Hampshire Archives Trust

Daniella Gonzalez is a Medievalist and Cataloguer at the UK Parliamentary Archives. She is also a member of the Hampshire Archives Trust team, where she is responsible for...

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Hampshire Archives Trust 

Welcome to Hampshire HistBites. Join us as we delve into the past and go on a journey to discover some of the county's best, and occasionally unknown, history. We'll be speaking to experts, as well as enthusiasts, asking them to reveal some of our hidden heritage as well as share with you a few fascinating untold stories. 

Julian Hello and welcome to Hampshire HistBites. I'm Julian Gerry, your host for this episode, in which I'm pleased to be joined by Daniella Gonzalez. Daniella is a historian whose day job is in the UK Parliamentary Archives but she's also the social media Fellow of Hampshire Archives Trust. Now, many of you listening to this podcast series will be familiar with the Hampshire History Trust, but today we're going to be talking about an entirely separate charity the Hampshire Archives Trust which exists to support and promote archival heritage across the county of Hampshire. 

So, can I start by asking you, Daniella, what does that phrase ‘archival heritage’ really mean?  

Daniella Thanks Julian, so when we're thinking of archives what we're thinking about is a documented memory of the nation and when we're thinking of archival heritage, we're thinking about what archives can tell us about the past, our stories, our communities, where we come from. Really when you're thinking about archival heritage then, archives really help us to understand who we are, the circumstances that we find ourselves in, the different places that we inhabit and when you're thinking of archives, you know, they're part of our everyday lives. If you think about politics, if you think about education, culture, the historic institutions that we have around us, archives are very much part of those stories and telling those stories. You know, they help us move forward and going into the future by looking back at our past. I mean, without archives, whether they're records, objects, even kind of thinking of digital material now, so digital archives, having these really help us understand the world that we live in and really demonstrate why archives matter. 

Julian I see, so it's pretty wide-ranging covering sort of every aspect of life in the county then. Could you also give us a bit of background about the Trust itself, you know when was it set up and what were its original objectives?  

Daniella Yeah sure. So, Hampshire Archives Trust was first conceived of by Hampshire County Council and it was formed during the 1980s and what the County Council did was they invested a lot of funding in setting HAT up. It also involved a lot of office time so lots of people at Hampshire Record Office were brought in, for example. I believe the county archivist was the secretary to start off with. And, you know, Hampshire Archives Trust really kind of wanted a bigger schedule than perhaps the Friends organisation would be. I mean, when you think of Hampshire Archives Trust it's very similar in that way, but it had much bigger aims and objectives. So, for example, HAT first started off with surveys of private archives and had dedicated offices in which to do this. It then kind of developed over time and another aim which came to fruition was creating the Wessex Film and Sound Archive which is one of the first archives in the county dedicated to film and sound material. 

I mean the one thing that I would say that's quite good is that Hampshire Archives Trust is now, you know, separate from Hampshire County Council. It's kind of a quasi-independent organisation and that means that the funding can work in a different way and I'm going to speak a little bit more about this later on, but because of this we can have grants and help different record offices in the county with projects or acquiring archives from auction.  

I should say Hampshire Archives Trust is a registered charity and the overall aim of Hampshire Archives Trust is to support archives in Hampshire and preserve these for future generations. Really what we want to do is kind of promote archives for public benefit and really advocate for the conservation and preservation of archives. And I should say kind of as a final point, one thing that is important to remember about HAT is that we do work very closely and we support Hampshire Record Office in Winchester as well as Southampton Archives and Portsmouth History Centre. 

Julian Okay, so it's a mutually beneficial relationship then because I presume the Archives Trust relies quite heavily on archives in places like the County Records Office.  

Daniella Definitely and that's what we are there to do, to support them. You know, there's different projects that they might need, you know, full funding on or kind of like a top up grant. We are there in order for these archives or even, you know, local history societies who want to put out a publication, we're there to be able to help them in doing so and highlighting Hampshire's rich archival collection and very rich history.  

Julian I see, and now that the trust has been established for 40 years or thereabouts, what sort of significant developments and achievements has the trust produced over that period? 

Daniella So as I was saying, I mean, one of our biggest achievements and the one that I really want to highlight is our grants programme. As I said before, we were kind of started off by Hampshire County Council but obviously when we're thinking about kind of government cuts that have happened and changes over time, obviously the County Council hasn't been able to afford these, so really what HAT's done is need to be really proactive in raising these funds to support these projects. And, you know, the grants program has been largely very successful, it's allowed lots of local history projects to progress. We've also been able to help people through guiding them through the application process and we've been able to fund local individual group projects, those of larger organisations for example. I mean, recent grants that we've given out and projects that we’ve funded include the commemorative program on the bicentenary of the birth of Charlotte Marie Young, and we've also been able to give out grants to conserve Crossway Air collection. I should say with the grants, I've already mentioned publications but they go towards preservation and conservation projects, they go towards cataloguing projects as well and again it's really that mission to promote Hampshire archives to make these more accessible. And also, you know, if there's an archive that you know really wants to buy something at auction and the record at auction is to do with Hampshire, then we are there to also support this going through and for those listening to your podcast, if, you know, you have a local history project or a cataloguing project, you can find out more about our grants and the programme on our website www.hampshirearchivestrust.co.uk and if you go onto our Grants webpage, additional detail is available there. 

Julian Yeah, I'm sure that some of our listeners may well be interested in the possibilities there. And as well as the grant side of things, does the Trust also offer sort of public education opportunities and events?  

Daniella That is an excellent question Julian, thank you. So, I'll deal with education first and then I'll talk about some of the events that we have available. 

I don't know if you've seen on our website or through our social media channels that we have launched a schools’ competition. This is led by our fantastic trustee, Alistair Dougal, who used to be a head teacher of sixth form in Salisbury and he really leads our education programme. And what we've done, or rather Alistair has done, is that he's put together a competition for local schools in Hampshire across various year groups. I believe it is year seven plus all the way up to A-level for students to submit a project based around Hampshire archives, Hampshire local history. So, they could either work as an individual or they can work as a group and they can give in a poster, a video, there's lots of kind of different forms, or forms of media that they can submit. I mean, in terms of education, what's also being developed alongside the schools’ competition, to help students learn about archives and how to undertake this research, is a variety of guides exploring, you know, how to research the history of your school, how to research your local area, how to research like your family history, house history and so on. And I mean, I know I've said that these were done with the schools’ competition in mind, but they're so useful for anybody wanting to learn a little bit more about how to use archives to support their house history research or their local history research. Equally, they're really good if you're an undergraduate student or a postgraduate student interested in Hampshire archives. Those educational resources are available on our website and they're open to anybody who goes on and clicks on the links.  

In terms of our events, I'm going to talk a little bit first about our in-person events and then our webinars which obviously link in the digital program. So, Hampshire Archives Trust do organise in-person, face to face visits and what you'll find is you're escorted by an expert, a knowledgeable person who might come from one of the local history groups for example. People are also able to go on tours of places not generally open to the public. I mean, one of our walking tours that we had recently over the summer, I think it was July that this took place, was a Wickham walking tour. So, it's really nice for people to have that opportunity to go to a place they might not necessarily go to, learn lots from the person who has that knowledge and learn a little bit more about HAT in that way. 

I mean during the pandemic, obviously I wasn't part of HAT during the pandemic, but I know then they had a series of online talks which were very popular. These were run once a month and then obviously what I've continued to do since coming in as the social media Fellow is I've run a programme of monthly webinars and these started during the summer in July, and the webinars really what I wanted them to be and do is show people how to practically undertake research and give them the skillset necessary to do so. So, you know we've had for example a webinar on using the National Archives’ local history records to study Hampshire local history, looked at different series available at the National Archives, looked at the Census for example or maps. Our chair, David Livermore, gave a webinar about writing, you know, your own local history book. Our upcoming webinar this month is actually being delivered by Heather Needham of Hampshire Record Office, and she's going to be focusing on using regimental archives and we've got like a few more coming up, so we've got our November webinar that looks at how to use newspapers for research in Hampshire. And then our final webinar of the year is going to be thinking about conducting family history research in Hampshire. So, you know, we very much have a nice mix of events that people can go to both in person and online. 

Julian Brilliant! So, the webinars that you mentioned, are the recordings of them available on the website?  

Daniella So, recordings are not available on the website. Obviously, I've kind of put my archivist hat on here and thought lots about copyright. So, it really depends on the speaker themselves and again I'm thinking sometimes if they're running the talk elsewhere, I know that this has happened to me before, but what I am hoping to do so that people can enjoy these events, or you know for whatever reason they weren't able to come to the first one running, I would like to run them again later on next year. 

From my experience at the British Association for Local History, when I was social media Fellow there, that is something that we were able to do. So yeah, I'm hoping to do something similar.  

Julian Okay, and I would certainly commend your website to our listeners as well. Having looked at it myself, there's masses of useful info there. I noticed on the website there’s also the option on your website to join the Trust and can you tell us a little bit about what's available to members who join up? 

Daniella Yeah, of course. So, as a member of HAT, one of the great things that you get from this is that you're invited to several exclusive Hampshire local events and you also get discounted rates to other HAT and HAT partner events as well. So, for example with the webinars, these are free for HAT members and it's included as part of your membership. Equally for our in-person events you get a discounted rate. Obviously, you get access to our printed newsletter as well, which is a great resource for finding out all the latest news about archives and the various collections that are available in Hampshire. I should say as well there's different types of membership. So, there's an individual membership, a group membership and a corporate membership. Obviously, as members you're also invited to our hosted annual general meeting, which is always great and actually at our annual general meeting that took place this year, we've had Sarah Lewin of Hampshire Record Office, for example, coming to give a talk so obviously you'll be able to enjoy the benefits about that and be invited to certain events. 

Julian Okay, so it sounds like there's masses of reasons to join up as a member and does the trust also look for volunteers to help share their expertise and run the organisation?  

Daniella So, in terms of getting involved as a volunteer, HAT as a membership charity really does welcome new members and offers of support from anybody who's interested in Hampshire archival heritage and who is committed to preserving these for the future. I mean we're very happy to hear from people who might be interested in getting involved as a trustee or as an advisor to share their expertise with us. I always think the more the merrier and I myself have learned from having done a PhD and from working in the archive sector, it's always so beneficial from learning about other people's experience and what they have done and what they can bring to the table. 

So, if you are interested in volunteering or getting involved in HAT in this capacity, please do go on our contact page and fill out the contact form. Equally, and you know this isn't a volunteer capacity but as a social media Fellow, I'm always really, really happy to hear from people who want to share their research on Hampshire. You know, whether you're focusing on Hampshire local history, Hampshire family history, if you've gone into the archives and you're like oh my God, this record is so interesting I really want to write about it or talk about it, I would love to hear from you and have you contribute the blog, have you contribute to the podcast. 

I should say it's very inclusive. I've had a range of people so far contributing to these initiatives. And again, I should say, if you're a student and you're working on any aspect of Hampshire history, do please drop me a line. You can get in contact with me at socialmedia@hampshirearchivestrust.co.uk. Equally, Hampshire Archives Trust is on Facebook and on Twitter, so please get in contact by dropping me a direct message and I'm so happy to talk to you or to you know any of the listeners today about the different things that we do and the ways that you can get involved in sharing your research with us. 

Julian That's brilliant. It's fascinating to hear from you that although archives are rooted in the past, you're an organisation which is very much coming into the future with the very fact that you're there as the social media Fellow and that you're using all these different media. Do you have any thoughts on what the future is for the Trust and how you might develop further? 

Daniella That is a great question. I mean one of the things that I came in to do obviously was expand our audiences and expand our membership. So, you know whilst admittedly with membership there is a subscription fee that you do pay, it really does go towards supporting and helping and enabling archives in the county to be preserved. 

One thing that I've learned working in the sector is that, you know and especially thinking about things that go out on auction, there's always something new to find, something that might surface, so it would really be super great if we could continue doing that and supporting the various archives across the county, acquire those collections, acquire those archives. I mean, as I said earlier, the grants program is one of our really successful initiatives and ways in which we can achieve the aims that we have set out as a charity. So, obviously continuing that is very, very important to us and being able to support and lend a helping hand to these projects. 

I have to say, I always see archival projects popping out everywhere, so that is very much on the cards for us. Again, as a social media Fellow, I want the digital engagement programme to keep expanding. One of the things that I did when I came on board was, I opened up an Instagram account for Hampshire Archives Trust. That wasn't there before, it was just kind of Twitter, Facebook and a YouTube page. So again, it's continuing to develop those social media platforms, find the best ways of connecting with our audiences and making sure that the content we put out there is relevant.  

I also really want to reach out to younger audiences and diversify our audiences. Again, linking back to what I said before, if you know, you're working on any aspect of Hampshire history please get in contact. I want to hear all kinds of stories about all types of records, about all types of people and that's something that I really want reflected in the blog for example, reflected in the podcast and also in the webinars and yeah, the types of webinars that are being delivered. 

I just want to keep making it just as accessible as possible to people. I think, you know even though obviously during the pandemic we are all at home, everything was online. You know there are still people who sometimes can't access things in person, can't go to an archive for various reasons, so it's really, really important to me that things are offered in a hybrid way and that we keep giving that digital offer. 

Julian Daniella thank you so much, both for sharing all your expertise on Hampshire Archives Trust or HAT but also for the enthusiasm that you've brought to that as well. So, thank you very much.  

Daniella Thank you so much Julian for having me on the podcast. I've enjoyed myself immensely and it's been really great to talk about something that I love so much and to talk about archives and to talk about digital engagement with you. 

I hope you enjoyed listening to today's episode. If you would like to find out a little bit more about what we've been talking about, then please visit the website www.WinchesterHeritageOpen days.org. Click on Hampshire HistBites and there you'll find today's show notes as well as some links to more information. Thank you.