The North Craven Heritage Trust Archive

A decision was made by the committee towards the end of last year to formalise the Trust's archive collection. It was felt that the Trust's records should be brought together and housed in a way conducive to their long-term preservation.

An initial trawl through files held by current officers of the Trust emphasised that the task would not be an easy one as there are clear and major gaps, even of relatively recent records. For the years of the Trust's precursor, the Settle and District Civic Society, formed in 1968, the gaps were much more glaring and, given the passage of time since then, will be much harder to fill. Former committee members have been approached and asked to turn out the attic, and the museum at The Folly has agreed to pass over whatever records it holds in its Chapel Street premises.

Appropriate storage boxes, sourced from a specialist archive supplier, have been purchased so that the various documents and records will be maintained for posterity in a sustainable manner. The collection will be held by the writer of this piece while he remains a member of the committee.

Collating of records has focussed on:

-  minutes and agendas of all committee meetings and AGMs

-  annual statements of accounts

-  lists of officers of the committee

-  correspondence

-  annual programmes of events

-  notes from W.R.Mitchell's annual field days

-  copies of the Settle and District Civic Society's Bulletin

-  copies of the NCHT's News (1978 to 1991)

-  copies of the NCHT's Journal (1992 to date)

-  copies of all the Trust's publications

There are many gaps to be filled and the committee is appealing to any member of the Trust who may have old copies of the Bulletin or the News, or indeed anything you feel may be worthy of a place in the archive. If you can help in anyway, please contact David Johnson.