Archive

While we have been closed to visitors, staff have been working hard during the past year to make more of our archives available to researchers working remotely. We have been working on updating our Maps and Plans Index and have created a new searchable database that will replace the existing one on our website. You...

Mr. Henry John Spinner (also known as Harry) from Worcester, was a glover travelling in third class on the Titanic to Gloversville, near New York in America, probably to work there. Aged 32, he had been born in 1880 in the Arboretum, Worcester where he had lived with his family before later moving with his...

In this blog we will consider those applicants to the Redditch Military Service Tribunals who we know of as primarily employees, either because they held exemption certificate for the whole of the war due to their jobs, or because we have not located military records. We will also look at who employed them.  We have...

Private George Fredrick Irish (27465) 14th Gloucestershire Regiment (1891- 1916) George was born in 1891, according to the Census, in Redditch to Joseph and Elizabeth Irish, he had an older brother John, and a sister Alice. Joseph Irish was a labourer; his father, Joseph Irish, had been a Blacksmith on Church Green in 1875. George’s mother...

We are delighted to announce that The National Archives have awarded us £3,000 towards collecting and conserving important archives from Worcestershire County Cricket Club, as part of their Covid Recovery Funding. Worcestershire County Cricket Club is an important part of our county’s heritage. Based a short distance from The Hive, it has been a focal...

Find out more about the Redditch Military Service Tribunal Project, the records we have and the kind of resources we have produced for you to use at home.

We are pleased to announce a free webinar event to introduce the work of our National Lottery Heritage funded project the ‘Redditch Military Service Tribunal Project’ which forms the last of our Worcestershire World War 100 projects. The webinar will take place on Tuesday 2nd March 2020 from 7pm lasting about 1 hour. After the...

UPDATE 26th March 2021 The Original Archives and Historic Environment Record Desk will reopen to visitors from April 13th.  As previously, bookings for original archives will be limited to one person per booking and one booking per week, made a week in advance. Visits to the HER need to be 24 hours in advance. For...

Happy Halloween from Explore the Past. We thought we would share with you a spooky document found in the archives. It is intriguingly described in the index as copies of statements of ‘supernatural’ happenings at Prior’s Court, Powick. So we took a closer look to learn more. Back in 1956, a local newspaper article featured...

For several years Worcestershire Archive & Archaeology Service has been collecting references to Black people living in Worcestershire. The county today has 5% of the population who are non-white, but there has been a Black presence for at least 400 years, which can surprise people. It may be longer, and there will be far more...