Buckinghamshire Archives: Lost Victorian Voices LGBTQ+ Project - ARA Archive Volunteering Award 2025 Case Study
Lost Victorian Voices LGBTQ+ Project
Buckinghamshire Archives
Funded by National Lottery Heritage Fund
This project was nominated for the ARA Archive Volunteering Award 2025 - the judges commented:
This is clearly an interesting and very worthwhile project, but it is difficult to view this as a volunteer project as the workshops were delivered by the archive service and project staff. Although the participants were ‘volunteers’ and seemed to benefit from attending the workshops this project does not seem to quite fit within this scheme.
Another fine submission from Bucks, this is a challenging project that reaches an underserved community and suggests potential for future work within prison settings. I have been impressed with the ambition of both projects nominated by the service and their commitment to representing their communities. It would have been interesting to hear more about the experiences of the participants.
A small part of a large project that shows the archive service able to innovate, see opportunities and build relationships . This was innovative and difficult work that involved managing and tolerating risk because of the public benefit. The difficulties of capturing and evaluating prisoner contributions to a project are so clearly expressed, there is a huge amount of learning to share with the sector here too.
A thoughtful and well-executed engagement with a marginalised group. The workshops clearly supported learning and personal growth. Feedback suggests a safe, supportive environment for participants. Strong evidence of institutional learning and outreach to underserved communities. The project demonstrates flexibility and has informed future initiatives in similar settings. The focus on LGBTQ+ history within prisons is commendable. The work addressed gaps in representation and provided meaningful access to heritage in a challenging context.
A great learning project, with the development of important partnerships to allow access to heritage by a vulnerable group. So very real impacts for those concerned but not a volunteer project as such.
Project Case Study
We are submitting now as this forms a discrete part of the project, where Buckinghamshire Archives worked with prisoners in HMP Grendon and HMP Aylesbury to research LGBTQ+ history as part of the wider project funded by the NLHF project. This grew out of work the Service was already doing in prisons and did not form part of the original application for funding.
In December 2023, Buckinghamshire Archives was awarded National Lottery Heritage Funding to run an LGBTQ+ project based on Victorian records. As an online inspection report for HMP Grendon stated that 10 per cent of inmates identified as gay or bisexual, the County Archivist discussed with prison staff the possibility of delivering LGBTQ+ workshops to help further the project. As a result, the County Archivist and Senior Officer delivered three workshops focussed on LGBTQ+ history at HMP Grendon. Four men attended the first workshop, the second nine men and the third had twelve participants.
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, we took in original documents related to life in a Victorian prison, after first creating a comprehensive risk assessment regarding the documents and their transport. 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, the Service approached HMP Aylesbury and delivered three LGBTQ+ research-based workshops there. 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 conducive as at HMP Grendon. The workshops were delivered fortnightly in the prison library from October 2024, with the same aims, objectives and form of evaluation as at HMP Grendon. For the first LGBTQ+ workshop, three highly motivated men attend 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 at HMP Aylesbury. The research carried out at both prisons was fed into the wider funded project.
The aim was to provide serving prisoners with training in research skills and document handling and empower them to investigate original archival records to find evidence of LGBTQ+ people in Victorian Buckinghamshire.
Our objectives were:
To deliver the Service’s mission to engage, excite, educate, and empower.
To use archives to deliver high quality interactive learning experiences.
To enthuse and inspire further learning into LGBTQ+ history.
For participants to learn new skills.
For participants to have an improved sense of wellbeing.
Our hoped for outcomes were that participants:
were actively engaged.
felt able to contribute in a safe and supportive environment.
learned new things.
were inspired to find out more about LGBTQ+ history.
sense of wellbeing was improved through participation in the event.
Consultation for this project stemmed initially from identifying a need for LGBTQ+ events or activity in HMP Grendon from an online report demonstrating a high proportion of residents identifying as gay or bisexual and noting a lack of support for them within the system. Discussions with the Diversity Officer and Prison Librarian followed, leading to the approval of the first workshop. Each workshop involved not only written evaluations but also verbal conversations with the attendees, and the workshop process was adjusted and refined to meet the needs expressed. Original Victorian-era records were used in the delivery of this project, specifically Quarter Session volumes, Prison Receiving Books, and records of the County Lunatic Asylum. The use of these historic originals was hugely impactful and the key to the success of this project. Feedback from the residents was overwhelmingly positive regarding access to these records, and they generated significant discussion, which drove the workshops onwards.
According to the feedback from the LGBTQ+ workshops delivered at both prisons, everyone who took part in the evaluations 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.
We anticipated a challenge in the evaluation of these workshops due to the significant variation in motivation, engagement and reading and writing skills amongst the residents of the prisons. As such, we utilised both written and verbal evaluation methods, taking in simplified evaluation forms for any participants who wanted to fill them out but also making time for conversations with as many residents as possible towards the end of each session. Some of our most interesting and valuable feedback came this way, with residents consistently asking for more and longer sessions, requesting topics for future workshops and discussing their feelings on the sessions they had participated in. This feedback was used to adjust the workshops in-between each session, to suit the expressed needs of the residents. The men at HMP Grendon preferred more structured sessions and recording their findings on worksheets, whereas the residents at HMP Aylesbury preferred a more freeform discussion-based style of workshop. The ability to be flexible in our delivery was important to ensure we could keep the residents engaged in the subject matter and not discourage attendance by rigidly sticking to a format that was not working. Our evaluations indicated a high level of satisfaction with what we delivered, and attendance numbers increased between each session.
Reflecting on the project the team has the following tips for others embarking on similar projects:
Communication with prison staff is key to success, as they will provide guidance about the men taking part and their needs.
Numbers attending a workshop were uncertain until we arrived, so it is better to have additional resources prepared.
For the first few workshops, until you get a good understanding of group dynamics, be prepared to adapt the session and have back-up work ready.
As no electronic devices could be taken into the prisons or, in our experience at HMP Grendon and HMP Aylesbury, used once inside, imaginative approaches to gaining the interest of participants is required, such as a brief relevant story or using a ‘handling’ kit.’
Due to the lack of resources available, aims and objectives need to be tightly focused and not open ended.
Prisoners are often not from the local area so, to be relevant, workshops need to include a wider perspective than archives may usually take.
Buckinghamshire Archives delivers monthly workshops at HMP Grendon using archives as the basis for discussion. The work carried out by the volunteers has helped the Service develop this offer, which it now plans to take to HMP Woodhill in Milton Keynes.