Dear list,
My first rant and possibly my only rant, but we shall see; it does have a
purpose though and has been building up over the years. Presumably it
affects other list members to a greater or lesser extent.
I'm just back from holiday, a tour of the North East with my partner. Part
of her family stopped there on the way down from Scotland and worked at
Dinnington Colliery (now Brunswick village). We eventually stopped at
Woodhorn Colliery to look at the archive centre there, hoping for great
things from an archive based at a former colliery. But to use the archive we
had to register, no problem for my partner but hard for me as I no longer
drive; I didn't have a spare utility bill with me nor my passport despite
being outside Cornwall. I had other identification with me that wasn't
acceptable - Cornwall library card, Cornwall Record Office card, British
Library card and National Archives card. All of these require the same
identification to acquire of course, resulting in a very silly situation in
my eyes. Paul Brough, I know you're out there somewhere, why can't you and
your archival buddies get together and organise a national scheme for our
national archives (and National Archives?) and issue me, as a bona fide
researcher, with one card that I can take to any library or archive, hold up
and be told "that will do nicely". I've been researching for 25 years now
and have been the owner of a great many library or reader cards; in 25 years
time, if I survive that long, I really don't want to be in the position
where I have so many cards that I can play patience while waiting for my
documents.
End of rant. Sue didn't find any information and I caught a cold.
Pete Joseph
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