SOMERSET HERITAGE CENTRE
USER GROUP
MINUTES, WEDNESDAY 13TH NOVEMBER 2013
Present: Janet Tall, Anne Murch, Jenni Llewellyn, Mary Siraut, Nan Williams, Kate Parr,
Malcolm Daniels, Esther Hoyle, Liz Harewood
1. Welcome and apologies
Apologies were received from Brian Murless, David Greenfield, Mervyn Richens, David
Hawkings, Wendy Burge and Andrew Butcher.
2. Matters Arising







Digital Preservation: Jane de Gruchy is continuing with the digital preservation
planning and implementation, with staff training to be delivered in-house during the
closed period. The digital preservation work underway is for born-digital records, or
those that have no paper counterpart or original. We are looking at how we receive
them, accession them and store them. Storage capacity for large amounts of data is
being investigated, but the first stage is to remove them from their original formats (3½”
floppies etc.) MD has some experience with these formats and offered his assistance to
the project. Connected to our storage capacity, MD asked how the web-site will be
hosted. Janet explained it will be kept separate from SCC sites, but that it is still in
development. JL raised the possibility of the absentee voter lists and tithe awards being
digitally scanned, and MD raised the possibility of having a scanner with OCR capability
for the Centre. We will look into the possibility of the scanner.
Kenyon: KP updated the group on the Kenyon project. The negatives are still in microchamber paper at Highbridge Library are being checked every 5-6 months. She has
met with three digitisation companies to gauge the financial scale of the project, and
work is hoped to begin early in the New Year, with help from HLF.
Fox Brothers: we have heard nothing further from Tonedale; however, Coldharbour
have asked for the desk-top survey to be re-sent, possibly signalling greater interest.
Manorial Document Register Project: Scott Pettitt, the MDR archivist, is slightly
ahead of schedule with this project.
Research Register: a new table has been purchased for the Reception area for leaflets
and the Research Register now has its own holder and a prominent place on this table.
Parish registers transcripts: a sign has been placed near the PR indexes alerting
customers to the printed transcripts held in the library. These have all been re-labelled
so their parish abbreviations match the archive ones (tau.ja for Taunton St. James, etc.)
Registration District Posters: these have been housed down the side of the GRO
index cabinet near to the fire escape in the searchroom, and the wording on the GRO
sign has been amended to reflect this.
3. Heritage Trust Development Project

On Monday 11th November the Cabinet unanimously agreed that the Heritage Service
should move to a trust during 2014. It is hoped the implementation will happen by
September. JT will circulate a link to the Gateway report.










This move includes Archives and Local Studies, Historic Environment Service and the
Museums Service.
There will be an initial 5 year funding agreement with SCC, which remains the major
funder. A savings level of 22% over 5 years has been modelled. These savings include
mandatory relief on business rates due to charitable status.
A significant source of income will come from contracts. It has just been agreed to go
forward with a new 10-year agreement with North Somerset Council for archive and
museum services.
There were several questions relating to charges. It was confirmed that the business
case has not been built on the requirement to charge entry to museums, but that future
decisions about charges in general will be a matter for the board of trustees.
Discussions with Devon are continuing. The decision on the 11th included an inprinciple agreement to Devon joining the Trust, subject to further financial modelling and
implementation planning. The Devon Heritage Service includes only Archives and
Local Studies, not museums or the Historic Environment Service.
Staff will be TUPE’d across, becoming employees of the trust, with their terms and
conditions of employment protected in line with the TUPE legislation. The trust will have
admitted-body status within the Local Government Pension Scheme, and in-principle
agreement for this has already been obtained.
SCC will remain the owner of collections where that is presently the case, or the
depositor body in the case of collections belonging to third parties. The trust will
manage the collections, but this arrangement protects them from seizure if the trust
were to fail.
It is hoped that the move will open up new funding opportunities as there are some
grant giving bodies and opportunities not available to the service while it is part of a
local authority.
The board of trustees will be responsible for ongoing financial planning, as well as
ensuring it meets its charitable objectives. The process for appointing the board of
trustees will be transparent, with an open recruitment process. SCC will have a
nomination to the board, as will Devon CC if the decision is made for their inclusion in
the trust. It will be essential that the board is independent, and not deemed to be a
regulated company.
MD gave his thanks to JT and the team for their hard work getting the service to this
stage.
4. Visitor Services




MS asked if more space could be made for the TNA calendars, as they are a tight
squeeze on the shelves: KP reported she is working on this.
There is a good response to the new reception area table, making the research register
and leaflets more prominent and less cramped.
A request was made by JL and MD that a small microwave be provided for visitors. EH
to investigate the possibility, including H&S implications.
Compliments were offered on the searchroom displays lately. It was also noted that the
display screen is working well.
5. Publicity

Explore Your Archive: EH and KP are now finishing the story-boxes to be placed in
Minehead and Crewkerne Libraries, Weston-super-Mare Museum and the Museum of
Somerset. EH demonstrated the Mary Hippisley family history box. It is hoped that
after their initial display the boxes may circulate around the local areas.



Take Over Day: on 22nd November, a number of 14-16 year olds from Taunton
secondary schools will be shadowing staff at the Heritage Centre, learning what they do
and getting hands on experience. The tasks will include pot-washing with the Historic
Environment Team, research and customer service with the Archives & Local Studies
Team and helping with outreach with the Learning Team.
Facebook: There is a Somerset Heritage page, separate from the Museum of
Somerset page, and the Archives & Local Studies service are updating it at least once a
week with interesting finds, events and breaking news. This is leading to further
publicity, for example, there has recently been a post about the archive of Wellington
School, which was followed by an article in the Somerset County Gazette.
Exhibitions: the Archives & Local Studies team are hosting a small display in the
searchroom once a month, with photos on Facebook. A new table-top display cabinet
for the searchroom is on order. If anyone in the group has any suggestions about
possible subjects forthcoming displays please forward them to EH.
6. Service News




Rural Life Museum: funding has now been identified for the redevelopment of the
museum. The two major funders are the HLF and Viridor Credits Environmental
Company. The museum will be closed from the end of March 2014 for two years, with a
final exhibition running until March celebrating its history and explaining the proposals
for redevelopment. The total cost of the project is £1.86m, including a contribution from
SCC. The library and research materials held at the museum will be moved from the
site. KP is currently cataloguing the library onto the Somerset Libraries catalogue, to
make it more accessible in the long term.
North Somerset: there has been agreement to set up a 10 year contract to manage the
archives and museums service for North Somerset Council.
Somerset Remembers: the online community archive will be available from spring
2014. The project team is still in the planning stage for events and exhibitions. The
blog is running now and the Heritage Service is acting as a focal point, helping to bring
together other projects happening around the county.
Recent Acquisitions: EH talked the group through some of the new accessions which
have been received since the last meeting. These include a self-build housing scheme
in Norton Fitzwarren, including photographs and correspondence; poison registers,
matching some chemists’ registers we already have from the 1920-1930s; Brook family
papers from Glastonbury; further deposits from the Foster Yeoman collection; and
blacksmiths’ registers, including a note on a voyage of the Beagle. JT explained we are
notified by the TNA of sales we may be interested in, which is how we were aware of
the blacksmiths’ registers.
7. News from Other Organisations:


Friends of Somerset Archives: The AGM was held, and included a talk on surnames.
287 tithe apportionments have now been transcribed. The programme of events up to
and including September is now on the Friends’ website. The Friends recently went on
a successful trip to Wells Cathedral Archive.
Castle House Trust: NW is working on a similar project to the story-boxes for the
Castle House Trust, and would welcome help or suggestions. The House will be
formally opened in 2014. Funding for this project also came from the HLF and Viridor
Credits.
8. Any Other Business

The Archive & Local Studies Closed Period will be 20th-31st January 2014.
9. Next Meeting

Wednesday 12th March 2014, 2pm.