In 2022 we received funding from Creative Ireland which began our first significant work to date on the Clayton Mills collection. In the project Meath County Archive worked with conservators to repair a set of 9 minute books and 7 wages books from the company.

The collection has a large series of correspondence covering over 80 years of the business. This correspondence details the contract and business interests of the company and highlights how international their remit was. The listing of this series is essential in understanding the reach and influence of the company, as well as offering an insight into broader research areas such as industry and design.

Work on this series began in January 2023 with our second year of funding from the Department of Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media under the Creative Ireland Funding Programme. Meath County Archive focused on employing a temporary archivist to arrange and list the collection of 64 boxes.

The post was filled in June 2023 and work has been ongoing to date. This is a large undertaking and needed some initial work researching companies and associates. To date the project has listed 22 boxes of correspondence and has highlighted the reach of the Clayton company and has offered some insights into their eventual decline.

As we enter the third year of work on the collection with Creative Ireland we will continue our work on the correspondence series.
 

Please note that the details of events listed above are provided by the relevant Local Authorities.