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With apologies for any inconvenience caused by cross-posting sjas ~~~~ A2A Update, March 2004 The March A2A database update has now taken place at www.a2a.org.uk. 1348 new catalogues have been added to the database, which now contains more than 6.6 million catalogue entries describing archives held in 348 record offices, libraries and other repositories throughout England. Among the catalogues added recently are finding aids describing the following: * 53,000 insurance policies held with the Sun Fire Office in the period 1816-24 - including one taken out by the Duke of Wellington, seven relating to taverns bearing his name and one relating to a painting of the Duke and his officers by Thomas Heaphy - held at Guildhall Library and catalogued for A2A by the London Archive Users Forum through a project called A Place in the Sun; * annual returns and correspondence relating to freemasons' lodges across England from 1745 onwards, held at the Library and Museum of Freemasonry and catalogued for A2A through the Antients and Moderns project; * a wide variety of archives relating to the Yorkshire seaside town of Filey, held at the Crimlisk Fisher Archive and catalogued for A2A through Access to the Crimlisk Fisher Archive; * miscellaneous unofficial collections and records of local government bodies held by Berkshire Record Office, Canterbury Cathedral Archives, the Isle of Wight Record Office, Southampton Archives Services and West Sussex Record Office, contributed through two projects in the South East Region, Aladdin's Cave and Local Governance and the Community; * family and estate archives held at Lincolnshire Record Office (some dating back to the late 12th century), contributed through the East Midlands project Families, Estates and Communities; * business archives held at Suffolk Record Office and at the Long Shop Steam Museum in Leiston, catalogued for A2A by Suffolk Record Office through the Made in Suffolk project; * business and family and estate archives held at the local authority archives services of Bury, Cheshire and Chester, Cumbria, Lancashire, Oldham, St Helens, Tameside, and the Wirral, by the Museum of Science and Industry in Manchester and by the Maritime Archives and Library of National Museums and Galleries on Merseyside, contributed through the Mills, Mansions and Corner Shops project in the North West Region; * the Manchester Ship Canal Company's photographic archive, held at Greater Manchester County Record Office and contributed through More than Meets the Eye; * the archive of the Tolkien Society - the catalogue includes links to selected images of items in the archive and one of the images is currently featured on the A2A homepage - catalogued for A2A by the South East Region project Private Faces in Public Places; * archives relating to coal mining held by the archives services of Barnsley and Sheffield, contributed by the Shafts of Light project in South Yorkshire; * business archives - including the archives of John Lobb, bootmaker to the Prince of Wales, Jaeger and Liberty (held at the City of Westminster Archives Centre), of the Hackney Empire (held by Hackney Archives Department) and of Wheelers Wycombe Brewery (held by the Centre for Buckinghamshire Studies) - contributed by The Works in London and the South East; * and public records held locally, including hospital archives at Surrey History Centre and Tyne and Wear Archives Service, and the records of the Royal Sussex Regiment at West Sussex Record Office. A2A usage since launch now stands at 3.2 million searches, with 6.9 million catalogue downloads as a result. In the three months to February 2004, general A2A database usage increased by 77%. The A2A Central Team would like to take this opportunity to thank all those who have contributed to the success of A2A from 2002 to 2004, whether through project planning and administration, mark-up or compilation of catalogues, the provision of exhibitions and other publicity, user evaluation, or material support. We look forward to continuing to work with many of you during our next phase - on which, more in the next issue of A2A Update. A2A is the English strand in the UK archives network: in April 2002 its database at www.a2a.org.uk contained the electronic equivalent of over 400,000 catalogue pages describing archives held across England in national, local and specialist repositories and dating from the 700s to the present day. The A2A programme aimed to make a further 300,000 catalogue pages available on the web by March 2004 and has in fact provided around 410,000 further catalogue page equivalents over the last two years. * * * * * * Sarah J A Stark Regional Liaison Co-Ordinator, A2A The National Archives Kew Richmond Surrey TW9 4DU Tel (direct line): 020 8392 5328 Fax: 020 8487 9211 Email: [log in to unmask] www: http://www.a2a.org.uk * * * * * *