East Sussex Record Office Report of the County Archivist April 2005 to March 2006 2006/07_253 Front cover: Teacher-training at the Sarah Tucker Female Training Institution at Palamcottah in Tinnevelly, Madras, 1878 (ACC 9065) Back cover: James Lambert the younger: The kitchen, Herstmonceux Castle, 1776 (ACC 9374) Title deeds (see also Solicitors, and Estate and Family): Introduction • Brighton, property in College Road, Brighton, 1851-1880 (9207) • Brighton, 7 Ditchling Road, 1883; 18 and 28 Bates Road, Oct 1901 (9227) In 2005-06 we continued our attempts to improve services while contributing to County • Brighton, land in East Laine, 1833-1864 (9169) Council efficiencies, and to realise the long-term goal of achieving a new Record Office • Brighton: assignments of property, manor of Erlyes, Brighton, 1826; deeds of land for East Sussex, Brighton & Hove and other partners of which all can be proud. Many in Upper Furlonge, Little Lane, Brighton, 1807-1816 (9206) projects were beginning to bear fruit as the financial year ended. • Brighton, 128 Gloucester Lane [Road] (9226) • Brighton, 109 St James Street, deeds and copy photographs, (9381) Our latest Access to Archives project, The Sussex Parish Chest, was completed on time • Brighton and Wilmington, photocopy deeds, 1880-1949 (9386) and to budget in the autumn thanks to the input of the project officers, Record Office • Hove, Second Avenue and Denmark Villas, 1873-1878 (9261) staff and volunteers. 80-85% of our lists are now available on www.a2a.org.uk and we • Hove, 15 Shakespeare Street, 1895 (9321) continue to receive the second highest number of hits of any of the 400 organisations • Patcham, papers relating to the Withdene West estate, and Hillcrest, Brighton, who have contributed to the website. 1938-1965 (9212) • Preston, 31 Stanley Road, 1895-1955 (9225) As one externally-funded project ended, another began. A grant of £48,000 from the Wellcome Trust for the History of Medicine enabled us to employ two full-time project Other records: officers and some additional conservation time to list and preserve the records of the • Aerial photographs of Brighton and Hove; 1948 (9348) pioneering Lady Chichester Hospital, Hove. Anne Hart, on secondment from her post • Brighton, rent books for 68 Viaduct Road, 1927-1938 (9316) as receptionist, and Lavender Jones, a regular volunteer, were appointed and started in • Postcards of Brighton; c1905-1920 (9387) November 2005 for what will be a one-year project. Our other main external bidding activity during the year was to the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF), for a grant to draw up an audience development and access plan for the service, and specifically for the proposed new Record Office. Such a plan, which aims to find ways of improving the number and range of people who are reached by our service, will be an essential element of a future major capital bid to the HLF for a new Record Office. On the advice of the HLF we also included in the bid some audience development work for a proposed digitisation project which we have been planning with the county’s library service and museums. This delayed the submission of the bid until November of 2005 and we finally learnt of our success in early April of 2006. The grant of up to £24,700 will enable the work to be undertaken in 2006/07. Other funding successes were smaller but no less important. Wendy Walker, the Project Leader for the new Record Office, was awarded one of only six fundraising bursaries for staff working in libraries, archives and museums across the south-east. The bursaries, worth £4,000, have been made available for the first time by SEMLAC, the South East Museum, Library and Archives Council (now MLA South East), and are part of a programme aiming to increase the level of skills and confidence of the sector as a whole in the important area of fundraising. The bursaries attracted a lot of interest. Wendy won the award against stiff opposition from candidates across the region and was the only archivist to be successful. The bursary enabled Wendy to attend several workshops and a week-long course at the National Arts Fundraising School in Scotland, and workshops continued into the new financial year. Wendy’s new skills will help us to draw up a fund-raising strategy for the new Record Office and for the service as a whole. Tripping the light fantastic at Hove Park School, 1945 (ACC 9245) 36 1 The last quarter of the year also saw a successful appeal by the Friends of East Solicitors: Sussex Record Office to help us to acquire a magnificent set of paintings and plans of • TWM solicitors, Epsom, deeds of 19 Old Shoreham Road, Brighton, Herstmonceux Castle, commissioned from the James Lamberts in 1776. More of this 1862-1969 (9319) elsewhere in the report. Business records: In the last report we were expecting decisions on two applications to the Museums, • Receipts from Messrs A S Anscombe, gents outfitters, 1937-1939 (9367) Libraries and Archives Council. The first, for the designation of our holdings as being • The Reason Manufacturing Company, later Allen West and Company, Brighton, of national and international importance, was unfortunately unsuccessful. While the staff photograph, c1897 (9247) panel agreed that the Record Office collections were paramount for the study of the • Theatre Royal, Brighton play bill, 1834 (9270) county and its history, it did not feel that their national and international importance were proven according to the designation scheme’s criteria. The second application was for Estate and Family: allocation of the archives of the Battle Abbey estate, which had been accepted for the • Herbert Avis, of Brighton, diary and photographs, 1916-1919 (9309) nation by the Treasury in lieu of inheritance tax. Following an inspection by the National • Bruce Herbert Avis, of Brighton, photographs, newspaper cuttings and theatre Archives in February 2006, of which more below, at the turn of the new financial year programmes, 1931-1955 (9327) they were allocated to East Sussex Record Office for East Sussex County Council for • John Edward Burghope, outfitter, North Street, Brighton, photograph album, a period of five years, on the understanding that the archives were stored at Unit Y, 1890 (9268) our Newhaven outstore, which provides good environmental conditions, and that work • Ronald Lancey Burrow, photographer, East Street, Brighton, negatives, towards a new Record Office was stepped up. 1945-c1970 (9170) • Henry Davidson of Brighton, diary, 1872-1874 (9292) The National Archives inspection was also a follow-up to its inspection of 2003, • Hanover Day, Brighton, photographs, 1997 (9333) after which the Record Office’s licence to hold public records at The Maltings was • Edwin Emery, of Brighton, mathematics exercise book, 1873 (9343) renewed but with the expectation that work would progress towards achieving a new • Haynes family of Brighton, records including papers relating to the Hannington building. The provisional report, which we received at the end of the financial year, was family of Brighton; deeds of Latchetts, Knowles Tooth, Berrylands and Bridgers in complimentary of what the service achieved within the confines of its buildings and Hurstpierpoint (9176) staffing-levels, but was extremely critical of the accommodation for records, staff and • H Johnson, member of Brighton and Hove Camera Club, photographs, researchers. We were expecting the final report at the end of the financial year and 1950s - 1960s (9179) were anticipating the withdrawal of the licence from The Maltings in favour of Unit Y. • H W King, papers relating to the sale of the Brighton Herald, 1803-1971 (9267) • William Roe (b 1748), transcript of private memoranda, 1775-1809 (9300) However at the end of the financial year, with our success in achieving an HLF project • James William Thompson (1898-1984) of Rottingdean, letters and papers, 1914- planning grant for a new Record Office and with commitment from the County Council 1975 (9315) to support a major capital bid to the HLF for the new building, we were starting to look forward to achieving the very improvements that were expected of us. More on these Clubs, societies and associations: developments in next year’s report. • David Betts, Brighton Licensed Victuallers Association, photographs, 1925-1962 (9218) Other projects, paid for by one-off funding from the County Council, made progress • Brighton theatre and sporting programmes, 1930s (9201) during the year. The camera work on the map digitisation project was completed, • Electrical Contactors' Association, photograph of the first annual conference, and we are most grateful to our colleagues in Bibliographic Services for allowing us to 1926 (9352) use their premises in Brooks Road to set up the enormous equipment involved. At the • League of Remembrance, Brighton and Hove Branch, records, 1928-2003 (9358) Record Centre, staff were recruited to carry out the Invest to Improve Project to reduce • Masonic: records of the Royal Clarence Lodge, 19th - 20th century (9301) the backlog of records management processing and destruction. • Sussex County Cricket Club, deeds and minutes, 19th-20th century (9293) • West Hove Townswomen's Guild (9181) The contracts with Brighton & Hove City Council to provide archives and records management services continued successfully and holdings of both expanded Maps and plans: considerably, as other sections of this report illustrate. The Brighton & Hove archivist • County Borough of Brighton land use map; 1951 (9371) continued to provide a Record Office presence at the Brighton History Centre, where he • Map showing St Francis Hospital, Haywards Heath; c1865 (9373) attends for half a day a week. • Plans of Portslade Manor House and Brighton and Hove Albion FC programmes (9298) 2 35 Appendix 3 Involvement in corporate projects continued. The County Archivist continued as sponsor of an authority-wide project to advance electronic document and records Brighton & Hove Accessions management within the County Council.