In common with most County Records Centres, the South West Heritage Trust has a backlog of archival material, stored in document boxes, awaiting cataloguing and conservation at the Somerset Heritage Centre. These collections are usually acquired when estates are sold off or gifted as legacies, and take a huge amount of skilled staff and volunteer time to process. They include a number of collections relating to the Quantocks, including various estate, family and business records from the 18th and 19th centuries. Records collections can vary between a single box to upwards of 15 boxes. Until they have been examined and catalogued it is impossible to know what each contains.

The QLPS supported archivists at the South West Heritage Trust to undertake the task of cataloguing these archives, as well as training volunteer researchers to begin exploring their contents and, in the process, to shed new light on the history of the Quantock Hills. Amongst the contents, these collections contain maps and deeds, accounts, letters, and contracts that revealed a wealth of information about an estate’s or businesses’ landholding, management, role in the local economy, and owning family. This information is clearly of immense value, providing a wealth of newly available primary source material for anyone interested in Quantock history, be they amateur researchers or academic social historians.

Unlocking the Archives was one of the QLPS Historic Heritage projects most impacted by the national lockdowns around Covid-19. Primarily, this was due to the inevitable closure of the Somerset Heritage Centre. Even when the building began to re-open to the public, requirements for social distancing meant numbers were strictly limited, thereby restricting access for our volunteers who would have to share the space with other researchers and members of the public.

For this reason, a change of approach was adopted, which involved recruiting volunteers to assist with The South West Heritage Trust Land Tax Project, a long-term project to digitise and transcribe Somerset Archives’ collection of Land Tax Returns. These are annual returns for each Somerset parish, beginning c.1766 and ending c.1832. Photographs of these records were sent to volunteers for transcribing and editing, before being returned to the SHC to be preserved and made available to visitors. The project was planned in such a way that volunteers would be able to work from home, anywhere in the world. Working with Kate Parr, Local Studies Librarian at SHC, we were able to recruit volunteers to work on Land Tax Records for the Quantock Parishes, thereby providing an opportunity for volunteers to begin work remotely on relevant and much needed digitisation of documents, while we awaited the launch of the project proper.

Uncertainty around Covid-19 and the removal or otherwise, of restrictions to access to the Heritage Centre, also led to a change of approach regarding the core work of cataloguing and conserving the various Quantock-related archive collections. To avoid the need for volunteers to work in close proximity to staff whilst being trained in the meticulous work of cataloguing this material, it was decided to remove the volunteer element of the cataloguing process, enabling the archivists to begin the time-consuming process of cataloguing and conserving the archive collections.

In order to provide alternative volunteering opportunities, a new element was introduced to the project. Once Covid-19 restrictions were lifted and public access to the archives resumed, a small team of volunteers were recruited to undertake research of both the newly catalogued collections and existing Quantock-related material. Trained and supported by SWHT staff archivists, the volunteers were tasked with pulling out stories for a series of blog posts to be hosted on SWHTs website. Working closely with the SHC archivists, led by Esther Hoyle, the volunteers researched and produced short pieces of up to 500 words on various broad social history themes such as, work; education, religion, celebrations.

In total, QLPS funded 96 days of archivists’ time, spent on cataloguing the various Quantock related archive collections.  As a result of this work, 12 collections were physically sorted and appropriately packaged to aid their conservation, and internal finding aids and location systems updated. The archive catalogue was edited and finalised with all relevant authority files added.  These collections can now be viewed both in the searchroom at the Somerset Heritage Centre and via the Somerset Archives’ online catalogue. These twelve collections are:

• The Esdaile family archive
• Papers of Edwin Hellard, solicitor of Stogumber
• Brooke-Popham family archive
• Papers concerning Thomas Poole of Nether Stowey
• Records relating to Grove Farm, Pickney, Kingston St Mary
• Papers of Charles Rowcliffe, solicitor of Stogumber
• Deeds for Higher Vexford Farm, Stogumber and Hartrow Manor and Estate
• Deeds for Higher and Lower Blindwell (later Blindwell Farm), Nether Stowey
• Family settlements of the Warre family of Fyne Court, Broomfield
• Deeds for properties at Nether Stowey (archival reference DD/X/DAVS)

The research volunteers created a number of blog posts which ae availabled via the South West Heritage Trust/Somerset Archives website, where they will form a long-term digital archive: https://swheritage.org.uk/projects/quantocks-lps/

The transcription of the land tax returns for all the identified Quantocks parishes was completed, this equates to 45 individual tithings which is a huge achievement by the volunteers.  All of the Quantocks tithings are now available for the public to access via the searchroom computers at the Somerset Heritage Centre.

All our outputs are available to browse via the Somerset Archives online catalogue, and the documents have been made publicly available as part of the archive at the Somerset Heritage Centre.

The Final Project Report can be viewed here: Unlocking The Archives Report