Just a very quick note to advise everyone that yesterday a burst water pipe resulted in damage to some of the Association archive material stored at Lubbenham.

I will be assisting Phil Baildon, Assn. Archivist this morning in assessing and trying to limit the damage.

More details later.

Chris Garner
Vice Chairman. Assn.

Location: Melton Mowbray

Very sad news- hope the damage is minimal!

Tony.

Location: Malvern, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia.

We spent yesterday trying the best we could to minimise the effects of the burst. Quite a lot of Austin archive material has been affected together with much of Stanley Edge's other material which we hold. The Twin Cam engine drawing is badly affected as is a further original Works' drawing. The carpet is saturated and has been removed in part and we have an industrial de-humidifier in place.
Much has not been affected but our main worry is how to effectively dry out items especially when having been stored in cardboard tubes. We are seeking professional advice.

We will report back when further information is available.

Location: Melton Mowbray

Not good news Chris, I presume that everything has been digitally copied?

Appalling news, lets hope that the damaged documents can be professionally restored.

When I had the Stanley Edge drawings restored by the Somerset County Archivist in the early 70s I seem to remember that they were encased in transparent fireproof sheeting.
Is it too much to hope that they are also waterproof?

Location: Wessex

I have read that librarians have used microwave ovens for such damage.

Bob Culver

Location: Auckland

Hi Chris,

Sorry to hear such sad news.
I'm sure we all appreciate your team's efforts in limiting the damage.

Good luck,
Colin

Location: Towcester

Hi All,
Very sad news regarding possibly one of the best vintage car archives known. Do we know yet if everything was copied prior to storage? This would be a double blow to everyone in our car movement and for future enthusiasts if it was not done.
I'm also a bit shocked that this news was told on this great website instead of at least letting the Associations Austin Seven Clubs being informed first.... Just a thought...
Hoping for a good outcome
Regards
Simon

Location: Co.Durham

I do hope this catastrophe was entirely unavoidable, and not the result of any lack of maintenance or negligence - this was after all a paid-for storage facility. Also I assume that the owners of the premises or the Association are properly insured to fund the restoration costs so that it can be done professionally.

Talk to the Norfolk Library Services. They had a major flood, after a fire some years back and were able to take action which saved a large proportion of the paper documents affected. It is some time since I heard a talk on the subject and we've all passed a lot of water since then, but they took conservators advice and used industrial freezers to dry out many of the worst affected pieces.

It will require a good deal of patience and take time to get right. Best of luck

Location: In the bottom right-hand corner of Surrey.

Dear All,
As some of you will have heard, there has been a flood at the Archive at Lubenham. I have spoken with Phil, and after three days hard work, the situation is coming under control. They have been in contact with the insurance companies of the Triumph club and our own insurance. It will need time for everything to dry out and then to rectify any damage such as carpets and artefacts which will need re-conserving. Sue Martin has experience in this, and has been advising and further professional advice and experience will be sort as required. On behalf of the members can I record our thanks for the prompt and dedicate way in which they have all dealt with this dreadful incident. More information will follow as the situation develops.
Regards, Andy Lowe
Chairman
Below is a statement of what has happened from Phil Baildon;

First the bad news. On Friday 27th Feb running water down an inner wall at Lubenham was seen by TSSC staff, who turned off the mains and found a holed copper pipe saturating the ceiling at one end of our room and an inch of water on the floor. They moved a lot of wet items and I arranged a dehumidifier at 5pm. I have been in Saturday, Sunday and Monday with much appreciated help from Chris Garner, Chris Heeley, Dave and Sue Martin and we have stabilised the situation by tearing up saturated carpets and unpeeling wet cardboard tubes and boxes.
So far 5+ gallons of water has been emptied from the machine.
The better news-of our oldest artefacts, the Stanley Edge drawings from 1922, only ONE requires re-conserving; as does the Twin-Cam engine drawing by Tom Murray Jamieson. Items will have to be thrown away but this is mostly our post-war artwork for magazines and reprints, and exhibition copies of drawings which were used to represent the pre-war prints we have been given over the years. Boxes of Stanley Edge’s post Austin career have been damaged, but watermarking is better than total loss. Already within 2 days Stanley’s old leather-cloth case was growing fur so had to go.
Our insurers and TSSC insurers are “on the case” so we will hope to get back to normal but drying out and re-conserving is measured in months, not the hours it took to soak in.

Phil.

David C and M. I understand this is on a7 forum now, I am not familiar with these things, could you re-assure members world-wide that all is not lost. In particular the 800 or so Austin Motor Co Cards that Dave Martin has just finished working on are absolutely undamaged.
We will be back to normal service within a few months. It is so annoying that I have kept these things safely in our last 3 houses’ lofts, garages and under the bed for 40 years...then this happens.

Location: In the Chairman's chair

Sorry to repeat the question but does anyone know if the complete archive been digitally copied yet?

*has

And if not when this process is due to take place. It can then be put somewhere that we can all see it.

Location: United Kingdom

I don't know the answer to either question. I will find out when I visit on Friday (all being if the archive is open)and let you know

Location: In the Chairman's chair

Thank you Andy,

can you also ask if a complete inventory of the items the Association holds in the archive exists yet please?

The latest from Phil Baildon (the A7CA Archivist) is as follows:

Just back from the Archive rooms at Lubenham. 8 gallons of water has been extracted so far and the big dehumidifier will probably go on Friday, to be replaced by a lighter smaller one for the loft space where the electrician says it's not safe to re-connect the lights yet because the quilt is still wet as is the old lath & plaster ceiling. The clock shorted out at 7pm on Wednesday 25th or 7am on Thursday 26th and the leak was sealed on Friday 27th at about 10am.

Our items, many of them spread through ours and 3 adjacent rooms are drying out ... slowly.

I can foresee for the room a part new ceiling, painting etc, all new carpet (tiles would suit as it would be easier to move the tables, racking and boxing in block areas). For us, two original drawings to re-conserve, about 25 rolls of drawings to re-tube, re-copy the exhibition drawings, re-arrange the jumble it's now in ....

I would like to reassure everyone that the situation is stable, and we're looking forward to one day saying “do you remember when....!”

Next update Friday 6th.

We all at the Association would like to thanks everyone who has expressed their concern and for the many helpful hints and professional names given.
All appreciated and I am sure that we will eventually get everything back to where it was.

PS The image I need to type to post this message is W7YATT. Scary!!

Location: Melton Mowbray

Visited the Archive at Lubenham yesterday. The chap from Harwell that had been sent by the insurers was collecting material for conservation. Phil and his volunteers have carried out a tremendous amount of works in the ensuing days. The archive is generally in uproar with things everywhere while being checked, dried and inspected. all the organisational work of the preceeding years has been undone in a few days. Phil and the volunteers are to bethanked for their time and efforts in working so hard to sort out the problems.
Some of the materials are held digitally and some still need to be diitalised. There is not a complete inventry except of the items covered be insurance.
I feel that the Association needs to invest some money in storage boxs and a plan chest to look after our items. The work so far has been carried out through minimum expediture, and this may be the wake up call to encourage us to preserve and care for the artifacts for future generations. Also the archive needs a computor there, to help in digitalising the items rather than relying on Phil to bring his own from home to use.
I intends to add this as an item for the next Association meeting on 12th April at Gaydon

Location: In the Chairman's chair

Andy, I see an archive as both a strong box and a resource. I am not a big fan of digitisation - hardly future proof - but great as a backup and would add massively to the archive's value as a resource. Of course, Phil might find a huge flow of requests for digital info a bit overwhelming!
Hope your proposal meets with favour.

Regards,
Stuart
PS Of course, if you leave the hard drive in the archive the next flood will get that as well!

Ruairidh,
I should have made it clear that my remarks about future proofing apply just to my personal difficulty in wrestling with the digital age. When Microsoft ceased to support XP, the prospect of learning new skills nearly made me give up!
As far as the Archive is concerned, the obvious way to protect it is to reproduce it in multiple locations. This is where even I can see that digitisation has the edge over a skilled monastic copyist.
Needless to say I look forward to the ease of access that digitisation will offer.

All the best,
Stuart

Bearing in mind that the Forum website professes to cater for "millions" of enthusiasts, for the many not completely familiar with the UK scene, it would be of interest if someone could please elaborate on the archive site. Background, general physical set up, is it exclusively Austin etc. Hints but only hints of info appear on the A7CA site.There may be some link i have missed.

Thanks in anticipation.

Thoughts about which led me to the Edge notebook. I notice he calculated rear axle stress based solely on the gear torque mutiplication. I wonder what the multiplying effect of that unique clutch would be? Perhaps he designed the taper on the same basis. Maybe he should have calculaterd backwards from a chirping tyre!

Bob Culver

Location: Auckland

Having spoken to Stuart yesterday it quickly became clear that our minds eye picture of what a digital archive is was quite different.

For clarity, one if the very best on line digital archives I know of is Austin Harris's site www.austinharris.co.uk

Why?

-Simple and highly effective search facility.

-High quality pictures.

-Simple to use comments box.

-Simple uncluttered design.


Austin has first hand experience in building and maintaining his site, he would be my fist port of call in considering what is best for the Association Collection.


Those far from the Association are at no less of an advantage in knowing what the collection consists of as no complete list of items exist.

Location: Shropshire

Many thanks Roger and Ian.

Hello Bob,
The A7CA archive is situated in a room at the Triumph Sports Six Car Clubs headquarters at Lubenham near Market Harborough in Leciestershire. The room is rented from them. There is a brief description and vague photo in 2008D page 10 of the Association (grey) magazine. I will attempt to get some new photo's when the room is repaired and organised. Phil Baildon of course, is our Archivist, assisted by any other volunteers he can press gang in. Dave Martin has been much help of late and has completed much research from the cards recently donated by Bob Wyatt. You may have seen the article in the magazine.
Members are welcome to arrange to visit but Phil is not present all the time.
Regards, Andy Lowe

Location: In the Chairman's chair

Thanks Andy

As with so many topics it all of much wider interest with some background info.
The A7CA mag is held somewhere in the country by the NZ VAR but not readily accessible.
A few subscribe directly but enthusiasits are thinly spread..

Bob Culver

Location: Auckland

Your key bit is working out how to appropriately categorise the breadth of items in the entire collection (the Harris site does well) and 'tag' - a lower form of categorisation. Once you have cracked the model; how it breaks down into a hierarchy suitable for screen interrogation, you can test it simply by using things like free wordpress sites/themes to set up a guineapig/trial site, before launching into a more complex arrangement after you've seen how it could work.

The other bit is thinking about the images you create. They take a bit of time getting ready for the web (reducing file size, cropping, adjusting) and depending on your intention, you may need to put in more effort to protect the imagery if you want to be able to sell limited edition prints, for instance, with the raw material you have created. (I'd be wary of creating more work unless you have signed-up buyers - it just gives you another storage issue...)

Location: W.Sussex

A lot of good advice JonE

let me express an early interest in those limited print runs. Judging by the prices paid for originals I'm sure there is a demand! cheers Russell

Location: oz

Not discussed??

Here is an example of the type thing held in the archive that could be shared digitally:

The 12 Shooting Brake would be great for doing both the school run and as a tow car for the 7s!

Location: United Kingdom

It's a cracker isn't it? I saw one up at Milford Engineering a few years back that had been used by a Girls' School to ferry the pupils around.

Hi R,

Nice to see the pictures.

It would be just as nice to see an answer to you questions.

Tony.

Location: Leics

Just had a chat with Bob Prophet (Sec. of the A7CA), who tells me that the issue of digitising the Archive was not discussed at the last meeting.

Personal emails and questions on here have (so far) gone unanswered - what on earth is going on?

Am I alone in thinking this is a priority - with £40k in the bank the Association can afford to get this done professionally (something that was raised at Committee over ten years ago) so why is no one acting?

Top priority must be to employ someone to log every item the Association has and then start to scan or photograph these - it's not Rocket science.

Location: Herefordshire, with an E not a T

Am I alone in thinking this is a priority - with £40k in the bank the Association can afford to get this done professionally (something that was raised at Committee over ten years ago) so why is no one acting?



[/quote]

Red faces? Digitising is the computer equivalent of doing a 'back up'. What if the water damage had been terminal for some irreplaceable unique items?

I am also in agreement with Ruairidh.
But I do want to be careful not to upset people who are giving a lot of their valuable time to help with Association affairs.

First it is very important that we protect these artefacts.
Second ensure their future by digitising them.
Thirdly calalogue them all, including those that were lost.
Then make these copies available to all members, in some way.

The Association's object is to, I quote:

To promote co-operation between clubs and groups having active interest in the
Pre-War Austin Seven. In doing so the Association will provide a National body to represent and protect these interests. The Association will also co-ordinate the activities of the clubs and groups, and keep and maintain a Register of cars and their owners.

Location: Hampshire

I am not upset at being ignored David, but I am rather bemused and puzzled.

During my stint as Editor of the A7CA Magazine I presented the following to the Association:

"Demo CD of A7CA Archive Material
Report for Association Meeting Sunday 13th April 2003


This CD has been compiled purely to provide a demonstration of how images can be stored on a CD Rom, viewed and printed off for personal reference. The files are saved in PDF format and as such can be uploaded onto websites for on-line reference or retrieval. If further material were to be archived in this way it will bring many benefits to members of the Association.

1. All material can be viewed and/or downloaded from anywhere in the world, saving postage and time for those interested parties.
2. If catalogued properly with key words highlighted, the collection could be searched easily. I am currently working with two other members of the Association to ultimately construct an on-line searchable database for just this purpose. The end result would hopefully provide users with the ability to say, for example, key in the words “1930 Ulster” and be provided with a list of every piece of archive material, including Association Magazine articles, which they can view and print out if required.
3. Seeing the archives stored in this way may prompt owners of further interesting material to loan (or provide digitally), the association copies to add to the collection without the need to hand them over permanently.
4. Most importantly, it will mean that a permanent and safe record of this unique collection will be made. Originals can then be stored safely away from damaging hands and sunlight etc.

There are of course several issues which need to be looked into further and the ones which spring to my mind are:

1. Who owns copyright over the items we have and what are the on-line/digital copying implications of this?
2. Should anybody be allowed to view the collection on-line? It is possible to password protect such websites but this will need considerable thought and time to maintain.
3. I would suggest that irreplaceable items such as Stanley Edge’s notebooks and drawings be a major priority for further digital archiving in the very near future. I would be willing to do this if the meeting requires it.

There will of course be other issues to discuss but I hope this demo illustrates the power of archiving in this way. The covers and labels of the CD’s can of course be changed to whatever the Association sees fit.

I have provided copies of the Demo CD for each member club representative to take away and hope that they will find members of their own club who will be willing to make further copies to be provided to interested members of that club. The CD contains the necessary programme, Adobe Acrobat Reader, instructions for installation and operation. This software is free and readily available. Extra copies have also been provided for any associate representative at the meeting and clubs need only contact me if there are insufficient to go around.

Regards,

Ruairidh Dunford

March 2003."



I am still waiting for a response almost exactly 12 years later...



Some of what I wrote then appears quite dated now and technology has come on some. One thing that I do think is very important today is that this is done professionally. The material is far too important and fragile to leave to one or more volunteer/s who may or may not have the time/skills to complete this task.

Hundreds of Librarians/Archivists are being made redundant all over the UK, these people could easily be employed to make very short work of cataloguing the collection - this would be an extremely sensible use of the Association coffers rather than benefiting only the Bank.

I would urge anyone who feels strongly about this to do as DavidK suggests (and I am doing) and get your Club to back doing something about this now before it is too late and lost forever to some other disaster. I understood it would be brought up at the last meeting which now appears not to have happened unfortunately.

I have now had some most welcome responses to my personal emails mentioned above.

I prevaricated about actively joining this debate but, I'm out of patience so I will.
I support Ruairidh's cause 100%, there are individuals within A7CA who work their nuts off. The A7CA produces a very tidy little quarterly magazine, Phil has for years pursued a labour of love as Archivist BUT, what else does the Assoc. do? I have been present at a few of the meetings at Gaydon and there is an awful lot of "talking the talk" but little evidence of "walking the walk".
Over decades the A7CA has been entrusted as guardians of much irreplacable original documentation, this recent incident has demonstrated how fragile, and vunerable, this archive is.
For goodness sake bite the bullet, get the material digitally stored, backed up, and available on line to those enthusiasts who contribute annually to the fairly substantial balance in the A7CA bank accounts.

If I have upset any individual it is unintentional but, at the end of the day, I don't give a d*mn.

Ian Mc.

Location: Shropshire

I agree that the A7CA mag has been the best regular publication for many years now, but I am totally in support the comments made above. Having become custodians of this information the association has a moral obligation to protect it, unfortunately as with many car clubs it would appear that there may be a well meaning but ineffective committee.

Location: Auckland NZ

With Ian, I'd like to know what the A7CA actually does apart from the grey mag ( not the best club magazine I receive by a long way) and it's archive activities? I ask not as a newcomer but as one who has been around the seven world for more than 40 years, and who has taken an active part in running the largest of the Austin 7 Clubs. Because, if it's not clear to me, one must ask, what are they there for? Do we need them? And, why am I subsidising them through my Club subscription?

I am just a member of the Austin Seven movement.

My opinion is similar to Ruairidh's it is "nuts" not to have the archive material digitised to a very highest possible quality and shared with all seven enthusiasts and just as important safely backed up to archival standards.

How should that be achieved is the only question in my view.

I am willing to offer my services as a photographer with a state of the art studio set up as a contribution to help the right scheme.

Location: centre of the Universe

I'd like to further echo the comments above.
In my opinion the archive materials should be readily available to all enthusiasts to browse at their leisure. I believe that this has a benefit to the movement as a whole, as with many people browsing the archive material we may find pieces of information that are far from common knowledge, which can be shared through the grey mag with everyone.

I think using a professional would be a good idea for making light work of this task. My only suggestion would be making sure a very knowledgeable austin seven enthusiast is on hand to help make sure that items are tagged with all relevant details (models, peoples names, registration numbers, dates, locations etc) to allow searches to pull up as much relevant material as possible.

Location: United Kingdom