Release date: 3 April 2025
The Accreditation Panel praised the ‘strongly-led’ archive service that uses ‘a considered approach to development and delivery’, the effective use of resources to deliver services to its stakeholders, and the ‘impressive work on digital preservation’.
Archive Service Accreditation is the UK quality standard for archive services.
It defines good practice and provides a benchmark for gauging performance, recognising achievement and driving improvement within the archives sector.
The Record Office has a vast collection of archives relating to West Sussex, stored on over eight miles of shelving dating back over 1,200 years.
It holds archives dating from 780AD to the present day for local councils, churches, schools, police, courts, hospitals, businesses, groups and societies, families, landed estates like Goodwood and Parham, the Diocese of Chichester and the Royal Sussex Regiment, as well as managing the modern records of the county council.
It’s the place to go if you are tracing your family history, studying the history of your house or any local building, want to research a military ancestor or explore old photographs.
You can also uncover information for a school or college project, carry out research for a book or postgraduate study, listen to memories of times gone by and view old film footage of the local area.
Councillor Duncan Crow, Cabinet Member for Community Support, Fire and Rescue said: “This is excellent news and shows what a valuable service the Record Office provides to help people and communities fulfil their potential by providing access to thousands of collections in one building.
“I am particularly impressed with the work by our Record Office staff on digital preservation, which puts us at the forefront of developments nationally and ensures that digital records for West Sussex can be preserved for future generations.
“The website was launched with 36,000 images in June 2024. More are being added as part of a regular programme of work and there are now over 52,600 digital images available for people to view.”
Take a magical history tour by visiting www.wsro.org.uk
