Archives

On Sunday I took the plunge and accepted a place on an MA course at York University. The course is not taught but is a forty thousand-word dissertation that has to be written over two years. I am going to build on my work on the impact of the Beeching Report on the Whitby area. To me this is a fascinating area of research and one that is ripe with possibilities. It is also significantly under-researched. I have already started my preliminary work, as I will be missing the beginning of term in January due to holidays. Essentially I am attempting to scope the work and look for original sources.

As a result this week I have visited two archives, on Monday it was the turn of Scarborough Library. As might be expected they have many local reference books including some that I only expected to find in Whitby. That is an added bonus, as it will save me a couple of trips. The most surprising thing is their archive. I had expected to find the old documents from Scarborough Borough Council. Indeed there were but they were in a room arranged in a seemingly chaotic fashion. I was told that they would be happy to provide anything that I asked them for, so in turn I asked to see a catalogue. This is when it got weird, there is not catalogue, so I faced with a catch-22 question if I do not know what is there how can I ask for it! Answers on a postcard please. The disturbing thing is that there is another room that they were not prepared to show me.

On Wednesday I visited the North Yorkshire archives in Northallerton. Superficially here thing are more organised, there are numerous catalogues, particularly of Council documents. You complete a triplicate form and the relevant files are produced. So far so good, but previously I had consulted some boxes of correspondence from the 1960s’, where are those in the catalogue I asked. Ah, I should have guessed the archivist replied that much of their material is not catalogued having been rescued at short notice from various authorities when they were abolished. I am beginning to see that my research will probably involve sifting through much material that is not relevant in order to find a few gems.

I was doing some of this on Wednesday in the files of the local authority that covered the area where we live before 1974. There were some fascinating references notably the case of a lady who had defrauded the council concerning payments for evacuees during the war. I immediately wanted to read more. So perhaps this will be a problem that I had not anticipated, how to avoid disappearing down rabbit holes!