Scoping Grants funded in 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.

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 As a chronicler, Topolski saw his work as an “historical document”, and it is up to Topolski to make it speak.

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 Village. Parish Councils and the Preservation of Village Greens by Humphrey Baker M.A. Assistant Secretary of the Commons, Open Spaces, and Footpaths Preservation Society. Every village ought to have, not only a playing field in the full sense, but some open space best described as a "village green", with grass, trees, and seats, where elders can sit in the sun, the children play about, and everyone take the air when they feel inclined. Many a village has such an open space already but is not getting full value from it because it is not properly looked after. This is emphatically a job for the parish council, and every council which has not tackled it already should do so at once. The main questions are: Have we in this parish already an open space which can be turned to good account? And if so what can the parish council do about it? To the first question there are several possible answers. There may be a "village green" in the full sense of the term - an open space in which the local residents have from time immemorial exercised a customary right of recreation, such as cricket, or sports, or an annual celebration. There may be a piece of land that was allotted by an Inclosure Award to the church wardens and overseers for the recreation of the inhabitants. There may be a bit of memorial waste or other vacant...

Royal Town Planning Institute

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 (information technology) 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.

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.

Northern Ireland Civil Rights Association. A bill of rights now to end violence and defuse sectarianism.

Ulster Society for Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (USPCA)

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.

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’.

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.