<begun 2026-01-17>
At some point between June 1, 2020 and June 11, 2020, the old pettrust.org.uk website was taken down. I had gone in on June 1st to retrieve a blog post written by one of the early figures in therapeutic community who had just died. I went in again on June 11th to retrieve a blog post a former child had written, which he had not been able to find. It was because the website was no longer there. It turned out not to be the temporary glitch that I assumed it must be, but a decision taken by the Mulberry Bush.
Among the explanations I was given when I made enquiries was "It has sometimes proved difficult to respond as well as would have been wished to enquiries relating to the PETT website as enquirers quoted references/catalogue numbers that were not easily identifiable." This rang alarm bells for me. "It suggests that there has been a significant rupture in the relationship between the PETT Archive and Study Centre cataloguing and referencing system, and that used by the new Planned Environment Therapy Archive" I wrote. "If this has happened, it is a concern."
There was no response, but as I have begun looking at the online catalogues those alarm bells have begun to ring more and more loudly. I am really hoping that I am mistaken, and will be looking for alternative explanations for what I am finding. Unfortunately, among those will always be a lack of care and competence. Also among them will be my misinterpreting and misunderstanding, and potentially mis-remembering. Caveats of all kinds must be borne in mind. But bearing in mind that this is speculative, among those things which might have happened are:
- The loss of the old Archive's accession register
- The loss of a significant tranche of digital files
- The loss of the archivist's (my) email correspondence files, at least in a readably searchable format
- The loss of at least some Archive reports and papers, at least in a readably searchable format
- The loss of at least some catalogues (as a subset of the question concerning digital files), at least in a readably searchable format.
- The loss of PETT files
- The loss of the PETT website, at least in a readily searchable format, once it was removed from public access (The Internet Archive, unfortunately, does not save everything. And the idea of "Once on the Internet, always on the Internet" was a dream of innocence)
Any one of these would be a tragedy, and it is important not to assume anything until the evidence and alternative explanations narrow the options. Together and among them, it would be a catastrophe. If it did happen, the terminus ante quem would be June 2020, when the website was taken down. It is more likely to have happened before the first of the online catalogues was completed, in late 2019. Because when things go wrong it tends to be in times of transition, and rapid change in particular (which is one reason to avoid war, if we can; but why logistics and forward planning, and thorough training, are so essential for an effective military), the odds are stronger for something, or a series of somethings, happening earlier in 2019.
<!-- 2026-02-11>
