The Ballast Trust

Welcome

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Welcome to the website of the Ballast Trust.

The Ballast Trust is a charitable foundation that provides a rescue, sorting and cataloguing service for business archives with an emphasis on technical records such as shipbuilding, railway and engineering plans, drawings and photographs.

Since its establishment in 1987 it has processed technical records on behalf of national and local archive repositories and museums.

History of the Ballast Trust

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Willam Lind founded the Ballast Trust in December 1987 and was the Director until his death in October 2007. The history of the Ballast Trust is very much a history of Bill and his interest in and commitment to industrial records.

The document below describes how the Ballast Trust came into being and gives a full list of all the collections that have been processed here and the many individuals that have worked or volunteered for it over the years.

The Ballast Trust - A Brief History

Pictures of the early working conditions can be found on the blog here.

How we work

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The Ballast Trust is supported in its work by all of its partner organisations. We have built good relationships with these organisations and when processing collections we do our up most to do so in accordance with the guidelines and systems of the owning repository.

We have strong links with Glasgow University Archive Services in particular and the Archivist works from there one day a week to maintain links with the wider archive community.

Collections are brought for processing to our offices in Johnstone and prioritised for action by the Archivist. The collection will be processed by staff or volunteers (depending on who has the most appropriate knowledge) and will be catalogued to the owning repository's standard. Once the collection is finished it will be returned and added to the owning repository's catalogue.

At present staff and volunteers are working on different collections and we have a sizable backlog of material to process in the future.

Volunteering

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The Ballast Trust relies on the work of knowledgeable, enthusiastic and dedicated volunteers. Without them we would not be able to understand collections and catalogue them to the same level of detail.

We now have a Volunteer Policy which outlines what we can offer volunteers and what we ask of our volunteers. We hope to expand our volunteer numbers in the future and will update the website with details of specific projects that we require volunteers for. In the meantime if you are interested in volunteering with us please get in touch to discuss it further.

We are looking for people with the following:

A knowledge of something (archives, ships, trains or engines) - we like to match collections to specialist knowledge where possible.
Time to spare - this could be as little as a couple of hours a week or daily attendance (within office hours).
Attention to detail - the records require accurate and detailed listing.
Willingness to learn - we have set procedures for processing records.

In return we can offer:

All the tea and chocolate biscuits you can manage!
A chance to socialise with friendly individuals.
Training in computers and specific IT software if you wish.
The opportunity to help preserve Scotland's industrial past.

If you are interested please contact Kiara King (email: kiara.king@glasgow.ac.uk or by telephone: 01505 328488). Or download and complete our application form and send it in.

We have a volunteering opportunity for school leavers aged 16-18 in partnership with Project Scotland. Visit their website to find out more and search using our postcode PA5 8AB.

The Ballast Trust has also appeared as a case study in the 2009 report on volunteering in archives by the National Council of Archives.

Current projects

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Currently staff and volunteers are working on the following projects and collections:

British Rail negatives (National Archives of Scotland)
British Rail plans (National Archives of Scotland)
British Rail Civil Engineering drawings (National Archives of Scotland)
Edinburgh City Engineer's (Edinburgh City Archives)
Montague Smith collection (National Archives of Scotland)
William Lind collections (Ballast Trust / Glasgow University Archives)

We have also begun to use our archival management software Archivists' Toolkit as part of a project to 'create electronic finding aids using Archivists' Toolkit'. This project has been awarded archive pace setter status. The project plan can be viewed here.

Our collections

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Although the Ballast Trust is not a collecting archive it does have two collections which it has inherited from William Lind. These are the Lind collection and the Dan McDonald collection.

The Lind collection
William Lind was a ship enthusiast and he had a personal collection of ship plans and photographs. This collection is uncatalogued and therefore difficult to access for research.

The Dan McDonald collection
Dan McDonald was primarily known as a puffer enthusiast who won the respect of captains and crews of the puffer fraternity for his enthusiasm for and knowledge of a craft which he made a lifelong study and captured in photographs. However, he also photographed other types of vessels and places around Scotland and built up a significant collection of images in his lifetime.

William Lind bought Dan's photographic collection in 1996 and it now resides in the Trust's offices.

Dan McDonald Catalogue (spreadsheet format)

More information about the collection, how it was processed, what it contains, as well as a selection of images can be found on our blog.

Blog at the Ballast

Our resources

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The Ballast Trust has built a strong reference collection to help process collections and answer enquiries. The subject matter of this has naturally focused on shipbuilding, railways and engineering for the most part.

Some examples of reference materials we have include:

Lloyd's Register of Shipping 1885 - 1999 (incomplete)
Extracts from Dumbarton Herald and Lennoxtown Herald 1851-1988 and the Helensburgh and Gareloch Times 1880-1973 relating to Clyde boatbuilding
The railways of Great Britain - a historical atlas
Dictionary of Scottish Business Biography
Scottish Industrial History (Journal of Business Archives Council of Scotland)

Information for researchers

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The Ballast Trust is not a collecting archive. We only have custody of collections whilst we are processing them on behalf of an archive repository. For these reasons we are not open to the public and do not operate a traditional archive searchroom facility. However, we are happy to help with enquiries if we can and welcome visitors by arrangement.

We have a small number of reference resources that we may be able to make available for research purposes and some collections which belong to the Trust (primarily the Dan McDonald negative collection).

Please contact us if you think we may be able to help.

Information for Archivists

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The Ballast Trust can help archives with collections of technical records where staff lack the knowledge to understand and process them.

We offer advice on managing and understanding technical plans, drawings, photographs and maps. We are also working on a guide to understanding shipbuilding records that will be available on our website when published and we have plans for other guidance documents for railway and engineering records.

In certain circumstances we can also list, sort and catalogue collections on behalf of archives. This will depend on our own cataloguing backlog, the skills of our volunteers and the suitability of the collection.

Please contact us if you would like further information.

Information for businesses

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The history of Scotland’s businesses and industries is an important part of local and national heritage. The preservation of business archives is essential to provide evidence of that history and within business archives we believe that technical records (the plans, drawings, maps and photographs) are crucial to fully understanding how a business worked.

If you are a business with an archive or perhaps have a personal collection of archive materials related to business or industry, have you thought about the long-term future of your collection? The Ballast Trust is not a collecting archive and we cannot provide a permanent home for archive collections, however we can offer advice about finding a permanent home for your collection or looking after it yourself and put you in touch with organisations that can help. For example:

Credits

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This website was designed using blogger and the Brooklyn template from our blog templates

News

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September 2011

We took part in doors open days and welcomed 53 visitors. Read about it here.

May 2011

Our Annual Report for 2010/11 is published.

March 2011

We have worked with ProjectScotland to create a youth volunteer opportunity for an Archives Assistant. Read about it here.

January 2011
The National Strategy for Business Archives in Scotland is launched in Edinburgh on Thursday 20 January, 5pm at the Museum on the Mound. Read the press release.

The Ballast Trust is one of eight new case studies created to support the public launch of the strategy. Read them here.

August 2010
The National Strategy for Business Archives in Scotland is published. The Ballast Trust Archivist in partnership with the BACS Surveying Officer has worked to develop this strategy with the support of the NAS and on behalf of the Scottish Council on Archives.

June 2010
Our new volunteer policy has been approved by the Trustees and is now available. More information about volunteering at the Ballast Trust is available here.

March 2010
The Ballast Trust has been awarded archive pace setter status for its project to create electronic catalogues using Archivists' Toolkit. More information is available on the blog.

[Previous news posts here.]

Contact us

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Ballast Trust
18-20 Walkinshaw Street, Johnstone, PA5 8AB
e: ballasttrust@gmail.com
t: 01505 328488

Kiara King (Archivist)
e: kiara.king@glasgow.ac.uk
t: 01505 328488 or 0141 330 5516 (Tuesdays)

About us

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The Ballast Trust has been working for over 20 years to help preserve the records of Scotland's industrial past.

The Ballast Trust policy statement sets out our aims and the terms under which we can process records on behalf of other record repositories. It was approved by the Board of Trustees on 7 December 2009.

What do we do?
The Ballast Trust supports the work of archive repositories to preserve records relating to business and industry in Scotland. The Trust does this by providing the facilities to process the collections and the technical expertise and knowledge required to understand these collections and catalogue them properly.

Annual Report 2010/11 (large file, may take time to download)
Annual Report 2010/11 (smaller file, poorer image quality)
A brief history of the Ballast Trust
Ballast Trust Leaflet

Our staff
The Director of the Ballast Trust is Professor Anthony Slaven. The Ballast Trust has 3 members of staff.

Kiara King (Archivist)
Delaine Colquhoun (Archive Assistant)
Duncan Winning (Archive Assistant)

We are also supported by our regular team of volunteers: Campbell Cornwall, Andrew Swan and Naomi Crerar.

How to find us
Our office is located at 18-20 Walkinshaw Street, Johnstone, PA5 8AB (map). The premises provide us with large storage space for processing archive collections.
We are a 10 minute walk from Johnstone train station and Johnstone itself is 15 minutes by train or 20 minutes by car from Glasgow.

Archived news

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Previous news:

February 2010
Article about the Ballast Trust is published in culture e impresa (an Italian journal), it can be read here.

December 2009
The Ballast Trust policy statement was approved by the Board of Trustees at their meeting on 7 December 2009.

August 2009
With the support of the National Archives of Scotland and the Scottish Council on Archives, the Business Archives Council of Scotland and the Ballast Trust are working to create a national strategy for business archives in Scotland. In September we will be holding a series of workshops to provide an opportunity for custodians and users of business archives to help develop the strategy.

The first workshop is for academics and students and will be held on Monday 7 September at the Centre of Business History at Glasgow University. More details are available here.

July 2009
The Ballast Trust policy statement has been added to the website. This outlines the purpose of the Trust and its aims and operations. It will be submitted for final approval by the Board of Trustees at the December meeting.

May 2009
The National Council on Archives published their ‘Volunteering in Archives’ report. The Ballast Trust contributed a case study to this report. The report can be downloaded here.

April 2009
The Ballast Trust website is launched.