Petworth Society launches its new website and online archive

Miles Costello, editor of the Petworth Society magazine, said: “Creating the archive has been an enormous challenge with some 180 issues of the magazine and almost 8000 pages of text and photographs digitally scanned, all of which can now be searched online.

“The project has been a formidable commission carried out by a leading archiving company under the direction of the society chairman Alexandra Soskin.”

On the new website you will be able to browse back issues of The Petworth Society magazine, read hundreds of written oral recollections, research your family history and learn more about their lives and the jobs they may have done, and research the street you live in.

Miles said: “This is the essential one-stop place to go.

“If you have ever wondered what became of young Harriet Moore who poisoned her illegitimate baby in Petworth Workhouse or why the ancient Hungers Lane is still believed to be the haunt of witches and ghostly apparitions then here is the opportunity to dig a little further, but perhaps not too deep, for you may uncover some skeletons in your own cupboard.”

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The task was made complex, Miles says because it is ‘just part of a scheme to create a modern easily accessible web site where current and potential members can interact with the society in ways that were previously impossible’.

For more information and to start your journey into the history of Petworth, visit www.petworthsociety.co.uk

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