HLF money to the Olympics was being felt, it was thought necessary to give precedence to some very high-profile projects. We were, of course, disappointed, but determined not to be deterred, and the partners agreed to pursue ways forward within the existing funding. Because it would further hold up the project, adding to inflation costs, but give no guarantee of success, we decided not to re-apply to the HLF, and by the end of the financial year were beginning to look at options for a less expensive building. On the design side, we reached the first draft of Stage C (outline design stage). However, further work was required on this and continued into 2009-10. We were also unsuccessful with our application to the HLF for a joint archives, libraries and museums digitisation project, East Sussex Depicted, again largely due to the decrease in available funds. We are also thinking about taking this project forward at a reduced scale. Work began on developing the base website on which to mount digital copies of our tithe maps, although progress was relatively slow. Having put those disappointments behind us, the service did achieve considerable funding successes as the Document Services and Outreach and Learning sections of this report make clear. And we continue to seek external funding where we can. In April we welcomed our colleagues from the archives départementales of Seine-Maritime, based at Rouen, to continue discussions on a possible joint application for European Union INTERREG funding, and made a return visit to Rouen the following March, where the decision was made to go ahead with an application for a joint exhibition and website. Wendy Walker and Elizabeth Hughes were also beneficiaries of a Museums Libraries and Archives South East bursary to work with Arts and Business to develop our skills at seeking business sponsorship. On 6 June we returned to Herstmonceux Castle, courtesy of The Queen’s University, Canada in the UK, to celebrate the work of the Friends of East Sussex Record Office (FESRO) in helping us to purchase archives and keep them in the public domain. The event was also an opportunity to say thank you to Mrs Phyllida Stewart-Roberts, the retiring Lord Lieutenant, Custos Rotulorum and President of FESRO for the huge support which she has given to the Record Office and its Friends. 1 Elizabeth Hughes presents a 15th-century Rouen charter to M Vincent Maroteaux, director of the archives départementales of Seine-Maritime We were pleased that we improved our rating in the self-assessment exercise carried out by The National Archives. In 2007 the service achieved two stars out of three and in 2008, when the range changed from 0-3 to 1-4 stars, we achieved three stars, with four stars for governance and an overall 2.5% improvement. The 2008 results are set out below. Governance **** 80% Documentation of collections *** 66% Access and outreach ** 51.5% Buildings, security and environment *** 76.5% Preservation and conservation ** 56.5% Overall *** 62.5% Also very pleasing was the success of the Document Services Team in the County Council’s annual excellence awards, in which they were highly commended in the Team of the Year category for their work in making 85% of our lists available via the Access to Archives website. This was a considerable achievement, as the competition for these awards grows fiercer every year. They were also successful in purchasing documents to the value of almost £11,000 without any cost to the Record Office budget – the entire sum was grant-aided, either by FESRO or by national funding bodies. 2 Jane Bartlett was kept busy by requests under the Data Protection and Freedom of Information Acts, and achieved a response-rate within the statutory timescales of 96%, well above average for local authorities. In 2008 we received 437 FOI requests, a 53% increase over 2007 (285). The service continued to host the East Sussex Museum Development Officer, who is paid for by the government’s Museum Development Fund. This post supports museums within the county, helping to identify additional financial support, but also benefits the Record Office by opening up new partnership and funding opportunities. Finally, we were delighted to receive additional core funding of £50,000 to improve our outreach service and opening hours. Our new Outreach and Learning Officer began work in November and we recruited and trained additional Saturday staff ready to increase Saturday openings from one to two Saturdays a month from April 2009. The Record Office’s other activities and achievements, no less important than those already mentioned, are covered in the rest of this report. The Document Services Team, runners-up, Team of the Year: Andrew Bennett, Christopher Whittick, Anna Manthorpe and John Farrant 3 Archive Services Public Services Searchroom attendance has shown an increase over the period, bucking the previous trend. However, document production figures have gone down after a very buoyant few years, although they are still high; the decrease is partly a reflection of the ability to consult maps on the map viewer rather than the original. Most visitors (60%) were tracing their family trees, 26% were studying local and house history, and 5% were educational users. Public service statistics are given at the end of this section. The number of copies sold and hours of paid research provided were again lower this year, perhaps a by-product of the recession. The number of postal and email enquiries also increased. As ever, interest ranged across a wide variety of subject including, amongst many others, a double murder in Wivelsfield; Sir Anthony Stapley, signatory of Charles I’s death warrant; the great plague of 1665-6; and the history of Chelsea Football Club – the East Sussex connection was Charles Doland Crisp, mayor of Lewes, who was chairman of the Stamford Bridge team. The major searchroom improvement this year was the upgrading of the public terminals to provide more convenient access for people who find it difficult to use a conventional mouse or who have visual difficulties. We now have three terminals for internet access and one for viewing digitised maps, photographs and tithe apportionments. Among the many letters of thanks and appreciation received this year, one encapsulates the positive experience that we hope to offer our searchers: My research involved study across 18 Vehicle Registers during the day, meaning a lot of ‘handling’ work for the Searchroom staff. I got through it all, very much thanks to the two staff taking care of a busy room-full of us – and buzzing-phone lines for much of the day. They made time for everyone, always patient and with a smile. Many thanks! Record Office statistics 2005-2006 2006-2007 2007-2008 2008-2009 Visitors 5,368 5,623 4,683 4,937 Visitors not able to have 829 589 544 513 first choice of day Documents consulted 36,854 35,792 36,115 27,502 Post/email enquiries 3,560 3,498 3,381 3,988 Telephone enquiries 7,593 7,136 7,913 6,589 A2A website hits 399,110 363,070 329,036 N/A ESCC website hits (ESRO pages) 2,346,753 Copies sold 5,737 7,751 6,607 5,729 Hours of paid research 308 326 262 241 4 Document Services The Book of John Rowe, purchased for £8000 with assistance from FESRO, the MLA Purchase Grant Fund and the Friends of the National Libraries, was undoubtedly the star acquisition of the year under review, and we contrived to make it the ten-thousandth accession to be received by the office. But we should not let even this exceptional item overshadow the other documents received in 2008-09, many of which are of outstanding interest and all add something, however modest, to the sum of knowledge of our county’s past. At 273, the number of accessions this year created another record. To that total need to be added the considerable number of minor accruals of additional records, which are usually silently – though far from effortlessly – re-united with their parents. With this in mind, we have probably taken in about 340 separate groups of records, more than one every working day, not allowing for staff absences. This poses an increasing burden on the three staff of our section, especially when it is remembered that accessioning all but the smallest amount of material has to be done off-site at Newhaven. Unless we can devise a way to ease these pressures, our accessioning backlog, and with it the time donors have to wait to receive lists of their documents, is destined to increase.