Preservation goes hand in hand with conservation and, as part of the Archive Conservation team’s overview and collections care, a box survey was implemented in 1991. Still ongoing twenty years later, we are gradually surveying the contents of every box in the county archive. This enables us to monitor the condition of the archive, discard or replace unsuitable packaging, pins and staples, to make sure the contents are not packed incorrectly and to check that boxes are not over full.

Besides the important preservation and conservation aspect of the survey, it is also a wonderful opportunity to discover ‘lost’ treasures and to investigate collections unopened for many years, and in some cases perhaps decades. Some are yet to be fully catalogued.

 
"King Neptune"

One such collection, currently being surveyed, is the Methuen archive from Corsham Court. This large archive is probably most notable for its Boer War content of diaries, plans and photographs. There is plenty of repackaging and paper conservation required, but other fascinating items have come to light. Two very fine seals of Elizabeth I have been discovered wrapped in grease-proof paper. In excellent condition, they have however been removed from their wrapping and placed in protective seal bags.

 
A "Dingy"

Other Methuen finds have included a beautiful Arabic scroll and an enormous scrapbook dating to around 1814 containing bill posters and news cuttings from the end of the 18^th century. The cuttings cover political, historical and social events but the compiler also had an eye for the quirky; the report on the Lancashire man able to worry hedgehogs to death is not for the squeamish! Another cutting refers to a duel fought between two royal hairdressers ordered to fight, by King George III, only with powder puffs. My favourite article is an account of a ventriloquist pallbearer banished from his village for terrifying mourners!

 
Log book from the 'Riverside'

However, perhaps the most unusual item the survey has uncovered comes from the Money-Kyrle family archive. It is a Victorian log book kept by Audley Money-Kyrle on his voyage to Calcutta aboard the ship ‘Riverside’. There is a full account of the journey with his own evocative drawings, but neatly pressed between the pages we found the wings of a flying fish!

The flying fish wings

The log book requires some refurbishment and re-binding which we can carry out in the archive labs. But as for the fish wings – I think we’ll pass them over to our colleagues in Object Conservation…

 
Crossing the creek

Mervyn Grist

Archive Conservator

If you have enjoyed this article, the following entries may also be of interest:

Hidden Gems in a Winterbourne Dauntsey Attic

The Jewel in WSA's Crown

Objects Conservation Lab: An exciting and intruiging place to be!