Sally Middleton retired at the end of March.

Colleagues and friends at Gloucestershire Archives wished Sally a very happy retirement with lunch and of course cake.....lots of cake!

Joining Gloucestershire Archives in 2016 as part of the ‘For the Record’ archives transformation project Sally has certainly helped us transform our partnerships, learning and outreach offer. During her time our volunteer base has grown significantly and she has worked hard to break down barriers to participation.

Her commitment to Asset Based Community Development and to young people has led to some great results as demonstrated by the growing relationship with Kingsholm Primary School through ‘we love KingsHOME’, child ‘take over’ days, and oral history training for year 6 pupils. Other highlights include her collaborative work on mental health records resulting in the Never Better project which featured at Gloucester History Festival, 2019.  

Her cameo appearance as a cook in the passport to the past session for children based on our county estate archives will be remembered by colleagues for a long time. 

Sally as Mrs Bullas, the cook in Passport to the Past: Stories from the Big House

Sally requested that monies collected by staff for her retirement be donated to Gloucester food bank. Vicky Thorpe, representing the food bank, was presented with a cheque for £125 by Sally.

Ebullient, full of enthusiasm, optimistic, forward-looking, egalitarian, supportive, generous with praise, strategic, able to be direct -  all phrases used to sum up Sally. We will miss her positive approach, management and coaching skills, and her fresh perspective arising from her background in social work and libraries. We will do our best to build on Sally's legacy.