Let’s start with a sign of the times. Do you remember the York Press article about the project that was out in the Autumn? The top picture is that of me standing in the mezzanine, pondering, surrounded my massive plan chests and towering stacks of plans of bridges. Well it’s now completely empty!

I think the slightly maniac expression on Joy’s face tells the story of that move! Part of that story includes our biggest plan chest, which must have actually been assembled on the mezzanine in the first place, as it didn’t fit through any of the doors. Here’s a pic of it being loaded onto the lorry after being taken apart and put together again, heading off to Deepstore.

So what about my end? Here’s what the strongroom looked like a week ago. These racks are far from ideal, only having 3 tiers, but are very strong which is really the main thing.

On Monday my first delivery turned up as expected, and was loaded into the strongroom without fuss – this is a much more accessible building!

This is what I was left with – pallets loaded with crates, filled with volumes. We’re using the crates for items that won’t fit into boxes. They have been kindly lent to us by the National Railway Museum, and are proving very useful. They are extremely heavy so I’ve had help putting them onto the bottom tier for now. Then I’ll have to unpack some because they take up a huge amount of space on my shelves in an inefficient way.

I’ve taken delivery of about 80 crates, all the rest should now be archive boxes packed in roll cages. Much more manageable. I’m booked in to get 3 deliveries a fortnight, and will be busy in between unpacking. Next week I’ll start making myself a record of all the locations. Every item (whether a crate, box or wrapped single item) has been given a barcode. With the aid of a usb barcode reader and a spreadsheet I’ll be able to build a record of what is where – essential for the intellectual and physical control of the archive.

So that was our week, how about yours?

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