Collection Reference; BC/S/MUS
Written by Helen Kendall, Conservator
This collection of engineers and planning department plans covering the Stockton area has been on our priority list for some time for sorting, protection and eventual cataloguing. They have some references on them already which are being used for now but will be properly catalogued by our archivists and eventually put onto the online CALM system to make them more accessible.
Within the collection, each roll can hold over 100 plans, making it very difficult to handle as it’s almost impossible to lift and unroll. These are being separated into smaller rolls, tied up with unbleached cotton tying tape and placed in acid free map boxes. The references already on the rolls are transferred to the outside of each box.
The type of media is very mixed so we have some older plans that are hand drawn using good quality handmade or machine made paper which is lined with linen. Many more are hand drawn on various thicknesses of paper. A vast quantity are printed onto paper or plastic tracing material which can become very brittle.
The type of protection the rolls arrived in ranges from just large plastic bags to decaying cardboard cartons, to cube postal tubes. They are all now being placed into different sized boxes both in length and width, most of which are of good archival quality. Any kind of protection is better than nothing so that the information on the plans is protected from light, dust, air pollution and handling when the rolls are moved.
This is only the start for caring for this collection. After cataloguing and conservation of the damaged or fragile plans we hope to make them available to anyone interested. There really are some fascinating plans amongst this collection, we can’t wait to share them with you!
Teesside Archives 