ARCHIVES

The archive has been an important ingredient of WHOTT since formation when, soon after, the Trustees were faced with a decision on how to save the personal collection relating to Exeter Corporation trams and buses that had been assembled by the late Julian Thomas.  With little funds available in the beginning the Trustees themselves clubbed together and purchased the entire collection from Mrs Thomas, thus saving it from being broken up and placed for sale on the Internet.  This large collection of photographs and memorabilia was then officially donated to WHOTT and has since been properly catalogued and rearranged from its previous rather haphazard state.

Since 2001 the Trust has been fortunate in collecting a large and varied range of objects associated with the history of commercial road transport in the west country.  This has included examples of contemporary advertising material;  books, business reports, correspondence, destination blinds, engineering drawings, ephemera (printed matter such as invoices, receipts, letter heads, cards, labels and telegrams); films and sound recordings; legal documents such as deeds, agreements and assignments; local history books and pamphlets; magazines and journals; newspaper clippings; photographs, slides and negatives; Ordnance Survey plans; tickets and ticket machines; badges, timetables and uniforms; sections of tram rail; sporting cups, personal reminiscences, small items of street furniture such as bus stop flags, notices, timetable cases and other such objects.

From an early date WHOTT was very fortunate in acquiring a large quantity of good quality archive storage boxes, plus a generous amount of metal racking, display cabinets, archive tables, plan chests and a photocopying machine.  Much of this has been assembled at our repository at Estover, Plymouth.  Before that, however, the archive material was stored in a large portacabin where space and conditions were hardly ideal.  In 2006 WHOTT was selected to take part in a National survey of library and archive holdings being overseen by the National Preservation Office at the British Library.  Their recommendations rather confirmed our worst fears and it was vital to find alternative accommodation as quickly as possible.  In April 2008 the entire collection was moved to its present location where it enjoys a relatively constant temperature deep inside a building with a three-part security access system, artificial lighting and far more space to move and expand.  It also benefits in sharing good car parking, toilets and a cafeteria facility within the same complex and all this meets the NPO recommendations.

The Trust’s Collection Policy enables it to accept material in four different ways – Purchase, Loan, Donation or Bequest.  Our last review in June 2010 revealed that of 397 separate transactions, 8 were purchased, 29 placed on loan, 360 donated and none received from a bequest.  The objects range in size from a single tie to an entire collection, such as that obtained in the very beginning.  A paper trail exists for every item, and carries a unique repository number.  In accordance with recommendations laid down by the MDA, WHOTT raises forms in triplicate for every accession, one copy of which is retained by the person from whom it came.  Once in our care volunteers begin the cataloguing process, first by paper record and secondly on to computer.  The Trust purchased a new lap top in 2009 to supplement two other desk top machines that had recently been donated.  It has recently been given a new scanner that can be used to store photographic and paper images electronically. 

© Copyright The West Country Historic Omnibus & Transport Trust, 2001-2011
Registered in England Company No. 3780463. Registered Charity No. 1079795