Information for researchers
The New Town archives provide a new and rich resource for researchers.
The archives being made available as a result of this project, will be a valuable new resource for researchers in many disciplines including: urban planning, geography, public health, architecture and 20th century history. The documents held by the Development Corporations are much richer in their breadth and depth than local authority records. A key aim for the funder, The Wellcome Trust, is to enable new research. Please sign up for newsletters so we can contact you about events where you can meet other researchers. You could also fill in the contact form, if you would like to discuss a potential research idea.
What happened after the Development Corporations were shut down? When the Corporations were wound up, some of their records were put into boxes and crates and most were hastily deposited in County Archives in their locality. Sometimes, documents were held by the Commission for New Towns and its successor English Partnerships. These were often deposited later in the County Archives. In a few instances, notably Milton Keynes, internal funding from the archive service was made available to catalogue them and make them available to researchers. This is a key reason why Milton Keynes is so prominent in academic research. In other cases including Stevenage and Basildon, internal funds were allocated for partial cataloguing of the documents, but the maps, plans and drawings were not touched.
The challenge for researchers
This situation created a major challenge to any researchers wanting to use the materials. All a researcher could do, was to visit the archive and order up one of the crates or boxes, with no idea what documents may be in it. In practice this has meant no researchers have used the New Town collections. Most of the documents have not been viewed since 1980.
“Did you know? Stevenage was the first pedestrianised town centre in the UK, but some early designs included cars.”
Archivists at Hertfordshire Archives and Local Studies have newly listed two sketch studies of Stevenage Town Centre:
Top image: CNT/ST/793/7/22 Sketch illustration of proposed scheme for Stevenage Town Centre pedestrianised shopping area, with buildings and pedestrians; nd [c1954-1957]
Bottom image: CNT/ST/793/7/23 Pencil sketch of proposed Town Centre pedestrian area, road, buildings. Includes pedestrians and vehicles; nd [c1954-1957]
What material is becoming available?
There are many other kinds of documents including publicity brochures, maps, plans, architectural drawings, and a rich collection of photographs. These were working documents, and it is common to see how plans change over time. The collection of Crawley Development Corporation is typical and gives an idea of the volume of material involved. It comprises 123 packing crates of documents containing over 700 individual files and an additional 200 volumes of minutes and papers.
How do I look at the material now?
The project archivists are creating catalogue descriptions according to the International Standard of Archival Description, ISAD(G), with each item given a unique reference code and linked to other items within the archival collection. This means that among the many thousands of documents you will be able to find material that is of interest to your research. You will be able to view the catalogues online from your own computer, but to look at the original documents you will need to visit the archives. To discuss your own research idea, you can fill in a contact form and we will be back in touch.