Current and Past Projects

The Archives Revealed Scoping Grant programme is funded by The National Lottery Heritage Fund, the Pilgrim Trust, the Wolfson Foundation and The National Archives.

Grants Awarded 25-26

Grants Awarded 24-25

Grants Awarded 23-24

Grants Awarded 22-23

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Grants Awarded 2025-2026

Romney, Hythe and Dymchurch Railway Supporters Association

Project Title: Operation “Goofy”

The Romney, Hythe & Dymchurch Railway Supporters Association (RHDRSA), established in 1967, aims to preserve artefacts, images and the stories of people who rode or worked on the railway line, or those who just loved watching the trains go by. RHDRSA will use their grant to seek professional advice and ensure all their items are archived and stored in a secure manner.

Nigel Whitburn, RHDRSA Trustee and Chair of the Education and Heritage Group, says: “Over the years, many thousands of items and images have been collected. Our objective is to make them more accessible to historians, our members and anyone with an interest in this much loved railway. With the railway approaching its Centenary in 2027, interest in its history is bound to increase and the Supporters Association is determined to meet that demand.”

Oldham Local Studies and Archives

Project Title: Hold the Front Page: Chronicling Oldham Life

Oldham Archives has held The Oldham Chronicle collection since August 2017 when the newsroom closed and the last Oldham Chronicle newspaper came off the press.

For many years, the Oldham Chronicle was the town’s main source of news. The collection now holds many fascinating local stories and covers all aspects of the newspaper’s operation and reach. The Chronicle archive is 77.3 cubic metres in size, which would fill around three quarters of a double decker bus, and consists of the firm’s own business records, photographs, negatives and glass slides dating back to the 1930s, as well as news cuttings covering key people, events, places, communities, crime and sport.

This scoping grant will enable Oldham Archives to expand existing audiences, work with new communities and harness the skills and knowledge of volunteers. By gaining a better understanding of how the collection’s content relates to Oldham’s diverse communities, they will build a stronger plan to make the collection more accessible and apply for further funding.

Councillor Peter Dean said, “The Oldham Chronicle had something for everyone. Over its 163-year history, its staff ensured the significant and everyday stories about life in Oldham reached the homes of the town’s residents. This project will help us identify stories that connect with communities and groups who are underrepresented in our archive collections.”

Prospect Community Housing

Project Title: Sentinel Community Newspaper Archive

This project will enable Prospect Community Housing, a community-based housing association, to develop a more strategic approach to the Sentinel Community Newspaper Archive’s long-term care and ensure that all the material can be fully shared.

The Sentinel Newspaper was the voice of Wester Hailes. Its archive of newspapers, photographs and negatives tells the story of the area, capturing both the challenges of living in an outer ring housing estate, and the emergence of a strong dynamic community that fought for change.

When the newspaper folded, Prospect Community Housing saved the archive by giving it a home. Their core business is the provision of high-quality social housing, but they also aspire to help build a strong community. A Scoping Grant will help them identify how to preserve this local resource and highlight the value of community led action today.

Brendan Fowler, Director at Prospect Community Housing, said, “We know how popular the Sentinel images and stories are locally so we are delighted that this grant will help us find ways to better preserve the collection and take us one step closer to making it fully accessible.”

Westmorland and Furness Council

Project Title: Scoping the collections of Joseph Hardman, Lakeland photographer

Joseph Hardman’s photographic collection documents the changing face of the Lake District from the 1930s to the 1960s. With over 5000 glass plate negatives and 11000 photographs, the collection is an important record of how agriculture and rural traditions changed and sometimes disappeared in the mid to late 20th Century.

The collection is held by three organisations: the Lakeland Arts Trust, Cumbria Archive centre and Kendal Library. Some of the collection has been digitised but there is no unified catalogue to Hardman’s photographs, hindering access. The scoping grant will enable these organisations to work with a consultant and identify the best approach to making the collection accessible, through a unified catalogue, digitisation strategy, volunteer participation and community engagement. The consultant’s report will be a road map to sharing this important collection with a wider audience.

Councillor Virginia Taylor, Westmorland and Furness Council Cabinet Member for Sustainable Communities and Localities, says: “The Joseph Hardman collection is a truly remarkable record of life in the Lake District during the mid-20th century, capturing the changing face of rural communities through thousands of evocative images. This funding will help lay the groundwork for a much-needed unified catalogue and future digitisation, making these important photographs more accessible to the public. It’s an excellent example of heritage organisations working together to preserve and share our cultural history.”

SIN Cru

Project Title: Diggin’ in the Crates: Counter-narratives through UK Hip Hop

SIN Cru is a Hip Hop arts organisation, founded in 1995, working across youth and community engagement, artist development, and dance theatre. As they approach their 30th anniversary, they will undertake a vital scoping project to assess and activate their extensive archive, which documents three decades of UK Hip Hop culture.

In collaboration with an archivist from the C-DARE Coventry University network, this project will develop sustainable archival processes and outline a dynamic public engagement strategy. The collection, spanning Blackbooks, photos, videos, vinyl records, costumes, and creative outputs, captures the lived experiences and artistic practices of intergenerational UK Hip Hop artists.

This initiative aims to preserve fragile materials, amplify underrepresented voices, and ensure the archive serves as a living, evolving resource. By formalising access and usage, SIN Cru hopes to empower artists, educators, and researchers, embedding its legacy into the cultural fabric and inspiring new generations through Hip Hop’s powerful counter-narratives.

Lucy Crowe, Co-Director, says: “We have maintained a mighty grip over our cultural artefacts, scared to discard them due to their seismic value. The opportunity to collaborate with an archivist to catalogue our archive, which covers company works and personal stories from the wider Hip Hop community, will confirm its significance in documenting Hip Hop’s influence on British culture. The archive will centre counter-narratives and provide a public resource for research into cultural pedagogy, creative process, UK Hip Hop lineage, and identity.  Safe in the knowledge that our memories, discoveries, and cultural contributions are preserved, we can finally release our grip.”

Falls Community Council

Project Title: The Dúchas Archive

Falls Community Council is a community development organisation set up in 1974 to work for economic justice and social inclusion for communities in West Belfast.

The Irish word Dúchas means heritage or ‘the experiences that make us who we are’. The Dúchas oral history archive was established by the council in 2000 to record personal experiences of The Troubles in nationalist West Belfast. The Dúchas archive has over 300 recorded oral history interviews most of which have been transcribed. About two thirds of the interviews have been gathered through partnerships with other organisations across Belfast resulting in ten collections within the archive.

Although it has been used and interpreted, more cataloguing, archiving and preservation is required to make the archive publicly accessible.

Claire Hackett, one of the founders of Dúchas who still works at Falls Community Council on peacebuilding and reconciliation, says: “the scoping grant will enable Falls Community Council to assess the current state of this unique archive of community voices and develop a strategy for long term preservation and accessibility.”

The Kent Police Museum

Project Title: The historic collections of Kent Police Museum

Situated in an operational Edwardian police station in the historic market town of Faversham, The Kent Police Museum explores the history and development of one of the UK’s largest police forces, which dates from 1857.

First assembled in 1957 to celebrate the centenary of the Kent Police, the museum now holds over 10,000 photographs, 5,000 documents and newspaper articles and many other artefacts in its collection. Due to this considerable growth, many of the holdings are unlisted, unlabelled and poorly stored.

The Archives Revealed Scoping Grant is vital in helping the museum fully assess the contents of their collection which is currently stored across multiple sites. Internally, it will help improve documentation and storage, as well as ensuring the ongoing preservation of the historic collection. Kent Police hope to gain a greater understanding of what they hold so they can improve and deliver outreach and community activities to the wider Kent community.

Gavin McKinnon OBE CF, Director of Corporate Communications and Citizens in Policing at Kent Police, says: “The Kent Police Museum preserves the force’s rich history to help the officers of today better understand the realities of policing for those who came before them, and for the public of Kent to learn more about those who serve to protect them. We are delighted and grateful to receive this Archives Revealed grant, which will help improve the management and storage of our collections.”

Light Music Society

Project Title: Seeing the Light: Creating a sustainable music heritage organisation for the 21^st century

Based in Bolton, the Light Music Society (LMS) is passionate about music as a living resource. Lancashire composer, Ernest Tomlinson, established the Library of the Light Orchestral Music in the 1980s when he discovered that the BBC had begun disposing of its light music archive.

This membership society now holds the nation’s largest collection of light-orchestral music, plus dance band parts, piano music, show scores, and more. The library receives music donations from across the country and lends music out to orchestras and performers, both professional and amateur.

LMS is seeking to safeguard its unique heritage for future generations, to bolster reputation, and to strive for equality, diversity and professionalisation. Project outputs and impacts will include strategic planning and frameworks, records management, archiving, digitisation, and transformation of storage and research areas at Victoria Hall.

LMS is also seeking to decolonise archive collections by collecting global and grassroots music, to provide access to collections online, to undertake sustainable marketing, and to grow membership. New audiences in the North-West and beyond, including local communities and grassroots musicians from diverse backgrounds, will have the opportunity to attend events, live concerts and professional development masterclasses, to engage with archive stories, and to enjoy music.

David Greenhalgh, Trustee for LMS, says: “this is a significant opportunity for our society to better understand the challenges of development and will help us identify essential requirements to safeguard this treasured archive.”

Ouseburn Trust

Project Title: Scoping the Ouseburn Trust Collection

The Ouseburn Trust is an independent charity, working towards a vibrant, diverse and sustainable future for Newcastle Upon Tyne’s Lower Ouseburn Valley. In partnership with volunteers, the local authority and the business community, the Trust delivers a vast range of projects which sit under four key themes: heritage, community, property, and the environment.

The Trust’s collection is a unique and wide-ranging record of the changes taking place in the area over the past few hundred years, from cradle of the industrial revolution to thriving urban village. Crucially, it tells the story of an intensive heritage-led redevelopment that took place from the 1980s that has become an important urban planning landmark and an exemplar of place-based regeneration.

Ouseburn Trust will produce a scoping grant that will help them survey the organisation’s history and role in the regeneration, make the social history of the valley more accessible, and continue to collect stories sustainably. The collection consists of photographs, oral histories, and key planning documentation that help tell a story of huge change in the once predominantly working-class East End of Newcastle, but it needs help with accessibility and coherency.

Emily Toth, Heritage Programme Manager for Ouseburn Trust, says: “We are thrilled to receive an Archives Revealed scoping grant as we approach the Trust’s 30^th anniversary in 2026. This is invaluable in helping us care for our collection, connect us with other collections of national and regional importance, and improve access to researchers.”

Derry City and Strabane District Council Tower Museum, Northern Ireland

Project Title: Unlocking The John Hume Archive Collection

The Tower Museum team have extensive experience working with archive and museum collections. John Hume’s significant political and personal archive dates between 1960s-2000s. The collection consists of documents created and received during John’s time as a political representative in Northern Ireland.

The collection includes references to civil rights, the Troubles, international affairs and British and Irish relations. The documents include draft and final speeches, policy documents which are often noted and edited, correspondence, publications, photographs, and ephemera collected at various events. The collection contains evidence of John’s roles and responsibilities throughout his career and is recognised as having significant value for a range of audiences.

A Scoping Report for this collection will help The Tower Museum team assess potential timelines to develop the collection and integrate the archive into wider engagement plans.

Aeidin McCarter, Director of Culture, says: “The collection was deposited in 2024 in recognition of the current successful display linked to John Hume’s Peace Prize Collection in the Guildhall. Conversations have been ongoing with the Hume Family and Ulster University to develop plans to make the archive more widely accessible. The Council are also developing a new civic museum, ‘DNA Museum Derry~Londonderry on the North Atlantic’, due to open in late 2026. The DNA Museum will have a dedicated Reading Room and Archive Discovery Zone where we will profile collections such as this to a wide range of audiences. This will encourage visitors, local and international, to learn more about the role people like John Hume played in the history of this very unique city.”

 

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Grants Awarded 2024-2025

Bishopsgate Institute

Bishopsgate Institute will use the Archives Revealed Scoping Grant to work with family and friends of photographer Paul Soso to make his incredible archive available to future generations. Paul was a photographer in London’s underground club scene from 2010 until his death in 2020. His thousands of photographs, all stored digitally, document an incredibly vibrant and under-explored creative scene.

Paul was dyslexic and his filing system was chaotic, straddling multiple hard drives, some now broken, with very little information about the people and places in his pictures. With this funding, Bishopsgate and its partners will be able to plan the daunting task of archiving his unique and spectacular collection, including a scheme to source who and what is featured in as many photos as possible.

“We’re really pleased that our dad’s work is being given such careful attention. This is the first step in bringing his photography into the spotlight where it belongs.” Mia and Marley Soso

Theatre de Complicité

Complicité is an international touring theatre company which brings together performers, designers, writers, artists and specialists from diverse fields to create work through extensive periods of research and development – a process known as ‘devising’. Founded in 1983 by Artistic Director Simon McBurney, Annabel Arden, Fiona Gordon and Marcello Magni, the company has grown in scale and reputation to become ‘the most influential and consistently interesting theatre company working in Britain’ (The Times). This scoping grant will allow Complicité to review the contents of its physical, digital and anecdotal archive. After decades of constant creation, the company will explore its wealth of texts, documents, photos, films, writings and correspondence, amassed by numerous artists and producers, and seek to understand their significance.

“How can we celebrate nearly 42 years of work? How can we plot the influence of Complicité’s creative process on theatre? And how can we use this to look to the future and discover what we might do next? This scoping grant allows us to understand the possibilities and we’re extremely grateful for the opportunity to begin this work.” Susie Newbery, Executive Director

Leighton House and Sambourne House

Leighton house is the former home to Lord Leighton (1830-1896), prominent Victorian artist and President of the Royal Academy Frederic. Sambourne House is the family home of Linley Sambourne (1844-1910), cartoonist for Punch magazine. Both house-museums are managed by the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea (RBKC), and both contain extensive archives which are to be fully reviewed and scoped for the first time. The museums’ archival collections contain the only records of the museums being created, the origin of the collections and evidence of their connection through the Holland Park Circle – a network of neighbouring artists that built transformative studio-houses from the 1860s onwards, many of which still stand today.

This scoping report will give RBKC a better understanding of the current content and condition of the archives, and indicate what steps are needed to adequately care for them. They also hope to make the collections more accessible, exploring their incredible potential both for audience engagement and art historical research.

“We are fortunate to have two such significant archives accompanying our museums. The National Archives grant will be invaluable in enabling us to engage specialist advice and support as we work to integrate these collections more fully into our activities and plan for their future development.” Daniel Robbins, Senior Curator RBKC Museums

Liverpool John Moores University

The papers of Gary Everett, Founder and former Artistic Director of LGBTQ+ arts festival Homotopia, contain a wealth of material relating to Liverpool’s LGBTQ+ arts, culture, club scenes and activism in the 1990s-2010s. The collection captures LGBTQ+ existence in Liverpool across three decades, recording ephemeral events and transient moments in the city’s queer life. The material also addresses gaps in archival representation of LGBTQ+ cultural experience beyond the political realm.

Gary Everett is currently the UK Creative Producer for Tom of Finland Foundation Los Angeles. He has a long history of creative work in the mainstream and underground artistic spheres in Liverpool but has also worked nationwide, and internationally.

“We’re so pleased to have received a Scoping Grant from The National Archives. It enables us to assess how best to share this important collection through cataloguing, digitisation, and the production of educational, research, and community resources. It will also support the work we are undertaking to expand awareness and collecting of LGBTQ+ archives.” Susannah Waters, Head of Academic Services at Liverpool John Moores University Library

Pleasance Theatre Trust Ltd

The Pleasance Theatre Archive is a significant historic record of one of the Edinburgh Fringe Festival’s most iconic venues, but it is currently unsorted and inaccessible to the public. Dating back 40 years, the archive includes a large collection of original materials relating to the Pleasance branches in both Edinburgh and London. The Pleasance will use this grant to produce a professional scoping report; the first step in preserving and developing the archive. They hope to find a permanent home for the collection both physically and digitally, ensuring lasting public access for future generations.

“We’re delighted to have received this Scoping Grant in the run-up to our 40th birthday. We have a treasure-trove of materials just waiting to be explored.” Anthony Alderson, Director, Pleasance

The Gardens Trust

The Gardens Trust is dedicated to protecting and conserving historic parks, gardens and designed landscapes in the UK. The charity will use the scoping grant to delve into its archives and assess the scope and significance of its historical records. They hope to uncover materials that illuminate the rich heritage of gardens and landscapes across the country, as well as its own role in conserving that heritage as a unique charity.

“This grant offers a remarkable opportunity to explore our archives and uncover treasures we haven’t yet had the chance to examine. We’re excited about the potential discoveries and how this might pave the way for future projects that will deepen our understanding and preservation of these invaluable records.” Linden Groves, Head of Operations and Strategy at the Gardens Trust

Chatterley Whitfield Friends

Chatterley Whitfield Friends is a registered charity dedicated to helping maintain Britain’s largest remaining colliery site. Formerly a mine and then a museum, Chatterley Whitfield museum closed in 1993 and all its assets were auctioned off. For unknown reasons, a vast number of maps, books, historical documents and artefacts were not included in the auction. These were later recovered by Chatterley Whitfield Friends and stored in a container, ready to be archived. The Scoping Grant awarded will enable Chatterley Whitfield Friends to understand the historical items in their possession, their relevance to the history of mining, and the best ways of preserving these items for the future.

“Chatterley Whitfield Friends have been actively digitising documents and plans which were left at the former mining museum following the auction in 1994.  At the time, the administrators saw no historical value in them. It is only through the dedication of the charity’s volunteers that the collection has survived. The Scoping Grant awarded will give us the opportunity to realise the importance of the collection.”  Nigel Thomas Bowers BEM, Chair

University of St. Mark and St. John, Plymouth

Plymouth Marjon University has a rich history of championing radical social justice and equality of opportunity; tenets that still live on in their practice today. Having successfully run small archive-based projects with the local community, from social prescribing to memory cafes, they are now excited to expand on these projects and make them even more inclusive and enabling for their wider community. This scoping grant will allow them to seek valuable, expert consultation on the best direction for their archive collections.

“I am delighted that Plymouth Marjon University Archive was successful in the bid for a scoping fund from the National Archives. Archives are the bedrock of our society. To unlock their potential for meaningful social change is exciting and a privilege.” Kerry Kellaway, Head of Library. 

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Grants Awarded 2023-2024

Bromley House Library

The Bromley House Library archive contains thousands of items which tell their story as the first subscription library in Nottingham: their collections, accession records, correspondence, membership, building and garden as they have developed over the last 208 years. Many manuscripts, objects and records in the archive have been accessed by library members and visitors, locally and globally, for exhibitions, PhD dissertations and other academic publications, and for personal research. This Scoping grant from the National Archives will fund a vital first stride into a comprehensive assessment of the archive. Alongside painting a picture of how this historic library has operated, they expect to find forgotten treasures; fascinating snippets of local life and characters and perhaps some significant insights into the words and thoughts of the individual readers, writers, academics, industrialists, scientists, and historians who have been part of our library community.

“The Bromley House Library archive of documents, manuscripts, letters, books and artefacts, which we’ve accumulated since 1816, is safe but locked away; this grant will bring them into the spotlight and help us develop innovative ways of sharing them with the people of Nottingham and beyond.” Clare Brown, Library Director

The University of Salford

The Bridgewater Estates Archive (BEA) is the most requested collection held by the University of Salford Library Archives, especially for family, property, and local history research.  It contains correspondence, plans and ephemera relating to the administration of the lands and properties in Salford and west Lancashire, formerly belonging to the Duke of Bridgewater and Earls of Ellesmere from 1890s to 1960s, and tells the story of the people, places and organisations connected with it.  Currently only half of the collection dating up to 1921 has been catalogued, which is available online.  The scoping report will assess the content of the later records for personal data, identify the resources needed to catalogue and enable access to the material and suggest opportunities for partnerships with organisation with related collections.  Ultimately, the report will enable more people to trace family and local history and open up the collection for academic research as part of a wider refresh of the University of Salford Library’s vision and strategy for archives and special collections.

“We are delighted to have been awarded a scoping grant for the Bridgewater Estates Archive, which will help us to move towards giving researchers access to a greater range of material in the collection to enrich knowledge about history of the wider Salford and west Lancashire area.” Alexandra Mitchell, University Archivist.

Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea

Walter Crane (1845-1915) was a highly renowned children’s book illustrator who influenced the development of this particular genre of illustrated literature. Kensington and Chelsea was home to many members of the Art and Crafts movement, which included Crane. He lived and worked from his studio in Kensington which is commemorated by a blue plaque. His works also show his involvement in the socialist movement. This funding will aid, from a historical and artistic standpoint, in the preservation of his artworks, sketches, and drawings, from his studio and donated to RBKC after his death. Due to the collection’s current physical state, it is inaccessible, and a few items require immediate attention. They will have the opportunity to understand the best plan for moving through the process and making it fully available to the public.

“The variety of pieces within The Walter Crane Collection – from preliminary sketches to finished paintings and illustrations – allow for a unique insight into the artist’s creative approach. We’re delighted that the Archives Revealed Scoping Grant will help us take the first steps towards making the collection available to the public through much needed conservation work. This work will ensure that the collection can be accessed by the local community, and researchers from further afield, in a move towards both celebrating the borough’s rich artistic history and making it accessible to all.” Sophia Hall, RBKC Archivist

Natural History Museum

For almost 150 years, the Natural History Museum (NHM) has been at the forefront of human endeavours to understand and protect the natural world. The museum has also amassed a large and important collection of archive and manuscript material, rich with data and including the correspondence, notebooks, and sketches of individuals such as Charles Darwin, Mary Anning, Alfred Russell Wallace and Elizabeth Gould.

The NHM is working to improve the accessibility of archive and manuscript collections as its researchers seek to address a planetary emergency. The scoping grant will be used to engage a consultant to write a report enabling the NHM’s Library and Archives team to fully understand the opportunities and challenges of increasing discoverability of the collections. It will help to ensure the successful planning of future activities, such as data migration and cataloguing, and the correct prioritisation of tasks to achieve the maximum impact and benefit to users.

“We are delighted to have been awarded an Archives Revealed Scoping Grant. The archive and manuscript collections at the Natural History Museum are internationally significant but also complex and, at times, difficult to access. The grant will accelerate our work, providing crucial insight and giving us an important foundation for future cataloguing, digitisation and collaborative activities.” Richard Wragg, Head of Library and Archives, Natural History Museum

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Grants Awarded 2022-2023

Royal Pavilion Museums Trust – Brighton and Hove Museums

The unique Royal Pavilion Archive has developed over 200 years and is an incredibly well-recorded history of a Royal Palace, transferred to civic ownership in the mid-19th century. It includes items relating to the building, grounds, contents and people living and working onsite, since the late 18th century, as well as records detailing how the city museums, originally sited in the Royal Pavilion, were set up. While they have detailed information and digital images regarding some of the collection, a huge amount has not been recorded to recognised archival standards and is very hard to access for their own staff, let alone the wider public. This grant will inform the best methods for cataloguing and preserving this special collection, to make it more accessible to researchers and wider audiences interested in the history of Brighton & Hove.

Hedley Swain, CEO of Brighton & Hove Museums says, “We are delighted to have been awarded an Archives Revealed Scoping Grant, which will help us take the first steps towards making the Brighton Royal Pavilion Archives more accessible into the future.”

Topolski Memoir Ltd.

The archive of Feliks Topolski’s drawings, paintings and writing is a unique and indispensable personal visual record of the last century’s radical changes and shifts, incisively observing cultural, political and social movements and events throughout the globe. Receiving the scoping grant will allow them to fully understand not only the contents of this archive, but also how best to publicise it and open it to a wider audience. Topolski strove for an ‘impartial’ recording of his time, and what he left behind is an engaging visual history on a human scale. They are a small organisation, but hope to use the archive to nurture and promote reportage and documentary artwork, providing a space for discussion, practice and research. As a chronicler, Topolski saw his work as an “historical document”, and it is up to Topolski to make it speak.

“The Archives Revealed Scoping Grant is a hugely important step towards reopening Feliks Topolski’s unique view of the 20th century to a new generation of artists, researchers and the public. It is hoped that it will allow for its significance to be properly recognised.” Lucien Topolski.

Action with Communities in Rural England (ACRE)

ACRE, Action with Communities in Rural England, is a national network of mainly county charities whose origins reflect responses to rural poverty after WW1.  Its centenary in 2021 highlighted the special story of how it has supported local groups and initiatives and acted as advocate for issues affecting them. That story is a vital part of the fabric of their national history. but the evidence is being lost.

‘The material covers every aspect of village life, how it changed, how it adapted to meet new needs. It is an important resource for historians as well as those seeking examples of good practice today’ said James Blake, Chairman, ACRE, ‘We hope that the Scoping Grant will help ACRE and the Friends of ACRE Network to identify and save important records and personal testimonies, while developing a practical plan for a national archive’.

Royal Town Planning Institute (RTPI)

Royal Town Planning Institute (RTPI) charitable object is to advance the science and art of planning (town and country and spatial planning) for the benefit of the public. They’re also a learned society, which means they have a responsibility to host, assist and represent the work of planning scholars and researchers.

This scoping grant will allow the RTPI to assess the scope, quality, condition and quantity of their historical records. It will help them to understand the amount of time, work, and money needed to establish a usable, accessible resource for planners, scholars and the public. Such a resource will help to further embed long-standing leadership within the planning community at large.

Archives of IT (AIT)

Archives of IT will use their grant to scope the custody, conservation and digitisation of the archive of Dennis Blackwell (1929-2016), a key figure in the British computer industry for more than 50 years. Dennis contributed to some of the most important commercial initiatives of the period and his archive provides them with a better understanding of government policy, commercial competition, employment conditions, leading personalities and life in the IT industry in the late 20th and early 21st centuries. AIT is a volunteer led organisation and this project has the potential to impact significantly their future development and ability to save and share stories of IT working lives and the history of tech.

Club Cheoil – Manchester City Council: Archives+

The Club Cheoil collection was established by Lynne Percival a Manchester musician who is still actively involved. The collection is well-known among Irish musicians and associated heritage organisations.

It charts the development of Club Cheoil. (Irish: Music Club) from 1990 to 2002. It includes:

• Young Irish musicians promoted via regular concerts featuring International Artists.
• Over 60 recorded concerts and photographs.
• Annual Club Cheoil On Tour festival took Irish music to new audiences and venues in Manchester.
• Oral history project. Volunteers interviewed about the stories of older musicians.
• 1997 CD ‘In Safe Hands’ recorded local musicians under 25yrs.
• Dormant website

This collection is far more than a set of recordings, photographs, videos, interviews and newspaper cuttings – it represents a commitment to community development, making lasting connections for the benefit and continuity of the traditional music medium.

This scoping assessment will recommend how to make the Club Cheoil collection available both online and in Manchester Central Library’s exhibition areas.

This scoping assessment will recommend how to make the Club Cheoil collection available both online and in Manchester Central Library’s exhibition areas.

“We are absolutely delighted to have been successful with this Archives Revealed scoping grant  to hire a consultant to assess the Club Cheoil collection. It is a highly significant collection containing some fascinating material relating to the Irish music scene in Manchester.” Philip Cooke, Manchester Libraries and Archives.

Belfast Library and Society for Promoting Knowledge (The Linen Hall)

Founded in 1788, the Linen Hall is the oldest Library in Belfast, and an archive and accredited museum with collections of national significance. The Northern Ireland Political Collection at the Linen Hall began in the late 1960s with one civil rights leaflet, and today contains some 350,000 items. The definitive record of the Northern Ireland ‘troubles’, peace process, and post conflict society, the collection encompasses all shades of opinion, and contains material from all perspectives. It includes a wealth of insightful and expansive archive material, a significant aspect of which relates to the movement for civil rights in Northern Ireland. This includes the Northern Ireland Civil Rights Association (NICRA) which formed to achieve reform by publicising, documenting, marching, and lobbying for an end to discrimination. Significant societal issues such as equality, housing, employment, and justice are spotlighted in correspondence, flyers, minutes, news sheets, policy documents, photographs, posters, press cuttings, reports, and statements, and the grant provides the foundation to ensure the long-term future of this fascinating and valuable resource.

‘The collections at the Linen Hall have a pivotal role to play in understanding all of Northern Ireland’s past, and crucial to this is the material we hold on civil rights. A people’s movement, at a momentous and climactic time in our recent history, the importance of this material cannot be overstated. The grant will encourage, support, and empower our work to preserve and make the archive accessible, and we are grateful to the National Archives for supporting this unique archive, by and for the community.’ Samantha McCombe, Librarian.

Ulster Society for Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (USPCA)

Siobhan McHaffie, Director of Operations and Development with the USPCA says ‘We are absolutely delighted to have been awarded a grant through this programme, to enable us to properly scope out our archive materials. The USPCA has been in operation since 1836 and is the second-oldest animal welfare charity in the world. There is a range of materials in our warehouse, ranging from newspaper articles to annual reports and accounts, as well as photographs, paintings, and awards. It is currently in no particular order unfortunately and is all looking very unloved. We are excited to be starting this process, with a view to making it accessible to the wider public and any interested researchers.’

Chester Zoo

Chester Zoo is a world-leading conservation charity, driving progress towards a future where nature can not only survive, but thrive, inspiring millions with its passion for protecting their planet. The zoo was opened in 1931 by founder George Mottershead and has grown into a conservation powerhouse working all over the world to prevent extinction, and one of the UK’s most popular attractions.

The zoo’s rich and varied collection of records dates back to its beginnings. It includes images of visitors entering the zoo for the very first time, animal records and scientific research papers, and even a picture of a giraffe that featured in the Guinness Book of World Records in the 1960s for being the tallest ever recorded.

To date, nobody has been able to access this collection, but it holds significant potential to benefit a diverse range of audiences – including local supporters, academics, other zoos, and visitors. Staff at the zoo say they are therefore delighted to have been awarded the Archives Revealed Scoping Grant by the National Archives to enable critical expert input to help determine the best methods for cataloguing and preserving this diverse collection for years to come.

Karen Grant, the zoo’s Information Governance Manager, is leading an ambitious project to unearth the hidden treasures from the zoo’s history. Karen said: “This wonderful collection represents an outstanding example of a zoo archive but, without care and control, it may forever remain unseen. We’re therefore thrilled this Archives Revealed Scoping Grant will help us on our journey towards preserving our archive and making it accessible to everyone. The zoo means so much to so many and evokes strong personal memories – it’s important we can preserve and put a spotlight on these to ensure the rich stories of times gone by at the zoo stay alive.”

 

Image credit: The North of England Zoological Society – Chester Zoo

London School of Jewish Studies

Dating back to the nineteenth century and once recognised as the best Judaica collection in England, the collections of LSJS contain around 70,000 items of Anglo-Jewish History, modern academic interest, rare and historic items, and a fascinating collection of ephemera. The library has been in decline recently, and the collection is ageing and in need of conservation and preservation.  Their regeneration and modernisation project is well underway but this scoping project will kickstart the overwhelming task of assessing and prioritising their conservation needs, helping us on the path back to full strength.

This grant will support and empower their team in the planning and implementation of this next phase, furthering their progress and helping us on the path towards their vision of a modern, fit for purpose library service, which would raise their profile and further their mission as the ‘Jewish education people’.

Image credit: London School of Jewish Studies

Northumberland Archives

Northumberland Archives is delighted to have been awarded an Archives Revealed Scoping Grant to allow an assessment of the papers of Dickson, Archer & Thorp, solicitors, of Alnwick. For more than 10 years, Northumberland Archives has worked to bring together papers of this important solicitors practice, some of which have been disseminated across the world. Much of this has been achieved by external fundraising. The scoping grant will allow them to move a step nearer to making the collection accessible. They will engage a consultant to make a thorough assessment of the collection and calculate the resource required to develop an ISAD(G) compliant web-based catalogue and the skill sets necessary to achieve this. The consultant’s report will form the basis of future fundraising activity and will identify possible funding sources. The report will consider the collection’s potential for academic and non-academic research, family and community history and schools’ education and outreach activity. 

Image credit: Northumberland Archives