History
Chartawell began in 1981 as a shared laboratory funded by three county archives that had each been quoted separately for the same fibre analysis. The arrangement was meant to last five years. It acquired a second microscope, then a folding endurance tester, then a charitable constitution, and by 1994 it was doing more research than service work.
The centre moved to Peasholme Green in 2003, into a former printing works whose ground floor already had the floor loading for heavy instruments. Twenty-four people work here now, sixteen of them scientific or conservation staff.
Independence
We take no work from manufacturers of conservation materials or from suppliers of environmental plant. This costs the centre real money every year and it is not negotiable: the only thing a testing laboratory has to sell is the credibility of a number, and that is gone the first time a supplier can say they paid for the study.
Where a programme is funded by a body with an interest in the outcome, the funder is named on the front of the report and has no sight of the text before publication. Two funders have withdrawn over that clause since 2015. The clause stays.
How the centre is staffed
The centre is organised as desks rather than personal fiefdoms, and correspondence goes to a desk so that an enquiry does not sit unread while somebody is on leave. Reports carry the procedure reference and the operator’s initials in the quality record, not a byline on the cover.
| Group | Staff | Responsible for |
|---|---|---|
| Analytical Science | 9 | Accredited methods, sample preparation, quality scheme |
| Inks and Media | 3 | Iron gall ink programme, media characterisation |
| Collection Environments | 4 | Monitoring loans, data analysis, store reporting |
| Teaching and Publication | 3 | Courses, technical notes, dataset release |
| Administration | 5 | Enquiries, finance, sample logistics, building |
Governance and funding
Chartawell is a registered charity governed by a board of nine trustees, of whom at least four must be working conservators or collection managers and no more than two may be drawn from the centre’s own staff. Trustees serve two four-year terms at most.
- Endowment income covers the reduced fee schedule and the bursary places.
- Laboratory fees cover the accredited scope, its calibration and the quality scheme.
- Programme grants cover research, and are reported line by line in the annual review.
- No income is accepted from suppliers to the sector, as above.
The building
A 1930s printing works, converted in 2003: instrument rooms on the ground floor where the slab is thickest, the ageing rig in a ventilated annex, teaching bench on the first floor, and a small reference store that holds the furnish sample set at conditions we monitor and publish. Visitors are welcome by arrangement; the reference set is available to researchers on site.
