SPAB’s archive is home to thousands of historic case files, filled with engaging and unique stories about the history of buildings conservation, both in the UK and overseas. Thanks to a £3,000 digitisation grant awarded by TownsWeb, we are delighted to announce that we will now be making some of our earliest and most interesting files available to a wider audience for the first time. We are grateful to TownsWeb for the opportunities this grant will give us.
TownsWeb's grant funding, now in its 10th year, included 10 awards in 2026. Our project, SPAB at 150: from Stonehenge to St Mark's Basilica, Venice, will digitise 12 key case files from the early years of the Society, linking them with the first 12 minute
books. This will make them available to the public in time for our 150th anniversary in 2027. They have been chosen for the engaging and unique stories they tell about SPAB’s work on cases as diverse as Stonehenge, the Old Clergy House in Alfriston, and St Mark's Basilica, Venice. The files consist of 19th century letters – including many from high profile figures, including William Morris and his circle, Thomas Hardy, Philip Webb and Octavia Hill – hand-written reports, around 30 photographs, several pamphlets, press cuttings and plans of buildings.
As well as shedding light on the history and conservation of old buildings, the files contain lively correspondence. For example, the file on the Old Moot Hall in Aldeburgh, Suffolk, contains letters from the suffragist Millicent Fawcett (addressed as ‘Dearest Milly’) and her sister Elizabeth Garrett Anderson, the first woman to qualify as a physician and surgeon in Britain. They campaigned vigorously to save the building from unsympathetic changes.
The file on St Mark’s Basilica, Venice contains fiery correspondence from William Morris on the subject of the proposed ‘acts of vandalism’ planned by Italian architects, which provoked fury in Italy. In a file about Stonehenge, the archaeologist Augustus Pitt Rivers – founder of the eponymous Oxford museum – complains that ‘Stonehenge has been a source of constant and unprofitable trouble to me’. These fascinating files help to the bring the history of buildings and monuments, and the characters campaigning for their preservation, to life.
The documents, photographs and drawings within the files to be digitised will form a unique resource for architects, surveyors and conservationists. They will also attract academic researchers, whether researching historic buildings or the many historical figures associated with the Society.
Our aim is also to open our archive to a more diverse audience by digitising our material, allowing us to increase outreach and engagement and to make our records more widely accessible. This could include telling stories that would appeal to a range of people in different communities across the UK, increasing awareness of the broader work of the SPAB. There is scope to engage with local archives, telling stories related to historic buildings within their communities; to engage with other institutions with links to William Morris and his contemporaries, such as the V&A or the William Morris Gallery; and to widen our engagement by working with local schools and colleges, academic institutions and local historians.
We are thrilled that the grant from TownsWeb will allow us to take forward our ambition to ensure that our archive can be accessed and appreciated by as wide an audience as possible.