Closure Period 6-17 February 2023
Our annual closure period provides an opportunity to undertake larger projects and undertake training that would be more difficult to schedule when we are open to the public.
This is a summary of some of the work we undertook during this year’s closure period.
Work on Archive Collections
Archivist Jan Wood, with the assistance of numerous volunteers, worked on the processing of new accessions and the transfer of documents relating to other counties to the archive repositories for those areas.
Archives and Local Studies Assistant Esther Chant produced a location guide to the ‘Prints and Drawings’ section of the Westcountry Studies Library and also continued her work on a collection of papers from solicitors Sparks and Blake, of Crewkerne in our sister county of Somerset, which contains material relating to the parish of Dalwood, which was transferred to Devon from Dorset in 1844.
Archives Development Manager Irene Andrews, assisted by Archives and Local Studies Assistant Mandy Caine and volunteer Richard Manning, chiefly worked on the repackaging and cataloguing of the records of the Royal Western Counties Institution at Starcross, one of the many mental health institutions previously based in and around Exeter.
Archives and Local Studies Assistant James Ward continued with his usual digitisation work and also spent time recording the location of records held in our specialist audio-visual and modern media strongroom, assisted by a member of our Customer Services team.
With assistance from volunteers, Cary Project Archivist Stuart Tyler worked to sort and catalogue a large number of title deeds relating to properties around Torbay which were owned by the Cary family of Torre Abbey.
Archive Researcher Rachel Ponting continued her regular work on remote research enquiries and catalogued correspondence between Ian Maitland, Earl of Lauderdale, and John Paton Ross, who collaborated on song compositions for film and theatre. The correspondence refers to film and stage actors, musicians, playwrights, directors, producers, agents and theatre impresarios of the 1930s.
Digital and IT specialist Cade Simpson continued his work on the ‘ingestion’ of digital records into our new digital preservation system.
Westcountry Studies Library
Librarian Kate Parr’s work during the closed fortnight was based around continuing to improve the accessibility of the Westcountry Studies Library collections following their move to substantially improved storage within Great Moor House. The original newspapers have all been moved nearer to the public searchroom and work has started to label and rebox them; the pamphlet collection has been relabelled and organised and the folio collections continue to be recatalogued. In addition to this, Kate and Janet Tall, Head of Archives, Learning and Development for the Trust, appraised and organised the administrative papers of the library to gain a clearer understanding of the provenance of the collections.
Conservation
Conservator Jenny Barnard and Conservation Assistant Ian Ponsford continued their regular work to monitor the physical condition of our collections and to repackage and conserve them when required.
Staff Training
All staff participated in a training session on document handling and emergency salvage of documents delivered by Jenny Barnard.
Other Work
Archives Engagement Manager Scott Pettitt replied to a wide range of remote enquiries, Brian Carpenter, archivist and Community Outreach Officer, worked on various archive collections, social media posting and writing blogs for the Trust website, and Clerical Officer Helen Mason revised and updated our inventory and portable appliance test records, sorted through lost property left in the office over the past year and checked a catalogue which she has been entering onto our online collections database.