This is very much a companion piece to the article written by Judith Bond (see p. 32–40)1 and is intended to bring members of the Sylvia Townsend Warner Society up to date with the current status of the archive of Sylvia Townsend Warner and Valentine Ackland (hereafter STW/VA Archive). The archive is now held at the Dorset History Centre (DHC).2 I would like first to pay tribute to the excellent and time-consuming work carried out by Judith and her colleague Dr Morine Krissdottir. Their efforts have resulted in the creation of a substantial and detailed listing of what lies within the SWT/VA Archive. This is, however, only accessible to researchers as an Excel spreadsheet. Excel has many virtues, but it is not what archivists would call a catalogue – that is, a structured hierarchy of linked descriptions which explain both the content and the inter-relationship between different parts of the materials. Nonetheless it provides a great platform from which we would like to create a project that will bring this cataloguing to fruition and open up the archive in a way that is not currently possible.
By way of background, I should explain how the STW/VA Archive came to the Dorset History Centre.3 The DHC, as its name suggests, is the county-wide archives and local studies service for Dorset, holding thousands of unique collections on paper, parchment and other media dating back to 965 ad and covering a huge range of subject matter. The service provides high-quality, environmentally controlled storage and has a conservator on the staff who oversees macro-preservation (in a strongroom environment) and undertakes repairs to damaged archival materials.
In recent years, the DHC has developed a strong working relationship with its fellow Dorchester-based institution, the Dorset Museum and Art Gallery (DMAG). In 2018, during the latter’s major refurbishment project (£16.4 million), it was decided by the Board of Trustees that archival material would be better off transferred to the DHC where it could sit alongside similar collections, leaving the museum to focus on its objects and works of art. Three principal archives were transferred to the DHC – those of Thomas Hardy, William Barnes and STW/VA (Figure 1). All three remain the property of the DMAG, but are managed by the DHC. The latter provides public access to collections in its searchroom and has a team of archivists and support staff, including a digitisation specialist whose role it is to increase public awareness and use of the archives wherever possible. Moreover, collections can be seen and accessed alongside a wide range of complementary material.
The STW/VA Archive located in the DHC repositories (Source: Reproduced with permission of the Dorset History Centre).
Since the principal STW/VA Archive arrived at the DHC we have been able to enhance its content and condition in four ways:
The DHC received a £12,000 grant from the National Manuscripts Conservation Trust to work on the three literary collections. Certain items from within the STW/VA Archive were conserved, including some sketchbooks and a series of handmade notebooks.
With the DMAG, in 2020 the DHC completed the purchase of a set of correspondence between Sylvia Townsend Warner and Elizabeth and Oliver Warner (Figure 2). This was made possible by grants from the V&A Purchase Fund and the Friends of the National Libraries (accession 11435).
The former director of the DMAG, Roger Peers, bequeathed to the DHC a set of letters received from Sylvia Townsend Warner, a friend and collaborator.
Sylvia Townsend Warner’s former literary executor, Susanna Pinney, gifted a series of records relating to her involvement in the organisation of the author’s papers (accession 12158).
Detail of Warner’s correspondence with Elizabeth and Oliver Warner (accession 11435) (Source: Reproduced with permission of the Dorset History Centre).
The DHC viewed the three literary collections as priorities for access. The service started this process with the Hardy Archive. This is substantially larger than that of STW/VA and had a similar descriptive list provided via a spreadsheet. Working with our support charity, Dorset Archives Trust,4 a total of £70,000 was raised through grant aid and public donations, and we are currently six months into a project to catalogue the Hardy Archive which will appear online once complete in summer 2025. In essence, we wish to carry out the same process with the STW/VA Archive, building on the solid foundation provided by Judith and Morine’s work. There are 85 boxes of archival material (Figure 3). We estimate that this will take an archivist around eight months to work through. In addition, working with the DMAG, we would like to link this to the cataloguing of linked objects at the museum – to ensure that the whole of the couple’s Dorset-based legacy is properly recorded.
Portrait of Warner by Doris Ullman, ca. 1929 (Source: Reproduced with permission of the Dorset History Centre).
We know from previous cataloguing projects that when material is searchable and locatable online, the use of a collection increases. This sounds like an incredibly obvious thing to point out, but it is also true to say that acquiring a budget to undertake cataloguing projects is not easy. There are very few funders that will support this work, in spite of its importance in opening up collections to the wider world. The documenting or cataloguing of collections – which is really the best means of understanding their content and value – is rarely a priority for funders of heritage and academic research. More positively, there is already considerable interest in the STW/VA Archive – from academics, writers and students. We are confident that when detailed descriptions of the archive are able to be found online, interest will only grow and use of the collection both in person here in Dorchester (Figure 4) and also via digital copies will increase. In addition, there will be the opportunity to digitise parts of the archive and make them available online (copyright notwithstanding) and also to link to other institutions holding material created by or pertinent to Sylvia Townsend Warner and Valentine Ackland.
Warner’s typescript notes on The True Heart (Source: Reproduced with permission of the Dorset History Centre).
At present we are considering various options as to how to acquire funding for the STW/VA Archive project, working in close concert with the DMAG and other interested parties. We would welcome any suggestions from members of the Sylvia Townsend Warner Society and will ensure that we keep the Society informed of our progress in this important endeavour.
Note on contributor
Sam Johnston is the County Archivist in Dorset, a role he has held for 15 years. Prior to that, he worked in Plymouth, Cornwall and London. He was educated at the universities of Manchester and Aberystwyth.
Notes
- Judith Bond. ‘The Archive of Sylvia Townsend Warner and Valentine Ackland’. The Journal of the Sylvia Townsend Warner Society, 24, no. 1 (2024), pp. 32–40. https://doi.org/10.14324/STW.24.1.03. ⮭
- https://archive-catalogue.dorsetcouncil.gov.uk/records/D-TWA (accessed 12 November 2024). ⮭
- https://www.dorsetcouncil.gov.uk/libraries-history-culture/dorset-history-centre (accessed 12 November 2024). ⮭
- https://www.dorsetarchivestrust.org (accessed 12 November 2024). ⮭