Deborah Phillips - Senior Archive Conservator

The aim of the D.R.O. is to ensure that the County’s written history is preserved for use by present and future generations. In this process, the conservators play a central role behind the scenes, by providing technical expertise in conservation methods and techniques. It is the conservators’ task to preserve and strengthen documents, so that further deterioration is prevented, enabling documents to be used for research with less risk of future damage.

A wide variety of methods are used in conservation and considerable skill is required, since most documents are unique and irreplaceable.

Documents are made of organic matter, and as such, they are vulnerable and carry within them the seeds of their own destruction. They begin to deteriorate as soon as they are created, this process is often exacerbated by poor environmental conditions of heat, damp, pollution and dirt, which can cause brittleness, mould and staining, and by attacks from vermin and insects. When documents have been kept in poor conditions, they are often fragile, damaged and in need of expert attention.

It is not the task of the conservator to restore or renovate documents, but to conserve them. Conservation is the process by which further deterioration is prevented and visible damage is repaired. Methods and techniques are chosen by recognised conservation ethics, which advocate minimal intervention and needless to say cause no weakening or damage. As far as possible the original structure and features of the document are retained. It must be evident where new materials have been used and that they do not obscure information. Missing text is not guessed at, as this would falsify the information. No attempt is made to make these new materials look like the original document, but they must be sympathetic and compatible. All materials are tested and approved before they are brought into use, continually brought up to date and must be reversible.

Priorities for Conservation treatment include those which can not be consulted because of their condition, those at risk because of their high demand and those which are intrinsically valuable.

There are endless ’shelf miles’ of work which need to be done, and as conservation can be a long and painstaking process, a programme of preservation is carried out. It is hoped searchers will notice that some documents are presented to them in new archival quality packaging, sadly this does not apply to, as yet, a very high percentage of what the office holds. The introduction of microfilm copies of heavily used documents, such as parish registers, has greatly helped to relieve the wear and tear on them.

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