Skip to main content

News

Treasures from Worcestershire’s Past: ~16~ ‘Devonshire Brown’

  • 14th March 2014

This week’s Treasure is a will chosen by Vicky Fletcher, Archivist. Here Vicky explains why this will in particular sparked an interest:

Whilst cataloguing some material from Worcester City Council, I came across a copy of a will from 1797 in which a widow is leaving her wearing apparell ‘except my Devonshire brown silk dress’ to a relative. This is interesting to me as I think it is a reference to Georgiana Duchess of Devonshire who was very much a fashion and style icon of the time.

Comments are closed.

Related news


  • 8th September 2026
Focus on Worcestershire’s Gloving Industry

Gloving in Worcester was a very important and lucrative trade. For hundreds of years the manufacture of gloves involved many thousands of employees both inside factories and working from home. Census returns show the different roles performed in the gloving industry. Many of these roles allowed women to work from home, combining work with childcare...

  • 27th August 2026
Finding fashion in the Sandys Archive

Records from the Sandys Archive reveal how fashion evolved across generations. Clothes tell us a lot about the past. They offer insights into changing tastes, social attitudes and everyday life. The Sandys family of Ombersley created and kept a wealth of records that today help us trace changes in style from the 18th to 20th...

  • 21st August 2026
Outside Powick Asylum: The Governess of Brockencote Hall

In today’s blog, we tell the story of Lilly Pearson, a young woman admitted to Powick asylum whose time is recorded in records we hold over 100 years ago. Alongside patient files which are catalogued covering the period 1890’s-1980’s, we hold admission and discharge registers and volumes containing patient case notes from the late 19th...