West Sussex County Council

Records of the West Sussex County Council

CLASSIFICATION OF WEST SUSSEX COUNTY COUNCIL RECORDS (Revised 1977)

The system divides the records into three groups reflecting:

1. The proceedings of the old Council and its Committees, 1889-1974 (Prefix WOC/)

2. The proceedings of the new Council and its Committees, 1974- (Prefix WNC/)

3. The activities of the service Departments serving either or both Councils. (Prefix WDC)

Catalogue marks are normally made up of five elements:-

1. Letter prefix to indicate Council or Department, i.e.:

WOC = Old Council

WNC = New Council

WDC = Service Department

2. Suffix (2 letters) to specify whether record originates from the full Council (e.g. minutes and other formal records), from a committee, or from a service department, e.g.:

/CC = Full Council

/CM = Committee

/PL = Planning Department.

3-5 Number sequence up to 3 elements to indicate:-

Cass; sub-class; and piece number.

Council and Committee proceedings (WOC/ and WNC/)

Three suffixes are used:-

/CC = Full Council

/CM = Committee

/CQ = Minutes etc. of other authorities and voluntary bodies inherited by the Council.

In the case of Committee records the first number is that assigned to the Committee. The numbers are based on a chronological series reflecting the order of creation of the committees, eg:-

WOC/CM1 = Finance and General Purposes Committee (formed 1889);

WOC/CM118 = County Fire Brigade Committee (formed 1947).

Examples

WOC/CC 2/2 = Old County Council (WOC/)

Council Agenda Papers (/CC2)

Vol. 2, 1889-90 (/2)

WOC/CM44/6/2 = Old County Council (WOC/)

Education Committee (/CM44)

School Attendance sub-committee (/6)

Minutes, Vol. 2, 1909-16 (/2)

Departmental Records (WDC/)

The prefix is used for the records of all departments whether of the Old or New Council.

Suffixes for principal departments:-

AG = Director of Agriculture's Department

AR = County Architect's Department

AS = County Lunatic Asylum

AV = County Archivist's Department

CE = Chief Executive

CH = Children's Department

CL = County Clerk's Department (from 1974 County Secretary)

ED = Education Department

FB = Fire Brigade

HE = Health Department

LA = Land Agent's Department

LB = County Library

PE = Personnel Department

PL = Planning Department

SS = Social Services Department

SU = County Surveyor's Department

TR = County Treasurer's Department

VA = County Valuer's Department

WE = Welfare Department

WM = Weights and Measures Department (from 1970 Consumer Protection, from 1977 Trading Standards)

ZZ = Final Miscellaneous (e.g. Staff clubs etc.)

N.B. The records of the Public Assistance Department will be found with the Poor Law Guardians records under the reference WPA.

The first number indicates a major record series, or the records of a particular division of the Department. It is a running number, determined in most cases by the dates at which the series were transferred to the Record Office.

Examples

WDC/CL1/8/2 = Clerk's Department (WDC/CL)

Correspondence (/1)

Registers of Letters Received (/8)

Vol. 3, 1916-17 (/3)

WDC/SU1/2/3 = County Surveyor's Department (WDC/SU)

Correspondence (/1)

Letter Book relating to R.F.C. Aerodromes (/2)

Vol. 3, 1918-19 (/3)