West Sussex Record Office

Shoreham Bungalow Town – Part 2: Filmmaking By Louise Conway, Archives Assistant Part 1 of the Shoreham Bungalow Town blog introduced the area and it’s developments (read it here), this blog focuses on how this small area became, for a small…

📣 New blog post alert! Shoreham Bungalow Town - Part 2: Filmmaking 📽️
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❗ Due to unforeseen circumstances, we have had to cancel our upcoming Tuesday Talk. Those who have purchased tickets will receive a refund shortly. We apologise for any inconvenience this may cause.

Shoreham Bungalow Town – Part 1 By Louise Conway, Archives Assistant In this first part of a two part blog series we will be exploring the history of Shoreham’s Bungalow Town. To begin we will look at Shoreham pre Bungalow …

📣 New blog post alert! Shoreham Bungalow Town – Part 1 westsussexrecordofficeblog.com/2025/09/25/s...

Photographic Survey of West Sussex: 50th Anniversary of the European Architectural Heritage Year (EAHY) By Nick Corbo-Stewart, Archivist Travelling back to 1975 the United Kingdom had a very different feel, a population of just over 56 million people, coal fired power stations generating electricity,…

📣 New blog post alert! 📸 'Photographic Survey of West Sussex: 50th Anniversary of the European Architectural Heritage Year (EAHY)'

westsussexrecordofficeblog.com/2025/09/11/p...

📖📚 The launch of Tony Kushner's book 'The Jewish Pedlar: An Untold Criminal History' was held yesterday at the Record Office. It was a great opportunity to hear from the author and to see some related original documents from the archive

Why I had to become a murder detective for my book about an 18th-century Jewish pedlar How on earth did someone of German-Jewish origin manage to integrate himself into the close-knit smuggling fraternity of Sussex?

👀 Tony Kushner was recently interviewed by The Conversation about his upcoming book 'The Jewish Pedlar: An Untold Criminal History' theconversation.com/why-i-had-to...

We are hosting the upcoming book launch this coming Monday (8th) - book your tickets on our website www.wsro.org.uk/product/book...

Tuesday Talk – County Hall and its architect By Tim Hudson, guest speaker What is the largest building in Chichester after the cathedral? Most residents will know County Hall, tucked away behind West Street.  A public right of way runs p…

A month today, we will holding a talk on 'County Hall and its architect' 🏠 Read our most recent blog to get a taste of what Tim Hudson will be delving into.
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Desperate Villains – The Hawkhurst Gang in West Sussex By Jenny Bettger, Archives Assistant (Research) Walking along Broyle Road in Chichester you will find a large stone with a faded inscription.  Known as ‘The Smugglers Stone’, it records the executi…

📣 New blog post alert! 'Desperate Villains – The Hawkhurst Gang in West Sussex'

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📖 www.wsro.org.uk/product/book...

Join us at this event to hear Professor Tony Kushner from the University of Southampton speak about his work. There will also be an opportunity to view original documents relating to West Hoathly, the scene of the crime.

This day in 1945 marked the end of the Second World War and today we pay our respects to those who served in the Far East and the Pacific. To commemorate this, the County Council will be participating in the national Two-Minute Silence at midday.

The story of Graylingwell Hospital through its archives By Alice Millard, Archivist To mark the recent upload of the Graylingwell Hospital Archive catalogue to our website, this blog will dip into the vast history of this significant hospital through it…

📣 New blog post alert! To mark the recent upload of the Graylingwell Hospital Archive catalogue to our website, this blog will dip into the vast history of this significant hospital through its archives.
westsussexrecordofficeblog.com/2025/08/07/t...

🧑‍🤝‍🧑 Today is International Day of Friendship. These two friends were photographed by Walter Kevis back in April of 1905.

📣 New blog post alert! The second part of 'The Auxiliary Territorial Service in West Sussex'. In this second and final part, we will be sharing the more personal life of Mary Chapman who served in the ATS.
👀 - westsussexrecordofficeblog.com/.../the-auxi...

🏖️ The school summer holidays are upon us! What are your holiday plans?

The Tommie and Betty Archive: part two By Alice Millard, Archivist If you haven’t read part one of the Tommie and Betty Archive blogs, you can catch up here. Just as we used the archive to delve into the early lives of Tommie and Betty …

📣 New blog post alert! The second part of the Tommie and Betty Archive is now live! westsussexrecordofficeblog.com/2025/07/17/t...

Watching, Surveying and Flying: A brief dip into new smaller collections at West Sussex Record Office By Nick Corbo-Stewart, Archivist and Volunteer Coordinator In this series of blogs looking at new collections at West Sussex Record Office (WSRO), I will continue to guide you, the reader, through …

📣 New blog post alert! 'Watching, Surveying and Flying: A brief dip into new smaller collections at West Sussex Record Office'. This blog edition focuses on three smaller projects or single item collections completed by the volunteers.
westsussexrecordofficeblog.com/2025/07/11/w...

2 of our archivists attended the New Jerusalems and Beyond: New Towns, New Research, New Possibilities conference. This event brought together researchers, archivists, heritage professionals, and others to explore the potential of New Town archives and foster new collaborations.

📷 Angela Grabowska

Another fun find for Friday. As an Archives Assistant was flipping through a volume of the Midhurst Magazine, she came across this gem on how not to use your bayonet!

#FunFindFriday

Today is World Refugee Day and to mark this occasion we have just shared a new research guide on the records we hold relating to refugees. 👀 Read it here - www.wsro.org.uk/research-gui...

West Sussex Unwrapped: West Sussex on the Home Front, 1939-1945 YouTube video by West Sussex Record Office

🎬 Premiering this evening at 6pm our latest West Sussex Unwrapped on YouTube! This episode explores the experiences of ordinary West Sussex residents on the Home Front in the Second World War. youtu.be/vsup4XI5CZQ

📚 A piece by Alexandra Harris for the Sussex Record Society was recently shared. It is the first in their new ‘occasional notes’ series. Alexandra writes about the three SRS books she found the most absorbing. Read it here - www.sussexrecordsociety.org/id-press-the...

📽️ Last night, two of our archivists attended the premiere of the film they were interviewed for at Selsey Pavilion. Created by students of The Academy Selsey with guidance from Mill Stream Production, this documentary uncovers the fascinating history of the pavilion. www.youtube.com/watch?v=ncqW...

#EYATravel ✈️ The National Archives recently shared a case study on the Sir Freddie Laker archive. Read it here - www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/archives-sec...

@exploreyourarchive.bsky.social @nationalarchives.gov.uk.web.brid.gy

The Tommie and Betty Archive: part one By Alice Millard, Archivist Figure 1 Tommie (L) and Betty (R) planning a road trip, 1958. (AM 1768/2/2/3/86) In May 2023, we were delighted to take in the archive of two Worthing women, Myra ‘Tommi…

📣 New blog post alert! The Tommie and Betty Archive has been catalogued and is now available to be accessed! In this first part the archivist who catalogued this collection takes you through Tommie and Betty's younger years.
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Black and white photograph of three women dancing. Four other women and sitting and smiling while watching the others dance. Another woman stands in the background watching the dancing with an expression of slight bewilderment.

Dancing for joy because we are finally on Bluesky! 👋