We are delighted to announce that we have received a grant of £10,000 from the Pilgrim Trust. This grant goes towards a larger project, “Archives and Air Hangars”, which will see us take the important step in moving some of our material offsite so suitable archival storage.
While we are happy to be based in the beautiful Watlington House, a grade-II* listed building in the centre of Reading, it raises challenges in terms of how we can store our material. Some of our material is very fragile and can’t be handled, such as glass plates. Other material has been digitised and is available online.
With this project, “Archives and Air Hangars”, we will use the Pilgrim Trust’s funding to help us prepare to move such material offsite to Upper Heyford. The site was once a military base and has several large, indestructible air hangars. Some of these hangars have been converted into impressive and cost-effective archival storage solutions. This storage meets the highest level of archival storage standard requirements, and has the benefit of being close to the Archive. We can request items to be returned to our Reading base when visiting researchers wish to view an item in person, and material can be returned very quickly.
We look forward to taking this next big step in our development and we are grateful for the opportunity that has been provided by the Pilgrim Trust.