Dowty Archive update
Since starting work on the Dowty archive at the beginning of April, I have been busy recruiting volunteers for lots of different aspects of the project (cataloguing, website development and oral history training at present). I’ve been doing a survey of the extensive archive and am now going back and trying to work out a catalogue structure and look at the records in a bit more detail. Two volunteers have started the cataloguing and we have lots of people interested in taking part in oral history interviews. We have also been looking at the website and receiving training to add content – this will be launched in the autumn. On 18th June I spoke about the project at an Archives & Records Association business records seminar in York, which looked at how we are using volunteers to help understand technical records and also help interpret the archive overall.
Dowty drawing office
A page from George Dowty's notebook
If you would you like to volunteer for the Dowty project, or have any stories you would like to share about working for Dowty or any of its companies please contact Ally McConnell for more information - ally.mcconnell@gloucestershire.gov.uk