Fonds GB 0210 WELKITE - Welsh Red Kite Archive

Identity area

Reference code

GB 0210 WELKITE

Title

Welsh Red Kite Archive

Date(s)

  • 1944-2016. (Creation)

Level of description

Fonds

Extent and medium

0.206 m3 (21 boxes, 4 index card boxes).

Context area

Name of creator

(b. 1928)

Biographical history

Archival history

Dorothy Raikes of Bwlch, co. Brec., was in charge of kite protection arrangements in Wales from 1938 to 1949. She made very few details of records available, even to the RSPB who provided the greater part of the financial support for nest bounties etc. The baton passed to Captain and Mrs H. R. H. Vaughan of Nantymwyn House, Rhandirmwyn, 1949-1971. They established the Kite Committee in 1949. By 1960 they had reformed the Kite Committee annual meeting, which had formerly been semi-public, reducing it in the interests of confidentiality to those directly concerned with kite protection. In 1971, after the Vaughans' retirement, the Kite Committee was again reformed, the chair alternating annually between the senior RSPB and Nature Conservancy Council (NCC) members, the other organisation providing the secretary and secretarial facilities. In 1994, the kite population having reached 100 breeding pairs, the Countryside Council for Wales (CCW), the successor to the NCC in Wales, decided that it could no longer afford to contribute towards the cost of monitoring all kite nests, and in 1995 the RSPB followed suit. The Welsh Kite Trust was established in 1995 in part to replace the CCW and RSPB funding "for monitoring, protection, research and public education about kites in Wales".

Immediate source of acquisition or transfer

Donated by Peter Davis, Felindre, Aber-arth, Ceredigion, September 2016.

Content and structure area

Scope and content

Papers accumulated by Peter Davis, Kite Recorder for Wales, 1968-1999, secretary of the Red Kite Committee in Wales, 1968-1999, and trustee of the Welsh Kite Trust, 1996-2012, including earlier material from various sources.

Appraisal, destruction and scheduling

Duplicates within the same file have been weeded.

Accruals

Accruals are not expected.

System of arrangement

Arranged into (i) Historical references, transcripts, extracts etc., 1944-2011, (ii) Kite Committee papers, 1949-2004, (iii) RSPB papers, 1958-1968, (iv) Welsh Kite Trust papers, 1990-2013, and (v) Data, research, analysis, publication etc., 1960-2016.

Conditions of access and use area

Conditions governing access

Many documents are marked "Confidential" or similar. This was relevant at the time for the security of nest sites etc., but no longer applies, due to the lapse of time and the greatly improved conservation status of the red kite in Wales.

Readers consulting modern papers in the National Library of Wales are required to abide by the conditions set out in information provided when applying for their Readers' Tickets, whereby the reader shall become responsible for compliance with the Data Protection Act 1998 in relation to any processing by them of personal data obtained from modern records held at the Library.

Conditions governing reproduction

The gift includes the transfer of the copyright in original material to NLW.

Language of material

  • English

Script of material

  • Latin

Language and script notes

Physical characteristics and technical requirements

Finding aids

Allied materials area

Existence and location of originals

Existence and location of copies

Related units of description

A folder of colour and b/w photographs have been transferred to the NLW photographic collection (ref.). Also three b/w photographs of red kite nests, 1976, formerly enclosed in a letter from Rudolf Ortlieb of Helbra, East Germany, 1977, in file E 13 below (ref.).

Related material includes NLW: J. H. Salter notebooks (now NLW MSS 14429-14454B, 14458D), E. H. T. Bible Diaries, William Condry Papers, 'Birds in Wales' Research Papers, "Dorothy Raikes of Bwlch Kite Papers" (acc. 1978) [see A 7 below], and RSPB Red Kite Papers (uncatalogued 2017).

Related descriptions

Publication note

Information in this archive contributes to Roger Lovegrove, 'The kite's tale : the story of the red kite in Wales' (1990); John Evans, 'The red kite in Wales' (1991); David Wingfield Gibbons, 'The new atlas of breeding birds in Britain and Ireland, 1988-91' (1993); Roger Lovegrove, Graham Williams & Iolo Williams, 'Birds in Wales' (1994); J. T. R. Sharrock (comp.), 'The atlas of breeding birds in Britain and Ireland (1994); Tony Cross & Peter Davis, 'The red kite of Wales' (Llandrindod Wells : Welsh Kite Trust, 1998), and 2nd ed., A. V. Cross & P. E. Davis, 'The red kite in Wales' (Subbuteo Natural History Books, 2005); Hywel Roderick & Peter Davis, 'Birds of Ceredigion' (Wildlife Trust, 2010). Also several papers, copies of which are included in the archive. The archive also includes interpretation and criticism of M. J. Dawson, 'The red kite' (New Horizon, Caliologists' Series, no.1, 1983, 2nd ed., 1988).

Notes area

Alternative identifier(s)

Alma system control number

99706116502419

Access points

Place access points

Genre access points

Description control area

Description identifier

Institution identifier

Llyfrgell Genedlaethol Cymru = The National Library of Wales

Rules and/or conventions used

This description follows NLW guidelines based on ISAD(G) Second Edition; AACR2; and LCSH

Status

Level of detail

Dates of creation revision deletion

Language(s)

  • English

Script(s)

Sources

Archivist's note

Compiled by Stephen Benham, February 2017.

Accession area