Buckinghamshire County Council is looking to recruit an Archive Conservator (Part-Time) to undertake professional conservation and preservation of documents in the care of Buckinghamshire Archives to national and international standards.
As Conservator with the Buckinghamshire Archives Service, you will have a key role in helping to preserve and make accessible the county’s archival heritage. The Service has records that cover over 800 years of Buckinghamshire’s history, which are made available to the public in its Searchroom (Aylesbury) and online via the Virtual Searchroom.
About Us
The Archives Service is a small, innovative team, committed to delivering an excellent service for Buckinghamshire and Milton Keynes’ residents. We have an SLA with Milton Keynes City Council and the National Paralympic Heritage Trust to manage their archives. The Service’s work is built on a foundation of excellent standards for customer care and collections management, irrespective of format. It works in partnership with other organisations to reach out and meaningfully engage with the county's diverse communities. The Service actively promotes its collections, so they are an authentic source for celebrating and researching Buckinghamshire's rich history and heritage. Buckinghamshire Archives focuses on the four E's: engage, excite, educate and empower. The Archive Service will relocate from Aylesbury to High Wycombe during the summer of 2026, so this will be an exciting time to join the Service and help us prepare for the move.
Buckinghamshire Council is a relatively new organisation that combines the strengths and expertise of the previous five councils in the county to create positive change for local people, communities, and businesses. We are firmly focused on the future and have made a clear commitment to serve residents better and to provide stronger representation for Buckinghamshire, both locally and nationally.
About the Role
This role will deliver practical conservation and preservation work on the archival documents held by the service, and to record this appropriately. The Service uses a matrix to determine priorities for conservation work. In addition, the role will include the creation and monitoring of volunteer projects that have clear goals to further the preservation work of the Service. The post holder will train staff and volunteers, so they have the necessary skills to deliver their work. Working alongside other professional staff, the post holder will have a significant role in ensuring collections are ready to be transported, as part of the relocation to a new site. Further details of the role can be found in the job description.
As a ‘fixed’ worker, you’ll spend most of your time in the same location, which will likely be a fixed office or location where your role is performed. Typically, you’ll be based in the same location as the rest of your team, because you provide a particular service from that fixed location or need access to information there.
About You
You will have a post-graduate diploma or master’s degree in a relevant Conservation area and proven experience of following good practice in conservation techniques relevant to a local authority archive. You will have proven experience of managing volunteers to achieve success and experience of carrying out comprehensive condition surveys of archival collections and creating reports based on those surveys.
How to Apply
Further details of the role can be found in the job description.
After reading the job description, if you would like to discuss the role further, please contact Daniel Williams, County and Diocesan Archivist, at [email protected] before the application deadline on Monday 9 June 2025. We reserve the right to close the vacancy once we have received sufficient applications, so please be advised to submit your application as early as possible.
This post is covered by the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 and therefore applicants are required to declare:
- All unspent cautions and/or unspent convictions
For further information on how long it takes for cautions and convictions cautions to become spent, please refer to our guide on the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 (updated 2023) | Nacro
We Recognise and Reward You
Hard work and success deserves recognition. That’s why we pride ourselves on the benefits we give our people. We actively encourage a good work-life balance and promote flexible and agile working arrangements. We provide discounts on various Cafés, restaurants, shops and auto enrolment onto our generous Pension Scheme. In addition to the opportunity to gain membership to Costco, we have discounted gym memberships, travel discounts with Arriva and much more.
https://jobs.buckinghamshire.gov.uk/working-buckinghamshire-council/