Stoke Mandeville: Path to the Paralympic Games (360G-Wellcome-203941_Z_16_Z)

This application for a scoping study is part of a collaboration between the Centre for Buckinghamshire Studies and the National Paralympic Heritage Trust on a wider programme of work. The archives in question have recently been at risk, and we have already worked to remove them from inadequate storage and move them to the recognised place of deposit for public records in Bucks, thus saving this sensitive material from deterioration. The collections have national and international significance. The National Spinal Injuries Centre has led the way in the care of people with spinal injuries from the 1940s to date. Sir Ludwig Guttmann was an international pioneer and his work is still used today - both through the treatment of spinal injuries, and also through psychology, the use sports as rehabilitation, and the invention of specialist equipment. We have an immediate need to scope what is required for cataloguing and conservation - these collections are a new area of collecting for us and have specialist academic and medial research potential, which is not an area of expertise for CBS. The reports that are to be produced as part of the study will feed into a further application for the work.