The coronavirus pandemic has certainly changed my archiving project for High Peak Community Arts. Since November I have been going through boxes, cupboards and filing cabinets at High Lea Hall and recording their contents on my computer. Last week I was due to take the first batch of boxes to Derbyshire Record Office in Matlock in order to begin the process of cataloguing them on the Record Office database.
As I was leaving High Lea Hall with a car full of boxes it became apparent that I would not be taking them to Derbyshire Record Office for some time due to the lockdown measures announced by the government. I now have a room filled with archive boxes which I will be sorting out and starting to catalogue from my dining room table. Luckily the technology we have means that I can carry on the project from home and transfer the boxes and data to the Record Office when things get back to normal – I just need to stop tripping over the boxes! My dog Woody is feeling slightly perplexed as the boxes are sitting in the bay window where his bed used to be, but even dogs have to make sacrifices at a time of national emergency!
I have also discovered the joys of using Zoom to make video conference calls and this afternoon had a meeting with Alison, Sophie and Susie. Apart from all the very important business we got through, it was of course interesting to have a nose around other people’s houses. We are planning ways of involving people in the archiving project later on in the year as there will be plenty of things to get done when normality resumes. Meanwhile I am enjoying my daily commute to work from the upstairs bedroom to the dining room table and Woody is enjoying having his family at home all day, bed or no bed.
