National Archives - Kew Tips?

Discussion in 'Research Material' started by von Poop, Oct 2, 2008.

  1. Tom OBrien

    Tom OBrien Senior Member

    Reading Room bookings temporarily suspended!!
    ☹️ There goes Plan A for a trip in November to beat the autumn blues. Plan B obviously being alcohol and mince pie overload.
    Keep calm and carry on be buggered! :mad:

    How about some file sharing? I’ll stick a list up in a separate thread for UKNA swapping.

    Regards

    Tom
     
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  2. Richelieu

    Richelieu Well-Known Member

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  3. Charley Fortnum

    Charley Fortnum Dreaming of Red Eagles

    While nothing much is going on, it would be nice if somebody there would scan some more material.

    They must have catalogues that indicate the most popular files that are physically viewed on site.

    That would take pressure off the reading room.
     
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  4. jonheyworth

    jonheyworth Senior Member

    And you Sir, have firmly whacked the nail upon the head . The way forward would be for them to take digitization requests , even if it took weeks to process
     
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  5. papiermache

    papiermache Well-Known Member

    Reading room services to resume from 8 December - The National Archives

    "Reading room services to resume from 8 December

    Thursday 26 November 2020

    We can confirm that our reading room services will resume from Tuesday 8 December, in line with the new local restriction tier system.

    All visitors must continue to book their visit and order their documents in advance. We will be offering greater capacity in our reading rooms, with more documents per visitor and a greater choice of bookable dates, including Saturdays."
     
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  6. Tom OBrien

    Tom OBrien Senior Member

    Hello all,

    Just to let everybody know that there are spaces in the Kew reading room over Xmas.

    The National Archives: Reading Rooms

    Obviously to get a slot you need to get in quick. Good hunting! :D

    Regards

    Tom
     
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  7. Tom OBrien

    Tom OBrien Senior Member

    Well this has put a downer on my hoped for trip to Kew to delve into some more documents from the Italian campaign:

    "Following the latest announcement that London has moved to Tier 4 (Stay at Home), our reading room services are suspended until further notice."

    Reading room services suspended until further notice - The National Archives
    There is now only one solution...Keep calm and slightly merry.:cheers: :pipe:

    Good chance to catch up with organising my files and going back through some war diaries to see if I have missed anything. And to download all the RAF squadron ORBs for September 1943 while they are available on-line for nowt...:plane:

    All the best for the holidays and stay safe.

    Regards

    Tom
     
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  8. jonheyworth

    jonheyworth Senior Member

    I had the same . Managed to book two visits at last . Both cancelled now after trying for 9 months but it’s not their fault
     
  9. Jopaerya

    Jopaerya New Member

    Hello All

    I am new here and have a question, I am searching for the file WO 208 5526 maybe SIR 138
    ( report about the island Sylt ) and because N.A. in Kew is closed I can't go there .

    Thanks in Advance and Regards Jos
     
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  10. Richelieu

    Richelieu Well-Known Member

    Welcome Jos.

    I think your best bet would be to start a thread in the Prisoners of War forum, and share as much information as you can – you are more likely to catch the eye of others with POW interests that way.

    Best of luck.
     
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  11. Jopaerya

    Jopaerya New Member

    Thank you very much Richelieu
     
  12. Tom OBrien

    Tom OBrien Senior Member

    Anyone have any idea on when Kew might consider allowing us mortals in? I’m surprised that their website hasn’t been updated for a while on the Reading Room suspended notice. Anyone would think they didn’t want us back.

    Regards

    Tom
     
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  13. Gary Tankard

    Gary Tankard Well-Known Member

    I doubt it will be until April 12th, after the non-essential retail is planned to re-open.
     
  14. Tom OBrien

    Tom OBrien Senior Member

    Gary, thanks.

    That's hopefully excellent news. A hair cut and a trip to Kew - that's my spring highlight(s) sorted!

    Regards

    Tom
     
  15. AndyBaldEagle

    AndyBaldEagle Very Senior Member

    If they are still using the booking system from before, then don't hold your breath in getting a spot, they need to increase the number of documents available to be ordered, and open for longer, and also reintroduce the desks/seats that they took out for some inexplicable reason in 2019, including the seat that Drew reserved for himself on every visit!!
     
  16. papiermache

    papiermache Well-Known Member

    Kew has Directors and Non-executive Directors. According to the website ( see A to Z at the foot of opening Kew website screen and look for Directors, etc. ) minutes available for Directors are no later than October 2020, and for non-executives for January 2021.

    Directors also call themselves Executives and Non-Executives have "Board Meetings", just to confuse matters.

    Latest minutes available for Executives Meetings held on 28th October 2020 which I make 160 days ago. Ancient history, but it is an Archive, after all.

    Latest Board Meeting was on 19th January 2021 or 57 days ago by Video Conference.

    Copy and paste of minutes about re-opening:

    ( PD = Paul Davies is called "Operations Director". Directors and Non-Executive Directors attend the Non-Executive Meetings. )

    " ANY OTHER BUSINESS

    "10.2 PD reported that The National Archives have registered an interest for the Civil Service asymmetric COVID-19 testing programme for its Essential Services Team that continue to maintain the Kew building during the lockdown.

    10.3 The Board noted that the COVID-19 Response Team will have a conversation around the vaccine and policy around the return of staff and visitors to the building."

    Website looked at about twenty minutes ago.
     
  17. Charley Fortnum

    Charley Fortnum Dreaming of Red Eagles

    So they plan, at some as yet undetermined future time, to have a conversation about fufilling one of the core functions they are all employed to perform at some point even further in the future?

    No hurry, chaps directors.

    Good to know the building is being well maintained.
     
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  18. Tom OBrien

    Tom OBrien Senior Member

    Disappointed to see today that there is still no update on the National Archives website about possible dates for re-opening. Last update I could find was from 23 Feb. I'm beginning to feel like they don't want me back. :police:

    If they are not careful I'll go off in a huff and find some other archives, that will teach them! :D

    Any recommendations?

    Regards

    Tom
     
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  19. davidbfpo

    davidbfpo Patron Patron

    I found an error in a set of digitised records (SAAF War Diaries) and sent off an online note, the system noted thousands of such errors are reported and I might not be contacted. To my astonishment three days later a reply came back, there was no error, but the record was so large I had to go through them to get what I wanted. Ah well.
     
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  20. CL1

    CL1 116th LAA and 92nd (Loyals) LAA,Royal Artillery




    "Thank you for your query however due to the current @@@@@@@@ we are unable to access the said records.We currently do not have a date when we will be able to address your query" Please be assured we will contact you after a year of blue moons.Once again please be thankful we even bothered to reply to this email because the @@@@@@@@ is the best excuse we have ever had to do bugger all and totally dictate to you how important we are whilst not actually fulfilling any useful working practices"

    best regards

    Shirley (her/she)
     
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