How you can help

Voluntary work

Indexing

Volunteers from the Friends of Westminster Archives have been working for the last four years on indexing 74 volumes (1708-1795) containing about 30,000 settlement examinations from St Martin’s in the Fields. It is estimated that the final index will yield the names of about 180,000 people living in London in the 18th century.

The first phase (1750-1775) has been completed, and the index has been produced on 7 microfiche. The set is available for sale at £5.00. The index is also available to search on-line and at present covers volumes dating from 1750-1775.

Settlement examinations can reveal autobiographies of the poor, containing valuable information about places of birth, the fathers of illegitimate children, and migration. The work of the volunteers is creating access to this information for the first time. The original examinations can be consulted on microfilm in the Search Room, or copies ordered by post for £4.00 per entry quoting the reference number in the index.

Conservation

There are two groups of volunteers (the Friends of the Archives Centre and members of the National Association of Decorative and Fine Arts Societies) who assist the Conservator in preservation projects after relevant training. They have worked on projects such as repackaging theatre playbills and programmes and remounting the slide collection.

Building Plans

The archives centre holds a sequence of plans submitted for drainage applications. This is a valuable sequence as although they were submitted specifically for drainage applications there are frequently full sets of building plans included. In October 1999 the Archives Centre staff began a pilot to sort, catalogue and repackage the first 250 boxes. Following the success of this project it was decided to launch a more extensive project to tackle the remaining 1,000 boxes utilising the Friends of the Archives Centre. The project was launched in September 2001 with an estimated timescale of eight years. The project is progressing well and is on target for completion ahead of schedule with over 40,000 individual plans having been catalogued to date.