In a previous blog, our volunteer Clare discussed working on the ‘grade 2’ railway plans, and explained how the conservation grading system works. Here, Jenny, our Conservator, takes us through what is required for those plans graded 3 and 4, those with significant damage or active deterioration. — Of the original 132 railway plans, there… Read more Tough Grades: Conserving the Railway Plans
In this blog Colin Divall describes how sometimes the railway plans can help crack open age-old puzzles. Timber was often used for bridges on the early railways, especially when they were cheaply built like the Southampton and Dorchester; Dorset’s first main line. At Wimborne, the River Stour was crossed by a timber viaduct that was… Read more Troubled Bridges over Dorset Water
This is the fourth blog in our series on the railway plans. In the last part we explored how the plans are graded, which informs how our Conservator approaches the work. Due to the large number of plans a volunteer, Clare, was taken on to help conserve those plans graded two. These plans mostly require… Read more The work of a Conservation Volunteer
In the third of a series on the railway plans we hold at Dorset History Centre, Jenny Barnard, the Conservator here at Dorset History Centre details the problem of conserving the large railway plans we hold. — The railway plans present a complex conservation challenge due to three main aspects: their size, the material from… Read more The challenges of the railway plans…
In the second of a series on the railway plans we hold at Dorset History Centre, Colin Divall, emeritus professor of Railway Studies at the University of York, describes why the railway plans are such an important source of information. — Building railways meant land, and land meant property. By the 1830s, when mainline railways… Read more The Importance of the Railway Plans and Sections
Within the strong rooms of the Dorset History Centre are a collection of extremely popular and highly used documents. It may come as a surprise to some that these documents are plans of railway undertakings. Whilst they don’t have the immediate visual appeal of an illuminated manuscript or estate map, the information they provide can… Read more Getting the records back on track!
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