Guiding had great archives. There was a national archive based at HQ, and tended by a full-time archivist, for many years. In addition there were archives of varying sorts at each of the Training Centres, but especially at Foxlease, Waddow Hall, and at Broneirion. In addition Countries/Regions had archives, often stored at their headquarters buildings. Then many Counties had archives, some stored in County HQ buildings, and some in volunteers' houses. So Guiding was well served for archives.
Until a decade or so ago, when things started to change.
The UK archives were put into storage. And so far there is no confirmation of whether any items were added to them whilst they were in storage. In the past couple of years they have been taken out of the storage for cataloguing, which is ongoing by an archivist who has been employed on a fixed-term contract. But there is no confirmation of what will happen once either the cataloguing has been completed, or the archivist's contract comes to an end (whichever comes first). So they remain inaccessible for now.
With the closure of the training centres at Foxlease and Waddow Hall, the contents of their archive rooms are to be transferred into the UK archives, and will then be in the same position as the existing content of the archives. Items from have apparently gone into storage.
With more County headquarter buildings closing and being sold, so many County archives have also been put into storage - again, with the risk that there will be a gap with no records being added to record happenings in the early 2020s. In other Counties, where there is a tendency for the archivist role to be held by elderly ex-Guiders, there have been issues where said elderly ex-Guiders have died, and the County then has to approach their relatives (at a sensitive time) and try to come to agreement on which items in the house belong to the family and which to the County. If there aren't clear records, then it comes down to goodwill on the part of the family - amongst all their other upset and stress at their loss and all that needs to be dealt with, are they in a position to make time for Guiding members to access the house, and to agree on what may be removed? Or might they see that as a stress they can do without and hand everything to a house clearer?
So for anyone who wants to access an archive in order to look at aspects of Guiding history, the options are becoming few. It's certainly a problem - perhaps even a crisis?
