Glamorgan Archive Training Day

Monday 13th April

Glamorgan Archive training day

The Glamorgan Archive building is multifunctional and has space for outside groups to hold their events.

The training was split into four sections reflecting the four main aspects of the GA:

The first part of the session was held in the working area, the public rooms, which is where records are brought to when members of the public order them, the presentation of methodology and the conservators area.

This was a really informative day from the fab people down the Archives, who were so nice and so  patient answering all our questions.

It's safe to say there is a heck of a lot of stuff stored down there, and the brilliant thing is it's all recorded on their website catalogue, their digital window. Whether it's records from the landed estates of bygone Lords, as far back as the 12th century, to the inmate list of various workhouses, to council papers, to police books using cutting edge photo technology from the 1890's.

These last make criminals from that age one of the most documented and long lasting group!  It serves to prove the well worn idea that quirks and accidents contribute as much as anything else to our view of the past. That you can go down to the archives and see hundreds of photos of those from near the most hard up in society bound together in one place, yet the richest who had the money to take most advantage may have left their photos to family who may or may not have kept them and looked after them and donated them to the archive.

So in terms of NoFit State, this project will ensure it appears in history in the future, in a coherent and in depth way that can be accessed easily.

Here are four examples of the different types of documents kept ion the GA:

Headmasters were obliged to keep school log books from 1864, and give great information for researchers, such as who hadn't come in because of the weather, who didn't have boots, ect

School Log Book 1880s

Earl of Plymouth Estate Records 1766

Results from the late 18th century common practice of employing a surveyor to survey their land, all hand drawn and hand painted. Can be a bit of a jigsaw, as the surveyor only drew the land he was paid to and not any neighbouring land

Workhouse such as the one featured in Oliver Twist were built from 1836. Dietry tables and times of meals as well as records were meticulously kept - documenting a sad and harsh period of British government reaction to the poor and unemployed.

Workhouse Admission and Discharge Book Pontypridd Poor Law Union

25:1 OS Maps 1880s-1940s

The maps that are kept at the GA covering Cardiff over a key period in its extraordinary growth. The oldest being over 130 years old - what will Cardiff be like in another 130 years if someone comes to ask for the circus archive, it's starts you thinking in this way.

The volunteers who came worked their brain muscle like crazy, there was a lot of information!

The GA use a software called CALM

The last part of the training session was in the Conservators room, with its Light Wall and fabulous views

It's not about preserving material for posterity but slowing down the process of decay.

And the materials out of which the original material is made makes a fundamental difference. For instance the velum - animal hide - on which 12th century estate records were written are in better nick than 1970's newspapers.

The paper we've had since the industrial revolution, where the cheapest material it was deemed and still is, to make into a writing surface was tree pulp. But the short fibres breakdown very easily over time. Who knows really how long they will last. Now, however, in the last 10 years digital has really taken over as a storage mechanism, which is an unknown quantity in terms of longevity.

THE FUNDAMENTAL PRINCIPAL ABOUT PRESERVING MATERIAL IS THAT NOTHING CAN BE PRESERVED!

It is only a continuous endeavour of slowing down the process of decay.