THE ARCHIVE

Since The Local History Society’s birth in 1969, it has been seen by many residents of Welford and Weston, past and present, as the ideal repository for a whole range of documents, paper and magazine articles, photographs, maps, personal letters, account books and many other similar items, all of which have some historical value for the two villages and the surrounding area. In addition to these paper items, the very same people have also given a considerable number of photographic slides relating to past events such as carnivals, maypole dancing, fund raising events and other village activities.

This archive currently contains over one thousand two hundred paper documents and nearly six hundred slides. It is a unique collection, and has only come about as a result of the generosity of all of the contributors, who have been prepared to entrust their own private family archive material to the custodianship of the Society.

The Archive is a living collection. In other words it is constantly being added to, and will hopefully remain so for many years to come. The Archive was previously kept by a past officer of the History Society, who in recent years developed a basic data base recording all the paper documents, with a brief analysis of their more important points. A new custodian has now taken charge of this important village asset, and thanks to the donation of a laptop computer to the society, is now creating new ways to enhance the data base storage and retrieval system.

This will hopefully enable anyone searching the Archive, to more easily find, firstly whether the information they are seeking is available, and secondly identify more quickly the precise location and number of versions within the files.

During our anniversary year, along with the above, we launched major initiatives to develop the Archive’s content, the intention being for these new initiatives to put the ‘local’ back into the forefront of the Local History Society. In the latter part of 2009 and early 2010 we have been fortunate to have been donated major new collections to the archive.

If you have material that you would consider offering to the Society’s Archive, or have an interest in conservation and would like to get involved with the management of this important asset, please get in touch via info@welfordandweston.org.uk