With apologies for any inconvenience caused by cross-posting
sjas
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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

* * * * * *