Papers regarding the transfer of the Royal Observatory from Greenwich to Herstmonceux, including correspondence, minutes, newscuttings, plans, agenda, questionnaires, memoranda and reports. Much of the material relates to staff queries and the Informal Office Committee, including correspondence on the provision of housing and hostel accommodation for staff and completed staff questionnaires on housing requirements. The remaining papers include the following items (the list is not comprehensive):

Minutes of meetings to discuss the move.

Plan of the huts at Herstmonceux before the move.

Minutes of Proceedings of the Board of Visitors of the Royal Observatory, 1938-1939.

Minutes of a meeting of a special committee of the Board of Visitors on 28 June 1939 to consider a report on the Royal Observatory, Greenwich; the deterioration of work due to adverse conditions at Greenwich; and the Magnetic Observatory, Abinger.

Report of a committee of the Board of Visitors of the Royal Observatory on the selection of a new site for the Royal Observatory [1945].

Cuttings from various newspapers and periodicals on the move to Herstmonceux, including 'The Times', 'Daily Telegraph', 'Sussex Express and County Herald' and 'Bath and Wilts Chronicle and Herald', with a newscutting on William Yapp.

Correspondence concerning the formation of an Office Whitley Committee for the Royal Greenwich Observatory.

Letters and papers from the Institution of Professional Civil Servants.

'Lament on the removal of the Observatory from Greenwich', anonymous, 1949.

Report on the transfer of the Observatory from Greenwich during 1933-1954, written by H. Spencer Jones in 1955.

Progress plan and memoranda concerning Vote 10 of the Navy Estimates.

Copy of the 'Navy Appropriation Account 1953-1954. Works Secret Supplement. Item 42. Herstmonceux Castle. Transfer of Royal Observatory from Greenwich', 1955.

Minutes of Progress Meetings, Nos 20, 21, 22 and 24, July 1954 - May 1956.

Draft minutes of Technical Progress Meetings, April 1955 - September 1956.