Archive

Posts from December 2016


  • 25th December 2016
Christmas in the Trenches in WWI

Letters home give an insight into the experiences of soldiers on the front line during WWI, including reflections on Christmas in the trenches. Some such letters were written by Rev John MacRae, Rector of All Saints Worcester, who volunteered as a chaplain and wrote back to his congregation to tell them about Christmas 1915 out...

  • 23rd December 2016
1870s Christmas Decorations

In the 1870s local newspaper used to have a write up of the Christmas decorations put up locally, including the local churches. Sadly we don’t have any photos of these decorations in the archives from this period, but the descriptions help us to image them. Christmas decorations had only recently come back into fashion, along...

  • 16th December 2016
Update on Clara Bauerle and the Bella in the wych elm story

Earlier in the year we posted a blog ‘Who put Bella in the wych elm‘ as part of our Monthly Mysteries series.  In it we hinted that the link with Clara Bauerle, the German singer and actress, was one which was still being actively explored.  We can now reveal that the researcher who was following...

  • 9th December 2016
Embroidering the Archives – more than books and paper

In September 1963, the Victoria and Albert Museum in London opened an exhibition entitled Opus Anglicanum which celebrated the international reputation that England had developed for during the 13th century for luxury handmade embroideries that were sought by Kings and Queens, Popes, Cardinals and Bishops across Europe. Included within the V&A exhibition was the Salwarpe...

  • 2nd December 2016
River Severn Frozen at Bewdley 1895

Wow. You loved this image of the River Severn frozen at Bewdley in 1895 (we’d misread it at first as 1898). It has been viewed over 35,000 times on Facebook, liked over 1500 times, shared over 300 times and received lots of comments. We’ve had a look to see what the newspapers said about this...