News

Sheffield University has announced their recent grant from NMCT: to conserve over 500 original fairground ride plans and drawings from the Orton and Spooner Collection. Orton and Spooner were a British engineering company, which produced some of the most sophisticated and sought after rides, wagons and show fronts in the fairgrounds at the turn of the 19th century. The collection is a much sought after resource by researchers, however much of it has been inaccessible due to the fragility of the designs.

The NMCT Annual Report for 2018 is now available! The report provides details of all the projects that were awarded grants during the year and also reflects on the lasting benefit of some past projects. 

The South West Heritage Trust is celebrating the successful project to conserve the archive of Henry Addington, 1st Viscount Sidmouth on 19th August 2019 at the Devon Heritage Centre. Addington was Home Secretary at the time of the Peterloo Massacre in 1819, and this event will mark the 200th anniversary.

At their summer meeting, the Trustees awarded nine grants totaling £70,000. The collections that will be conserved and made accessible include: medieval Gaelic manuscripts, an important collection of early modern manuscripts and commonplace books, John Ruskin's lecture diagrams, and the archive of the NUM.

Thanks to NMCT's grants manuscripts up and down the country are conserved and made accessible, but the grants often have another benefit - training. A 2017 grant to Cardiff University is enabling the Collingwood Archive to be conserved. A number of conservation students from Cardiff University and conservation volunteers from Glamorgan Archives have had the chance to be involved in the work and have benefitted hugely as a result.

We are delighted to announced that Professor David McKitterick has been elected Chairman of NMCT. David succeeds Lord Egremont, who was an outstanding chairman of NMCT for over 20 years.

The deadline for this year's Business Archive Council grants for cataloguing is fast approaching. Apply by 25th June for a cataloguing grant of up to £4,000 for a business collection in the private or public sector.

At their December meeting, the NMCT Trustees awarded grants totalling over £76,000 to nine conservation projects. The successful applicants included the South West Heritage Trust, Cambridge University Library, the Chatsworth House Trust, Library of Freemasonry and Durham County Record Office. The largest grant was awarded to Oriel Mon for the conservation of the note and sketch books of Charles Tunnicliffe.

On 7th November 2017 The National Archives and The Pilgrim Trust announce the launch of Archives Revealed, a funding programme to support the cataloguing of archive collections. This funding will support archive services across the UK to make their uncatalogued archive collections accessible and available to all.

The Trustees have awarded ten grants so far in 2017, totaling nearly £65,000. The collections that will be conserved as a result include rare chemical manuscripts, letters of the Oxford Movement, an internationally significant Anglo-Zulu war archive, early records showing the development of hockey in the UK, and a daybook recording the long-lasting yeomanry tradition of farms in Herefordshire.