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Unlike many old established
archives, WHOTT has had a certain advantage in
having been formed as recent as 2000. Not that
its contents are as young as that, for on the
contrary it holds documents and photographs
spanning many decades right back to the 1890s.
The advantage it has is through its
documentation and recording methods, based on
the principles of ISAD(G), a system universally
recognised world-wide. Without in any way
criticising archives of the early twentieth
century, they may be excused when not always
knowing from where an object came (its
provenance) or by which path. WHOTT can
therefore be assured in the knowledge that it
knows how objects came into its custody, either
through donation, loan, bequest or, in a few
cases, by purchase. Through its database an
accession number is generated and standard forms
created to record its arrival, with copies going
to the donor. Following that a small team of
volunteers record every single item in each
accession which could range from just one bus
ticket to several hundred photographs all coming
from the same source and at the same time. By
2024 the total number of individual accessions
has reached almost 1000.
Safely storing all this material
is the responsibility of the Trustees who have
been fortunate in securing many hundreds of
strong archive boxes of varying sizes. These
are all numbered with the accession number, plus
bay and shelf location in the repository. This
enables searches to be conducted efficiently and
that returned boxes from the reading room go
back to their correct location. The team
overseeing this are constantly behind with the
recording, such is the size of the task in doing
it properly. At any one time a certain amount
of recent arrivals are held in a section called
quarantine where, although provisionally
allocated an accession number, still await
detailed recording and positioning on a vacant
shelf. All this is monitored by computer as
well as having a hard paper record.
The Trust’s collection policy is
designed to accept or reject items that are, or
are not relevant to the west country’s transport
history. While this forms a rule of thumb there
are, in certain cases, grey areas where, for
instance, a company may have operated in one
part of the country but had strong connections
with our region. The coach operators Wallace
Arnold and Yelloways may be cited as two such
examples. In addition to photos the archive
holds much correspondence files, original or
copies of legal documents, timetables,
faretables, tickets and passes, official
drawings of vehicles and premises, contemporary
ordnance survey plans of westcountry towns
showing locations of bus company properties and
various forms of ephemera. In addition the
repository holds various artefacts such as
uniforms, badges, street furniture, signs and
small vehicle components and scaled models.
The library
In close harmony with the archive
is the reference library which contains a huge
collection of transport books, mainly
westcountry related but others of general
reading. Due to space restrictions this is
spread in different areas but hopefully one day
will be brought together into the reading room.
The Trust is fortunate in having long runs of
magazines and bound journals going back to the
1920s, though there will always be the
inevitable gaps here and there. From time to
time subsequent donations of material help to
fill these gaps. Here again, each title has its
own record so we know exactly where the gaps
exist and where to find copies on our shelves.
The archive is currently housed
in Uffculme, Devon, about one mile off the M5
between junctions 27 and 28. There is ample car
parking and the Stagecoach service 373 or Buses
of Somerset service 22 stop within a short
walking distance. It is open any time by
appointment, though usually manned on Tuesdays.
Please contact us to make a visit or for
searches made on your behalf for which a charge
is made. We are able to photocopy some material
though using a camera is generally more
acceptable providing it is not copyright
protected.
 Surplus
material
There are occasions when amongst
material donated there are some items that
duplicate something we already have. In this
instance we offer for sale, with prior knowledge
of the donor, those items which we do not
require. These are generally books or magazines
which are housed in a room at Uffculme and can
be purchased for a modest sum. |
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