Do you have any deeds of mills and related buildings that you are keeping somewhere safe (like a bank)? If so then read the alarming story below from an archivist in a London borough, and think about retrieving them and donating them to an archive to make sure they are protected!
A local resident came in. She had been paying her bank to store her house deeds and other legal documents.
The bank suffered a major sewage flood and documents were soaked. Customer and many others received letters asking them to agree destruction or come and collect the deeds. The customer arrived at bank to be given sodden bundle of deeds with the suggestion to store them in her shed and be careful of sewage contamination.
The bank has agreed to pay £100 towards cost of conservation and distress.
Anyone else as outraged as me? Should I even be surprised?
Another archivist commented:
A cynic might even suggest that it’s a good deal more surprising that they didn’t just throw the lot away. Clearly as archive professionals we’re all likely to be at the polar opposite end of the spectrum of regard for historic documents, but there are many people out there – some of whom, I’m sure, work for banks – who would regard deeds as worthless old bits of paper or parchment.
You have been warned!!!