Here is an update of the current situation, posted at the request of the Warwickshire County Records Office.
UNSEEN ARCHIVE RETURNS TO WARWICK, THE SPIRITUAL HOME OF HEALEY CARS
Many of you may be aware of the project to purchase the remaining part of the Healey archive and keep it in Warwick. We have been asked to set out the details in a series of bullet points to clarify what is happening. We hope that this note helps and that you are able to support this project.
Warwickshire County Record Office has been offered for purchase the archive remaining in the possession of the Healey family. The record office is the local government funded archive for the county of Warwickshire and holds records covering 900 years of the county’s history, including business records from the 20th century such as engineering firms Willans and Robinson and Automotive Products and also the pre DVLA vehicle license registers for Warwickshire (c1905-1974)
The family have made clear their interest in keeping the remaining archive in Warwick, where the first Healey motor cars were built and where the material can be freely accessed by visitors to the record office. Neither the Healey Museum in the Netherlands nor the Heritage Motor Centre at Gaydon are being considered as venues for this material, which is why Warwickshire County Record Office have accepted the challenge.
The collection consists of 20 bankers boxes of archival material and additional plans
Original drawings and designs of iconic models, prototypes and projects never completed.
Items from the collection to highlight its worth including Gerry Coker’s original design for the Healey winged badge, correspondence from Stirling Moss, Raymond Baxter etc, original Jon cartoon from Daily Mail.
Approx. 800 photos - multiple sports car events, races, celebrities and Cape Works
Correspondence and photos relating to wind generation project
Files relating to partnership with Jensen, developmental projects, consultancy, legal matters etc
Specific vehicle research, technical specifications
Information relating to the Healey’s involvement with motorsport/speed records
Printed brochure, publicity material, magazine articles etc
Files relating to Healey Marine
Business records
Video and Cinefilm from Healey family archive, rare and unseen footage from home movie, major motorsport activity – Sebring, Mille Miglia, Le Mans, Bonneville Salt Flats, 1950s.
The record office needs a sum of £120,000 to realise this project fully; that is to purchase it and then to catalogue and conserve it so that it can be made available. There will also an oral history project, and STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) based workshops with local schools using the collection for inspiration and an extensive digitisation programme. These additional elements are crucial when it comes to attracting funders.
The collection was independently valued by specialist – Bernard Quaritch Ltd
The record office has funding commitments and cash contributions totalling more than £42,000 at present.
We require £51,000 from the Heritage Lottery Fund to realise this project, we are expecting to hear the outcome of this bid by the end of February
We set ourselves a target of £30,000 in private donations; we aim to continue to raise funds this way until October 2016. We intend to run fundraising events in the spring to support this effort.
The deadline for purchasing the collection from the family is the end of March 2016
The project to catalogue, conserve and promote the collection will start in May 2016 and will end in May 2017. A professional archivist and conservator will be employed on a part time basis to carry out this work.
On completion of the project the catalogue will be uploaded onto the record office online catalogue called Warwickshire’s Past Unlocked. The vast majority of the collection (allowing for any Data Protection issues) will be freely accessible to visitors to the record office where it can be viewed in the public searchroom.
If successful the collection will be owned by the local authority in perpetuity. We hope that this will inspire others to donate other Healey material to the office in the future. We have already been given further exciting material as a result of this project and will make an announcement about this once we know the result of our lottery bid.
We really need your help to realise this project fully and to allow this important collection to be made accessible in the home town of the Healey motor car.Information on how to make donations to the project can be found on the record office website:
https://apps.warwickshire.gov.uk/api/documents/WCCC-863-471. If donations are made through the Friends of the Warwickshire County Record Office, a registered charity, they can be gift aided. You can also phone the record office on +44(0)1926 738959 to make credit card donations in excess of £10
Timetable in full
March 2016 Decision by HLF to support or reject purchase of Warwick Healey Motor Company to be made public
April 2016 Purchase of collection from family to be completed subject to above
April 30th WCRO fundraising event to support development activities
May 2016 Archivist and cataloguer appointed on 6 month contract to extend to 12 months if fundraising target of 15K reached
June 2016 Recruit volunteers for oral history project
October 15th WCRO event to provide project update
October 31st Fundraising target of 30K deadline
October 2016 Contracts extended to May 2017
November 2016 Engineering workshops with schools
December 2016 Digitisation project commences subject to 30K target achieved
May 2017 Catalogue and conservation work completed . Project completion event, collection available to view at WCRO