For the Record: Olympics Legacy Project

 

Staffordshire and Stoke on Trent Archive Service can assist sports clubs and other sporting groups to make a contribution to the permanent historical record of the county’s sporting life. There are different ways to do this.

 

Many clubs may already have some old records or other memorabilia. These could be fixture lists, competition records, certificates, newsletters or photographs, or perhaps more formal records of meetings and membership.

 

Other clubs may not have any such records because they are new, or because no one has ever created them or kept them safe. But the history of any club and its members’ achievements is still important, and so you might want to think about creating a new Olympic Legacy Record. This might involve asking members to bring in any photographs or other items which  they may have at home, or asking around and starting to make a record of  the foundation of the club, early members, achievements, and what it does today, particularly if involved in preparation for 2012 events. These could be put into a scrapbook or collected as a mini “archive”.

 

The Archive Service is aiming to accumulate as many mini histories as possible, from clubs and other organisations or individuals across the County and City. This will ensure that we leave a permanent record of what was happening in Staffordshire and Stoke on Trent in the years up to 2012.

 

The Archive Service will also be glad to take in any formal club records for permanent safe-keeping and to make these available for people to use. But they can also offer advice about the long-term preservation of records that are kept locally, and would be interested in having a list of what records you may have.

 

Please contact liz.street@staffordshire.gov.uk for the County or chris.latimer@stoke.gov.uk for the City. They can help and advise you in terms of collecting or looking after your records or photographs and other memorabilia, or gathering members’ recollections, or writing up mini club histories. They are also planning  an event at the County Record Office in Stafford when sports or club representatives and facilitators can come to ask advice, compare notes with other clubs, have a look what the Archive Service can offer to owners of records and see some of historical collections of older sporting records already collected for posterity.

 

This will be an ongoing programme of activity until 2012, but Liz and Chris would welcome a first-stage response by the end of September, from clubs or individuals.

 

 

 

Liz Street
Archivist (Collections Management)
Staffordshire Record Office
liz.street@staffordshire.gov.uk