South West Heritage Trust

This project has conserved the political correspondence of Henry Addington, 1st Viscount Sidmouth, the most nationally significant collection held at the Devon Heritage Centre.  Its pre-eminence was recognised through the Acceptance in Lieu process in 2008.  Henry Addington was prominent in public affairs from 1789-1824, during a turbulent period of British and European history that included the French Revolution, the Napoleonic Wars, unrest in Ireland, growing opposition to the slave trade and social unrest at home including the Peterloo Massacre.  The papers cover Addington’s time as Speaker of the House of Commons, Prime Minister and Chancellor of the Exchequer, and Home Secretary. 

The main objectives of the project were to put the collection in good heart through a programme of conservation and to enable researchers to access the entirety of the correspondence without undue risk.  Items requiring conservation were scattered throughout the collection, which was seeing increasing levels of use. 

The whole collection is available to researchers for the first time.  We can now be confident that all items can be safely handled, and that the most significant items have a greater level of security through being mounted in fasicules.

The project has raised the collection’s profile, through online posts and blogs on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, an article in the national Archive and Record Society magazine and an item on BBC Spotlight South West.  National interest in Peterloo is expected this summer to mark the 200th anniversary and we are planning an event in August to celebrate completing the project, linked to this national event.  We are also creating a portable display about People Power (linked to this year’s National Heritage Open Days theme) which will include content from the collection.

The project was a wonderful opportunity for Rebecca Dabnor to work on pre-eminent papers early in her conservation career, and she learned a great deal from the experience.  The two main volunteers, Ann-Marie Dick and Hei Chun Ho, a university undergraduate, learned new skills and found the work inspiring.

The project has been a very positive experience for the South West Heritage Trust, creating publicity and profile for our relatively new organisation.  It has publicly demonstrated our commitment to archive conservation, and the importance of full access to the collection.  We are grateful to the National Manuscript Conservation Trust for making this project possible.

All images courtesy of South West Heritage Trust