Collection: Three Rivers Museum

Collection-level records:

• Collection history (Collection development policy)

  The Museum was founded in 1987 by local people with the encouragement of Three Rivers District Council, who provided after a few years the building which we still occupy. It was always intended to be firmly a Museum of local history, and to embrace the whole of Three Rivers District: then and now we avoid being labelled as ‘Rickmansworth Museum’, although that is where we are located.

  Our collection was for many years almost wholly composed of objects related to local people, businesses and events, although a few objects have appeared which do not, in fact, relate clearly to the local story. Space is very limited, and we have had to decline a number of donations on the basis that they were simply too large, or did not have close enough links to the area. Some early acquisitions were made on the basis that they have a local connection, and sometimes that has proved to be tenuous or driven by the fact that the donor was local while the item is not. But generally, we have maintained the position that our collection is of local items, often found or owned by local people and donated to the Museum.

  Our collection also includes an increasing amount of archival material in the form of diaries, business records, maps and digital audio and video recordings, described in the Collections Overview.

  We have built up over the years a considerable collection of photographic images, and in 2014 we started the process of digitising much of the photographic collection. In 2020 we began to expand a very small collection of audio recordings by consciously seeking and recording oral history interviews. In 2022 we acquired a digital display capable of presenting images, audio and video, and this has encouraged us to increase the pace of digitisation of our collection. This continues.

  Source: Collection development policy

  Date: 2025

  Licence: CC BY-NC

• Collection overview (Collection development policy)

  Our collection of approximately 10,000 objects is in two forms:

  1) Our analogue, physical collection contains:

  • Artefacts from local people, buildings and businesses
  • Historical and pre-historic finds and models
  • Roman and later archaeological finds
  • Photographs
  • Paintings and drawings of local scenes and identifiable people, or by local artists of recognised significance.
  • A set of archival holdings, notably diaries and associated records and local maps (see below).
  • An uncatalogued set of archaeological specimens, largely from the collections of Albert Freeman and Roger Jacobi.

  2) Our digital collection contains:

  • A set of digitised images taken from our physical collection, including digitised images of local maps.
  • A set of born-digital images taken by members, who have donated them to us with
  • A set of oral history interviews and edited extracts, with permissions from the interviewee taken in accordance with the principles used by the Oral History Society.
  • A set of video recordings, some born-digital, others digitised from the original films.

   

  The Museum holds a small amount of archival material, but recognises the value of such material in presenting our local history and is happy to accept such donations. At present these holdings include:

  • The diaries and accounts of John White and William Hounsfield.
  • The business records of Amy Coster, ladies’ outfitter 1919 – 1959.
  • The diary of Elizabeth Giles of Stockers Farm, 1917.
  • A range of lesser holdings of local businesses of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.
  • A large number of digital video recordings, historical and recent, able to be played on our display screen.
  • Letters from and about local WW1 veterans, including those lost.
  • A number of maps of the surrounding area, including for example plans of the un­ completed railway from Rickmansworth to Uxbridge. Many of these have been digitised for display on the digital kiosk.

  We recognise that these archival holdings place a particular onus on our conservation capabilities, and take these into account when considering such acquisitions.

  Source: Collection development policy

  Date: 2025

  Licence: CC BY-NC