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Could I echo Nick's endorsement of the value of these documents? My office has retained all the plans for all our local authorities (including three former County Boroughs) up to 1948 in their entirety; we must have getting on for 150,000 of them; we also hold plans for Eastbourne and Hastings up to c1970. Whether or not to sample must partly depend on the survival of departmental finding-aids - we have both indexed registers and card indexes, depending on the authority; my general reluctance to sample such large series would be strengthened were there no way of identifying the basics of what we have destroyed. Even an application for a garage or a dormer window places its applicant, architect and builder in precise locations at a given time - a typical example of how archives have uses beyond their contemporary purpose. One also needs to remember that the plans of trivial alterations made to buildings which themselves antedate the beginning of bylaw plans, generally 1894 in rural districts, may well include important information about the existing design and appearance of a structure which might subsequently have been demolished unrecorded. This is particularly true in Brighton, where the alterations series begins in 1830, antedating the plans of new buildings by 32 years. best wishes Christopher Christopher Whittick MA FSA FRHistS senior archivist East Sussex Record Office The Maltings Castle Precincts LEWES BN7 1YT 01273 482348 Elizabeth Hughes County Archivist 01273 482356 This message is intended for the use of the addressee only and may contain confidential or privileged information. If you have received it in error please notify the sender and destroy it. You may not use it or copy it to anyone else. E-mail is not a secure communications medium. Please be aware of this when replying. All communications sent to or from the County Council may be subject to recording and/or monitoring in accordance with relevant legislation. Although East Sussex County Council has taken steps to ensure that this e-mail and any attachments are virus free, we can take no responsibility if a virus is actually present and you are advised to ensure that the appropriate checks are made. You can visit our website at http://www.eastsussex.gov.uk Contact the list owner for assistance at [log in to unmask] For information about joining, leaving and suspending mail (eg during a holiday) see the list website at https://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/cgi-bin/webadmin?A0=archives-nra