Digital Preservation Day 2024: Celebrating Communities
“Can’t you just scan it?” – A frequent question asked to archive staff since the dawn of time.
Digitisation in archives is more than ‘just scanning’. Although each archive will be slightly different depending on their equipment, in the physical sense it depends upon having staff who can maintain high levels of concentration to achieve consistent quality outputs, as well as plenty of time to devote to the task. There is also the data management side of things. Digital documents still require appropriate (and sometimes more expensive) storage, need to be protected against corruption, and updated according to the latest technology. Furthermore, digitisation is more than meets the eye because of its importance. At Pembrokeshire Archives & Local Studies we have a digitisation suite in order to help preserve fragile documents, give greater access to archive users, and provide the means for engaging interpretation of our documents – whether as part of our own exhibitions, events, and social media, or as part of the projects of others.
The most extensive digitisation project that I have worked on personally to date involved the Poor Law Union records. We hold minute books, letter books, inventory books, ledgers, photographs, admission and discharge books, religious creed registers, and medical reports, of Cardigan, Haverfordwest, Narberth, and Pembroke Union workhouses. Dr Paul Carter of The National Archives and Principal Investigator of the project, ‘Teaching the Voices of the Victorian Poor’ and Co-Investigator of ‘In Their Own Write’ requested copies of the Board of Guardians minute books for Haverfordwest from 8th January 1837 to 6th July 1938, as well as those for Pembroke covering a five year from April 1839. Plus, letter books for both of these unions. In all, this amounted to 5456 images (most of which were of double page spreads, so just shy of 11,000 pages in total), over twenty-five volumes. Due to the imminent takeover of our digitisation suite (see below) I digitised one a volume a day – pretty fair going considering it needed to be fitted around my other duties. However, I was then required to check and edit all of the images to ensure that they were of a high standard, which took just as long as capturing the images.
These images were ordered by Dr Carter as part of his research into poverty in Wales under the 1834 New Poor Law. They were needed for comparative purposes with other Welsh poor law union records. The information held within these documents yield great insight into the administrative processes of the workhouses and they help to piece together the conditions provided for the occupants. The minute books contain a list of Board of Guardian members – the administrative authorities of each workhouse – who were present at each meeting, along with what was discussed and resolved. This included payments to be made, and provisions allocated, the inspection of report and account books, and letters to be written to various authorities and people (which can be found in the letter books). The identity of the Guardians shows the leading members of the community and their roles in supporting it.
The Haverfordwest workhouse was not opened until 1839, so the first two years of entries feature their plans and appointments. These meetings were located in different venues around town. Each week members met in places such as the Town Hall, Council Chambers, and even the Mariners Inn! Unfortunately, the hopes of the New Poor Law and Board of Guardians to provide suitable conditions for those in need was not met initially. As on 13th October 1840 (found in SPU-HA/1/2), a Visiting Committee reported in the rooms ‘a scene at which humanity shudders’:
‘The instant the clean sheets were removed it was discovered that the clothes, the beds and the straw mattresses were nearly all in a state little better than a dung […] having been long in this state, rendered worse than the abode of pigs by urine and almost all were rotten with filth […] In short it appeared that where the habits of children or adults were unfavourable to cleanliness they were suffered to sleep in the most disgusting filth without any care being taken or effort made to lessen the accumulation.’
As a result of this report, the Board of Guardians dismissed the Master and Matron and shortly advertised their vacant positions. Such a snippet is indicative of the wealth of information that can be extracted from these sources, such as the quality of community provision and care in nineteenth century Pembrokeshire, along with the administrative processes involved and the harsh realities of daily life within the workhouse.
In some cases, the names of the paupers are recorded in relation to a particular policy, proposed resolution, or event. In the letter book for Pembroke Union (SPU-PE/2/1), there is a list of paupers of the Pembroke Union who were resident of the Narberth Union appended to one missive dated 10th December 1850. This was directed to the Narberth Union and was part of a desire to withdraw the relief given to the poor who did not usually live within the area that the union covered. So, in providing these names to the Narberth Union, their Relieving Officer could put an end to their stay and support. In exchange, the Clerk in Narberth would furnish Pembroke with a similar list in order to ‘relieve’ them. The following letter in the book dated 9th January 1851 shows that there was a similar accord with Haverfordwest Union. The inclusion of the list of paupers amidst proposals for better management of resources reminds us of the human element of these records, offering a glimpse of the individuals of the Victorian poor whose lives were impacted by the decisions made in the minute books. Owing to the extensiveness of the collections and the richness of the material, potentially more digitisation will be carried in the future of the other Poor Law records to aid Dr Carter’s project.
Currently though, our digitisation suite is out of action. This is because Ancestry have been re-digitising our parish records as part of a nationwide project to provide more extensive coverage of Welsh records. Some for instance were previously missed, of poor quality, or had not yet been deposited or donated. From the start of June up until 11th October, the project officer spent all day, Monday to Friday, digitising the records. From Aberporth to Yerbeston, over 1800 volumes were digitised. They were expected to capture 2000 images a day, which they exceeded more often than not and so they finished digitising far ahead of schedule. Now, the team are thoroughly checking each image to ensure the best possible quality has been achieved. They were contracted for six to nine months beginning in June, but such was the speed of the digitiser that our expectation is now we will be ready to restart our digitisation work by the end of this year.
Looking ahead, there are some exciting plans that have our digitisation suite at their heart. We will restart the digitisation of some of our more fragile collections in order to allow increased and improved access to them. This includes the editions of the Western Telegraph between 1919 and 1939, as the paper quality during the interwar period was not the best. Not only do they contain countless content celebrating communities, but it also complements our other ongoing project of compiling an obituaries index during these dates. Digitisation will also play a key part in the preservation of a recent major acquisition – the photographic collection of the former Squibbs Studio in Tenby.
In total there are fifteen boxes of photographs and reels, with a further five of consisting of reels. Unfortunately, some of the photographs and films have suffered from Vinegar Syndrome, in which they have chemically degraded. They will first need to be conserved and catalogued and then finally digitised in order to preserve them and sadly capture them before they are no longer distinguishable. An extensive project involving many parties, the digitisation work will keep us occupied for a long time but will crucially preserve vital glimpses into communities of the past.
