Preserving the records

The preservation and conservation of material is central to the role of the Shropshire Archives. Without conservation there can be no access. Preservation of collections requires high quality storage and specialist staff.

Shropshire Archives, which was constructed in 1995, provides such storage facilities and a well-equipped conservation studio. Shropshire Archives employs one full time conservator and a part-time conservation assistant. They work with a number of volunteers as well as short-term contracted staff on special projects.

Volunteers are currently working on diverse projects such as flattening documents in the Much Wenlock Borough Collection, cleaning deeds in the Salt Solicitors' Collection, conduction minor repairs on items in the King's Shropshire Light Infantry Collection and scanning glass negatives.

For an interesting look at conservation of a paper document, with images from Shropshire Archives, please visit the Secret Shropshire website (a link is provided) and do a text search for 'repair sequence'. Searching this website for 'conservation document' will show other images of the types of damaged documents that our conservation department deal with.

Access

Most of the material held by Shropshire Archives is irreplaceable and much is of immense historical importance, not only to Shropshire but also to the country. Unfortunately a large amount of the material is in poor condition and requires conservation work. The conservator estimates his backlog of work to be over 1,000 years!

Some of the material is too fragile to be looked at; it would literally fall apart if touched. Other material, while not in such a bad condition, does requires special care in handling. The rules concerning Search Room access are designed to protect all our material.

Our most frequently consulted documents, including parish registers, have been copied onto microfiche or microfilm. This prevents damage to the original document as well as providing a copy which will last well into the future.

Advice and materials

The conservator is able to offer advice on the storage and conservation of material, grant giving trusts funding conservation work, and the suppliers of conservation materials. For large scale projects a consultancy fee may be charged.

Stocks of conservation materials such as boxes, archive quality paper and wrapping materials are also available for purchase. Please visit our Shop for more information.

If you want to know more about caring for your own documents, please select the attachment 'Looking after your own documents'.