Project News & Updates
How a parish archive, untouched for generations, is being opened, catalogued and brought back to life.
After a long time in storage, the boxes finally came down. It was our first real look at what we actually had, and the start of something special.
Volunteers visited Lancashire Archives for a hands-on session on conservation and the safe handling of historic materials. They were introduced to the principles of caring for fragile papers, the common issues to watch for such as tears, surface dirt and environmental damage, and why appropriate storage and archival standards matter when preserving a collection for the long term.
A second visit to Lancashire Archives, this time learning the nature of cataloguing an archive. Working with the Sacred Heart collection already held there, volunteers practised identifying different types of church record, and came away feeling confident and positive about the task ahead.
Patterns began to emerge as the collection was sorted and its shape became clear. After a few weeks working through the boxes, the material was separated into relevant sections, filed by what each item is rather than what it is about. Seven categories emerged from the collection itself: registers, insurance and finance, parish newsletters, Talbot School records, guilds, local history and restoration material, and the miscellaneous items that fit nowhere else.
Volunteers met regularly to work through the collection, cleaning each item, recording what it was, and building the catalogue entry by entry. Slow, careful work, and the heart of the whole project.
A further session at Lancashire Archives, this time focused on research: how to interrogate the records, follow a name or a place through the collection, and piece together the wider story behind an individual item.
With the catalogue in place, volunteers turned to the subjects that interested them most. Eight themes emerged, not from how the documents were filed, but from what people wanted to know: Wartime Walburgians, The Tale Between Two Brothers, Walburgian Women, Talbot School Memories, School General History, Clergy and the Community, Plans and Change Over Time, and Restoration Through The Years.
The exhibition brought the eight themes to life, giving people the chance to see the archived items in person and read the stories volunteers had spent months uncovering. Supported by The National Lottery Heritage Fund, the launch also marked the completion of a wider conservation project and the partnership behind it, between church, community, academic institutions, heritage organisations and volunteers.
See what the team has been uncovering
Photographs, letters and records, brought back into the light. Explore the highlights from the St Walburge’s archive.