History of BLH&AG and the Burley Archive
The Burley Local History & Archive Group (BLH&AG) originated from a series of evening classes given by Margaret Warwick in 1983.
Under the auspices of the Workers Educational Association (WEA), Margaret, a history lecturer at Bradford College, taught a number of Burley residents about researching local history. Her husband Dennis Warwick, a sociology lecturer at Leeds University, acted as chair of the group.
Initially their collections of materials - research findings, books, photographs, maps etc., were located in a room at St. Mary's Parish Church, Burley in Wharfedale. In 2000 they transferred to the rear room of Burley Library on Grange Road.
For the Burley Archive side of things, Margaret established an Accession Book & Card Index System to keep track of items donated to the Group. In addition they bought a laptop & portable hard drive (PHD) to store their digital files.
The History Group contributed webpages to the original village website (c1994-2023) & they put on regular exhibition displays on the back wall of the main room of the Library.
Under the auspices of the Workers Educational Association (WEA), Margaret, a history lecturer at Bradford College, taught a number of Burley residents about researching local history. Her husband Dennis Warwick, a sociology lecturer at Leeds University, acted as chair of the group.
Initially their collections of materials - research findings, books, photographs, maps etc., were located in a room at St. Mary's Parish Church, Burley in Wharfedale. In 2000 they transferred to the rear room of Burley Library on Grange Road.
For the Burley Archive side of things, Margaret established an Accession Book & Card Index System to keep track of items donated to the Group. In addition they bought a laptop & portable hard drive (PHD) to store their digital files.
The History Group contributed webpages to the original village website (c1994-2023) & they put on regular exhibition displays on the back wall of the main room of the Library.
WEA Group visit to Greenholme Mills 1983. Image courtesy of Burley Archive
L to R: Joanne Breare; child ?; Carol Mumford; Bruce Kirkbright; Marjorie Kell; Geof Banks; Sylvia Baty; Margaret Warwick; John Breare; Rhona Williams; Jill Kilner; Gladys Ellwood; Lucie Wright.
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1985 Burley Local History & Archive Group. Image courtesy of Burley Archive
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Burley Archive
Sadly in 2010 Margaret died. It would seem that the people who carried on the Group didn't understand Margaret's system of Accession & Indexing. The filing of records broke down, to the point by 2018 that there were numerous boxes of unsorted files that cluttered up the room. The laptop & PHD was in a similar muddled state.
I had joined the group in 2017 to further my own personal research into different aspects of Burley District history. (Much of the content of both the old Burley Archive website & now this one, is the result of my history research).
In 2019 I became chair of the group. I hadn't planned on becoming so heavily involved, but needs must.
I'm a researcher not an archivist. But I, like many researchers before me, couldn't find relevant material, as there was no comprehensive inventory or catalogue nor any cross-referencing of the collections. Neither was there any system in place to add new records to the Burley Archive.
I had joined the group in 2017 to further my own personal research into different aspects of Burley District history. (Much of the content of both the old Burley Archive website & now this one, is the result of my history research).
In 2019 I became chair of the group. I hadn't planned on becoming so heavily involved, but needs must.
I'm a researcher not an archivist. But I, like many researchers before me, couldn't find relevant material, as there was no comprehensive inventory or catalogue nor any cross-referencing of the collections. Neither was there any system in place to add new records to the Burley Archive.
Knowing nothing about the process of archives & archiving I had to do a bit of research!
Taking advice from the Bradford Archive & Museum Development Yorkshire (now md north) and with help from a number of friends, we transferred all the content of Margaret's paper-based Accession Book & Card Index System to spreadsheets. Any other filing lists i.e. word docs, pdfs etc., were also converted to spreadsheet format.
Doing this, though admirable, didn't solve the problem of locating where physical items actually were within the room, even if we now knew we had them. We have a number of filing cabinets, map chests & lots of shelving. And what of new material or the boxes of unsorted archive material, how were they to be filed?
Taking advice from the Bradford Archive & Museum Development Yorkshire (now md north) and with help from a number of friends, we transferred all the content of Margaret's paper-based Accession Book & Card Index System to spreadsheets. Any other filing lists i.e. word docs, pdfs etc., were also converted to spreadsheet format.
Doing this, though admirable, didn't solve the problem of locating where physical items actually were within the room, even if we now knew we had them. We have a number of filing cabinets, map chests & lots of shelving. And what of new material or the boxes of unsorted archive material, how were they to be filed?
Standard archiving begins with a "Source" who gives you something for their "Collection".
Within the "Source's Collection" you can then sort on "Subject". But the whole collection from the same source is physically kept together (unless there are physical reasons why it can't be).
By knowing the source/collection, you gain a whole host of useful information i.e. who owns the copyright, cross-references to other items in the collection and/or the rest of the Archive, age of the item etc.
Unfortunately previous regimes didn't understand this. Since 2010 they'd been sorting on subject alone. Where the subject is in the eye of the beholder, different people will file in different ways. The information about the source & collection has in many cases been stripped away from the physical item. Likewise the digital items lack titles & sources.
Within the "Source's Collection" you can then sort on "Subject". But the whole collection from the same source is physically kept together (unless there are physical reasons why it can't be).
By knowing the source/collection, you gain a whole host of useful information i.e. who owns the copyright, cross-references to other items in the collection and/or the rest of the Archive, age of the item etc.
Unfortunately previous regimes didn't understand this. Since 2010 they'd been sorting on subject alone. Where the subject is in the eye of the beholder, different people will file in different ways. The information about the source & collection has in many cases been stripped away from the physical item. Likewise the digital items lack titles & sources.
In 2020 Covid-19 hit, the work in the Burley Archive ground to a halt. With no or limited access allowed for the best part of 2 years, it gave the History Group time to think about the way forward.
During Covid-19, we reviewed the spreadsheets & realised that none of the shelving had any kind of itemised listing. The shelving contains books, folders & box files. The contents of the folders & box files weren't listed either.
Alongside which the filing cabinets contents weren't up to date, nor in any kind of logical order. The map chests likewise.
During Covid-19, we reviewed the spreadsheets & realised that none of the shelving had any kind of itemised listing. The shelving contains books, folders & box files. The contents of the folders & box files weren't listed either.
Alongside which the filing cabinets contents weren't up to date, nor in any kind of logical order. The map chests likewise.
We needed to find a way to bring some order to the chaos.
The plan from 2022 onwards was to:
a) Begin an itemised Inventory of the shelving units, using a numbering system that fixed an item's location & write up the information in a spreadsheet. Where the item was a folder or box file, the contents would be listed as sub-items within the fixed location. (Completed 2024)
b) Re-arrange the filing cabinet folders with subject headings that match the digital content directories & folders. (Completed 2024) An Inventory of the filing cabinets would follow when most of the shelving was completed.
c) Begin an Inventory of the map chests - drawer by drawer. A lot of the content are not maps, just items that are larger than the standard A4 or fullscap filing cabinet folders.
d) List all the framed pictures & awards stored on top of the filing cabinets.
e) List & photograph all the Objects in the Group collections. These are stored in several boxes on the shelving. (Will be included in the shelving Inventory). (Completed 2024)
f) Begin the process of identifying sources & their collections within the existing spreadsheets & matching items to the Inventory.
g) New materials & unsorted archive boxes. Revive the Accession Book - if sources known then add to their collections, if not then identify likely subjects & list those within a spreadsheet. Add physical "Linking Sheets" to the items - list cross-references to either other physical items and/or the digital content. (Unsorted Archive boxes completed 2024).
The result of all this work will be a hybrid system of archiving held together with spreadsheets. New content will be based on Sources/Collections. Old content with unknown sources on Subjects.
The plan from 2022 onwards was to:
a) Begin an itemised Inventory of the shelving units, using a numbering system that fixed an item's location & write up the information in a spreadsheet. Where the item was a folder or box file, the contents would be listed as sub-items within the fixed location. (Completed 2024)
b) Re-arrange the filing cabinet folders with subject headings that match the digital content directories & folders. (Completed 2024) An Inventory of the filing cabinets would follow when most of the shelving was completed.
c) Begin an Inventory of the map chests - drawer by drawer. A lot of the content are not maps, just items that are larger than the standard A4 or fullscap filing cabinet folders.
d) List all the framed pictures & awards stored on top of the filing cabinets.
e) List & photograph all the Objects in the Group collections. These are stored in several boxes on the shelving. (Will be included in the shelving Inventory). (Completed 2024)
f) Begin the process of identifying sources & their collections within the existing spreadsheets & matching items to the Inventory.
g) New materials & unsorted archive boxes. Revive the Accession Book - if sources known then add to their collections, if not then identify likely subjects & list those within a spreadsheet. Add physical "Linking Sheets" to the items - list cross-references to either other physical items and/or the digital content. (Unsorted Archive boxes completed 2024).
The result of all this work will be a hybrid system of archiving held together with spreadsheets. New content will be based on Sources/Collections. Old content with unknown sources on Subjects.
Burley Archive Room, Burley Community Library. Image courtesy of Peter Grinham
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None of the items of the plan could happen without help. We are a voluntary group with few active members.
Every Tuesday afternoon for 11 months of the year since 2018, a few Heritage volunteers from The Arts Society Saltaire (TASS) have been coming to the Burley Archive. They are meticulous in what they do. Their reliability of attendance means they can be asked to carry out a task & will complete it. From 2022 to 2023 the TASS volunteers completed the main Inventory of the shelving. (Box Files were itemised by members of BLH&AG). They then moved on to creating an Inventory of the "REL - Religion" filing cabinet drawers. In 2024 they began extracting the x2 filing cabinet drawers worth of papers of the Burley Community Council (a local pressure group), itemising them & moving them to box files on the shelving. In 2025 they moved onto the "EDU - Education" drawer - all the schools in Burley District over the last 200 years! Their next task will be the "GOV - Governance" drawer. By October 2024, items (a), (d) and (e) were complete. Start of 2025 - Items (b), (f) and (g) we're on with, but need help. Anyone interested please get in touch. October 2025, item (c) is nearing completion. Still on with (b) Inventory of the Filing Cabinet drawers. Burley Archive Inventory - physical content. Approximately 4500 items.
Burley Archive Folders - digital content. Approximately 68Gb. In 2025 we've been gifted the digital collection of Malcolm Fisher, a local resident, another 47Gb worth! This will need sorting & some of it incorporated into the Burley Archive Folders. If you can help with this please get in touch. |
Burley Local History & Archive Group
With the Burley Archive room now under control, attention has turned to this website & the other activities of BLH&AG that support the Archive (See Volunteers). One of the aims going forward is to transfer all of the content from the old Burley Archive website to this one & let that go into hibernation.
We need people to help us with the front-of-house activities of the Group.
If you're interested in helping with any of the above please get in touch via the Contact page.
Peter Grinham
Chair BLH&AG
We need people to help us with the front-of-house activities of the Group.
If you're interested in helping with any of the above please get in touch via the Contact page.
Peter Grinham
Chair BLH&AG