VALUABLE WASTE PAPER

Evening Star, Issue 23374, 18 September 1939, Page 11

VALUABLE WASTE PAPER

Several valuable finds have recently been made by voluntary searchers of the records preservation section of the British Records Association, who spend their time searching solicitors’ waste and other accumulations of old papers in Chancery Lane and Lincoln’s Inn, in London, says the ‘ New Y T ork Times.’ One of the most remarkable is a deed executed by the Provost of Beverley, in East Yorkshire, in the twelfth century. The provost, Thurston, was elected Archbishop of York in 1114, so that the deed had been executed prior to that date. It came to light during a search Of the old papers of a family which had been rooted in Essex for several centuries; now it lias been_ forwarded to the repository of the Yorkshire Archaeological Society in Leeds. Recently two women, after spending more than 100 hours sifting four tons of solicitors’ waste, with little result, canie upon an old ship’s log, which has been sent to and accepted by the National Maritime Museum at Greenwich. Extremely alert since it was established 10 years ago, the records preservation section is now working on a scheme to save historical documents from being thoughtlessly sold for pulping in the event of war. _ During the World War, when the price of paper rose in Britain to £23 a ton, many collections of old papers were sold by weight without any thought as to their contents, and it is almost certain that a number of documents worth preserving were thus lost. To prevent a possible recurrence of such losses Miss Ethel Stokes, secretary of the section, is organising a panel of experts throughout the country who would be willing to look through papers which were being sold by families, institutions, and others, to advise if there was anything of value among them.