Buckinghamshire Archives Service
Reasons for nomination:
Buckinghamshire Archives is an accredited archive service and place of deposit. We have SLAs with Milton Keynes City Council and the National Paralympic Heritage Trust.
Highlights
Disability Sports project – “A huge milestone for Paralympic heritage.”
LGBTQ+ project – ambitious and innovative outputs.
Work in prisons – innovative and sustainable work.
History Festival – month long festival with 21 partner organisations.
Virtual offers – three new remote offers for researchers.
Supporting people into work – taking opportunities to help others.
More details below:
Disability Sports project
Buckinghamshire is the proud home of the Paralympics, and Buckinghamshire Archives works with the National Paralympic Heritage Trust (NPHT) to collect, preserve and make accessible their archival collections.
Thanks to the work of our volunteers and the Buckinghamshire Archives and NPHT teams, around 35,000 items from disability sports collections were made searchable and accessible to the public for the first time. This amazing achievement was described as “A huge milestone for Paralympic heritage” by Natalia Dannenberg-Spreier, Head of Paralympic Heritage at the International Paralympic Committee, during the catalogue’s launch event on the 14th August 2024.
The project started in November 2020, when the team decided to progress making the internationally important collections relating to disability sports fully accessible: WheelPower, the International Wheelchair and Amputee Sports Federation (IWAS, now World Abilitysport) and ParalympicsGB. A previous project, funded by the Wellcome Trust, began the process, but there were still a significant number of records remaining to be catalogued. There were 204 uncatalogued boxes for WheelPower, 205 uncatalogued boxes for IWAS, and 54 uncatalogued boxes for the ParalympicsGB collection. That made a total of 463 boxes we needed to make accessible.
As a small team, using existing staff resources to address the matter was not an option, so a collaborative, volunteer-led, project in partnership with NPHT was created. New Burdens money the Service had previously received from the National Archives was used to pay for a project archivist for 12 months. The project had 30 volunteers at Buckinghamshire Archives, who contributed around 3000 hours of their time. At the Stoke Manderville stadium, NPHT had 11 volunteers, who contributed 2,000 hours. So, in total 41 volunteers worked on the project, and contributed around 5,000 hours between the end of 2021 to July 2024.
New procedures were created to ensure the boxes were processed in a well-managed way, and volunteers listed the documents of each box at item level, assigning each one an individual box reference number, which was recorded on the document. After the project archivist’s contract ended, Archive Service staff took over the management of the project and built and populated complex archival trees. We are all really proud of what we have achieved!
Quotes from volunteers
“My experience as a volunteer has been extremely rewarding. I have been treated as part of the team with clear communication and support and training when required. It has been a privilege to support the work of Bucks Archive and NPHT by volunteering on this project.”
"My involvement with this project has awakened skills I thought I had lost through lack of use in recent years. It gave me a much deeper understanding of the struggles and determination of the many individuals responsible for the emergence of what we know today as the Paralympic movement”
Our Disability Sports Project was featured in an ARA magazine article (November/December issue 2024).
Volunteers and collections work
All volunteers working on the Disability Sports Project at its close continued giving their time to the archives and moved onto different cataloguing projects with us. The Service is currently developing a geotagging project, to be launched in August 2025, that will enable people to volunteer from home. There is currently a waiting list for volunteers, as all projects are at capacity. Volunteer projects currently running include a project to catalogue building control plans from Eton Rural District, a listing project aimed at supporting people pursuing a career in archives, a project to improve the catalogue of the Ashridge estate collection and a project to clean, package and catalogue rolls from the Quarter Sessions collection. We also have a project to digitise those collections most requested by remote customers, to improve access.
Since December 2023, the team (8.6FTE) have added 104,000 records to the catalogue, of which:
c.60,000 records added through staff cataloguing
c.40,000 records added through volunteer cataloguing
c.4,000 records added through imports of catalogues that previously only existed in paper form
LGBTQ+ Project
In December 2023, Buckinghamshire Archives was awarded £31,960 by the National Lottery Heritage Funding to run an LGBTQ+ project based on Victorian records, called ‘Lost Victorian Voices.’ The project initially trained volunteers in research skills and palaeography to uncover relevant stories from within the archives. As well as training provided by the team, Norena Shopland, a leading expert and published author in LGBTQ+ archival research, provided guidance and training. Over 50 individual stories of potential interest were discovered during the research phase, with 10 being further explored by the volunteers to be used for the creative outputs of the project. When the research phase of the project was completed, volunteers were fully involved in the creative outputs and were provided additional training to do this. The ambitious and innovative creative outputs were designed to promote the newly discovered stories to as wide an audience as possible. The creative outputs were:
A theatrical production of one of the stories, produced by a Buckinghamshire based theatre company, and performed in High Wycombe and Aylesbury.
A graphic novel of four stories, created by a Buckinghamshire based LGBTQ+ artist.
A podcast series produced by an award-winning audio producer with interviews from the project coordinator, archival staff and experts in LGBTQ+ history
An exhibition, which toured the county and is available digitally. The exhibition also went to HMP Grendon and HMP Aylesbury.
A research guide, to highlight the stories and suggest ways to identify LGBTQ+ records.
A website, launched in June 2025, to pull the various aspects of the project together and promote them.
In addition to the creative outputs, the archive’s online and paper catalogues were updated to reflect the findings of the project, so LGBTQ+ relevant records can be easily identified by researchers. Also, the service added a contemporary collections element to the project, asking today’s Buckinghamshire residents to contribute their voice to the archival collection and speak to the LGBTQ+ communities of tomorrow by completing postcards (a blank example is included with this application). The postcards proved to be particularly popular at Aylesbury Pride in 2024, which was attended by archive service staff.
The project had 17 volunteers from across the county and the LGBTQ+ communities, who contributed over 120 hours of work on all facets of the project. Buckinghamshire Archives also worked on this project with Prisma, an Aylesbury based LGBTQ+ community group specialising in activities for young members of the LGBTQ+ community with additional needs, who came into the archives outside normal working hours to have training and carry out original research. The Service also worked with first year fine arts students at Buckinghamshire New University, who created their own exhibition panels based on original records uncovered during the project. These panels were exhibited at the university, alongside those of the project itself.
The Lost Victorian Voices Project was promoted by service staff via presentations at a Libraries and Archives EDI Conference on 15 November 2024 and the Local Government Association’s LGBTQ+ Network on 23 January 2025.
Work in Prisons
Since May 2024, one of the archive team goes into HMP Grendon monthly to deliver workshops based on historical topics chosen by the prisoners, using copies of archival documents (a poster advertising the workshops is included with this application). Aims and objectives, linked to the archive’s mission statement, were agreed with prison staff in advance. After each session, which lasts for two hours with a break halfway though, participants are given a simple evaluation form to complete. Attendance ranges from six to sixteen men, and one of the challenges is not knowing how many will attend until onsite.
The level of engagement is always high, evaluations are overwhelmingly positive, and anecdotal feedback is that prisoners who do not normally say much in other activities participate well at these workshops.
An inspection report for HMP Grendon stated that 10% of inmates identified as gay or bisexual, so when Buckinghamshire Archives was awarded National Lottery Heritage Funding to run an LGBTQ+ project based on Victorian records, a discussion was had with prison staff about the possibility of delivering LGBTQ+ workshops in the prison, to help further that project. As a result, archive service staff delivered three workshops focused on LGBTQ+ history at HMP Grendon. Four men attended the first workshop, the second nine and the third one had twelve. These workshops almost failed at the first one, as two of the four attendees had not realised it was LGBTQ+ focused and were reluctant to be seen participating in it due to perceived stigma, though they stayed and even came to the second session.
For these LGBTQ+ workshops to be meaningful, the prisoners needed to carry out original research, which required access to original documents. As the men could not come to the archives, original documents were taken into the prison (a comprehensive risk assessment regarding the documents and their transportation was created first). The prisoners’ response to this was amazing. They immediately recognised the privilege of using original documents and the level of engagement with the texts exceeded our expectations.
Following the success of our work at HMP Grendon, three LGBTQ+ research-based workshops were delivered at HMP Aylesbury, where few of the 400 men identified as being part of the LGBTQ+ community, so the climate in which the workshops were delivered was not as welcoming as at HMP Grendon. For the first LGBTQ+ workshop, three highly motivated men attended and, although the numbers were low, the level of engagement was high, and all three asked for longer sessions. In all, seven men attended these workshops. The research carried out at both prisons was fed into the wider funded project.
In both prisons, following the LGBTQ+ workshops, two additional workshops using original documents were delivered on ‘hidden histories’ in the archives, which were well attended. According to the feedback from the LGBTQ+ workshops delivered at both prisons, everyone who took part in the evaluations (21 evaluations for the LGBTQ+ workshops) recorded they had learned new things, 90% felt their wellbeing had been improved by taking part, and 67% felt inspired to learn more about LGBTQ+ history.
Based on feedback from the general workshops (77 evaluations) delivered at both prisons, everyone who took part in the evaluations recorded they had learned new things, 99% felt their wellbeing had been improved by taking part, and 97% felt inspired to learn more about the topic discussed. The quote below is written feedback from one of the prisoners, following a workshop:
‘I felt great. I felt totally away from prison, and it was a very comfortable and social morning. Thank you very much.’
Our work in prisons was featured in an ARA magazine article (January/February issue 2025)
History Festival and Community Engagement
Every November, for the past three years, Buckinghamshire Archives has delivered a highly successful community-based, month-long, History Festival. In 2024, the festival was bigger than ever before, with 52 events taking place across the month, delivered by 21 different organisations, 13 of which were entirely new to working with us. Five events were run solely by the archives, and two events were run collaboratively between the archives and a partner organisation. 1,195 people attended the festival, an average of 23 per event. 89% of those who took part in the evaluations said that they found their event very satisfying, and 96% said they felt inspired to learn more about Buckinghamshire History. One of the many positive pieces of feedback we received was, ‘An excellent initiative – please repeat in 2025’ - and we will!
The archives deliver an ambitious programme of community engagement activities throughout the year, delivering 86 events between April 2024 and May 2025. These events were wide ranging, including archive drop-in sessions at libraries and community centres, tours and talks with schools and groups across the county and Milton Keynes. We are active on social media and were one of the first archives to make the move over to ‘Bluesky’ where our following is now 5,539, making us one of the largest archives on the platform. (June 2025) Engagement has been consistently high on our social media platforms, with recent experiments into video content (see link in section below) receiving thousands of likes and views across platforms, especially with users who do not follow our pages.
Virtual offers
During 2024 and 2025, the Archives Service introduced three new virtual offers for customers.
Ask an Archivist. A monthly opportunity for researchers to book a free 1-1 appointment with a professional member of the team to discuss their research.
Virtual Searchroom. An opportunity for researchers to book an appointment to access original documents from the comfort of their own home, via a Teams link.
Virtual Classroom. Opportunity for schools and other interested groups to have a learning experience involving original documents and service staff, via Teams.
Supporting people into work
Buckinghamshire Archives Service takes part in the Council’s Horizon’s programme, which offers employment opportunities within the council for people who need extra support, either entering the workplace or returning to work after a break in employment. By taking part in this project, we have been able to support two people. The Archive Service has also employed an apprentice, shared with the library Service, to give that person a start in their career. In addition, the archive service has provided supported placements for students from Stony Dean School and Pebblebrook Academy with additional needs, to help them obtain paid employment. Two volunteers have used their experience at Buckinghamshire Archives to obtain a place on the Archives distance learning course, and one volunteer has been able to secure paid employment as a result of his work with us.
What’s next for Buckinghamshire Archives?
Buckinghamshire Archives is always looking for new ways to serve the county’s residents in imaginative and meaningful ways. Future plans include…
Relocate the service from Aylesbury to High Wycombe, reopening in the summer of 2026
Launch the public facing aspect of Preservica in November 2025
Greek Orthodox Community in Milton Keynes – build on the strong foundations the service has with community leaders to initiate an oral history project
LGBTQ+ Project oral history project to collect contemporary voices/experiences
Launch geotagging project to list 20,000 digitised photographs.
Continue monthly workshops and HMP Grendon.
Supporting evidence of service delivery excellence
Social media (x/Twitter, Bluesky, Instagram, Facebook): @bucksarchives
Example of post card used in the Lost Victorian Voices Project
Poster used to advertise workshops at HMP Grendon.