Memories, artifacts and documents lost for ever (General)

by admin , Forest of Dean, Friday, December 18, 2009, 14:54 (5538 days ago) @ shepway

As all of us here have a keen interest in the history of the Forest of Dean, it is sad to hear that precious memories, artifacts and documents charting centuries of history in the Forest of Dean have been lost for ever in the Dean Heritage Centre Fire.

No doubt there will be a re-think on how best to protect what has survived if something similar were to happen again in the future.

I have never visited the Gloucestershire Archives but I wonder how well the records they hold are protected from fire and water damage!

We cannot easily copy costumes and machinery and such like from days gone by, but this tragedy does create more of an incentive to make sure that all paper documents are put into a digitised format. This way if the originals are ever destroyed we do at least have copies in a different format for future generations.

Although, I have never thought of it in this way until today, collectively all the people involved in the Forest of Dean Parish Records Transcription Project have made sure that Forest of Dean Parish Records will always be available to future generations.