ARCHIVES AND LIBRARIES

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The Keep, Woollards Way, Brighton BN1 9BP

t 01273 482349 e thekeep@eastsussex.gov.uk

w thekeep.info

Construction work on The Keep started in 2011, and the archive centre opened in 2013. Genealogical resources here include parish registers and parish-chest material for East Sussex and Brighton and Hove; wills; nonconformist registers; registers of cemeteries; workhouse guardians’ records; tithe maps and apportionments; and electoral registers.

The Keep also looks after Brighton and Hove Museums’ local-history collections, including material that was once housed at the old Brighton History Centre. Items include early souvenir wares and seaside ephemera, as well as a substantial collection documenting the first great Victorian pleasure pier – Sir Samuel Brown’s 1823 Chain Pier. The wider local collection includes prints, photographs, pamphlets and maps.

Finally you can also find the Special Collections of the University of Sussex at The Keep.

Hove •

• Plumpton

• Brighton

• Lewes

• Crowborough

• Maresfield

• Newhaven

The university holds a number of important archival, manuscript and rare-book collections; reference material; books; journals; newspapers; ephemera; the institution’s own records; and the Mass Observation Archive. This was founded in 1937 when a team of observers and volunteer writers began studying and recording the everyday lives of ordinary people. The original work continued until the early 1950s, was relaunched in 1981 and continues to this day. The archive’s website at massobs. org.uk includes a series of free podcasts about the project.

At time of writing The Keep has partially reopened, and visits must be booked two days in advance: thekeep.info/ re-opening-information. You can also keep abreast of news and behind-the-scenes work at thekeep.info/news-and-blogs. a t

• Heathfield

• Horam

• Hailsham

Eastbourne •

Brassey Institute, 13 Claremont, Hastings TN34 1HE

0345 608 0196

• Stonegate

Bexhill •

Rye • Camber • w eastsussex.gov.uk/libraries/

local/locations/hastings Hastings Library is home to one of the largest local-studies collections in East Sussex, with material covering the entire county as well as parts of West Sussex; Brighton and Hove; and Kent. You will also find useful local-studies collections housed in the libraries at Bexhill ( eastsussex.gov.uk/libraries/ local/locations/bexhill), Eastbourne ( eastsussex.gov. uk/libraries/local/locations/ eastbourne) and Lewes ( east sussex.gov.uk/libraries/local/ locations/lewes).

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a 3 Orchard Street, Chichester, West Sussex PO19 1DD

01243 753602 record.office@westsussex.gov. uk

w westsussex.gov.uk/leisure/ explore_west_sussex/record_ office_and_archives.aspx

The record office holds parish registers, wills, electoral registers, census returns, and the vast Royal Sussex Regiment collection. You can explore digital copies of the battalion’s War Diaries at bit.ly/wsro-royal-sussex

and there are also indexes to nominal rolls, absent voters’ lists and local newspapers.

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• Robertsbridge

• Battle

Hastings •

e worthing.library@westsussex. gov.uk w westsussex.gov.uk/find-mynearest/library/details/api/type/ library/view/worthing-library Although based in West Sussex, the local-history material held here includes useful trade directories for anyone with roots in East Sussex, as well as a large collection of books on East and West Sussex. Runs of newspapers include the Sussex Daily News (1881–1956), as well as prints and engravings dating back to the 1640s. parishes (with dates of earliest available parish records) on the website. Although the Research Room at Ore Centre is currently closed, the website includes all sorts of information about publications and projects.

Sussex Family History Group

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SFHG Library, The Keep, Woollards Way, Brighton BN1 9BP

t 01273 482349 e secretary@sfhg.org.uk

w sfhg.org.uk

The group covers all of Sussex, with five meeting centres across the county plus a library and research centre at The Keep. In the current crisis all meetings have been postponed, but there’s still a great deal of useful information and publications available via the website.

Sussex Record Society

w sussexrecordsociety.org

The society has been transcribing records since 1901, and to date has published 100 volumes covering the history of Sussex from 1066 to the First World War. The website has printed books you can buy, as well as digitised volumes and databases you can explore for free, including Calendar of Sussex Marriage Licences – 1586 to 1642. The society’s 100th volume was The

Great War Memoir of Ralph Ellis, Sussex Artist and Soldier, edited by Sue Hepburn. t

Emma Jolly Pen & Sword, 197 pages, £14.99

If you are looking for a quick guide to using the census returns, then this book is probably not for you. But if you want an in- depth,