Archive

The Worcestershire Absent Voter lists have now been transcribed by our wonderful team of volunteers. Hazel, Hazel, Jennifer, and Luke have worked for many years to complete this task for us, including from home during lockdown. Part of the electoral registers, these lists are an invaluable research tool, and can now be made more widely...

A Valentines letter written to ‘Miss Dance’  found in the archives reveals a glimpse of a love story in the nineteenth century.   A ‘bright’, ‘fair’, ‘kind’ young lady, with ‘hazel’ hair and eyes, Miss Dance apparently attended Mrs Dunn’s party where she sat beside her Valentine at supper. While others played card games, Miss...

Frost fairs are more commonly known to have been held on the River Thames, the most recent example being in London in 1814. Examples of provincial frost fairs include one held in Shrewsbury in 1739. A printed souvenir held within the archives from 1855 has led us to investigate whether there is any evidence of...

Anthony, one of our Archive team, has been looking into Isabella Ann Allen of Madresfield, a significant but little known 19th century botanist. It is fair to say that in the past few years I have become a passionate, if perhaps, a bit untidy, Gardener. It is due to my interest in the history of...

On Digital Preservation Day we look at why this is an important topic, and some of the things which need to happen to avoid digital records being lost.

The diary of a Victorian lady, discovered behind a cupboard in Bradford before being passed to us, was one of the first items to be catalogued by our new Trainee Archivist, Tom Poole. He wrote this blog to share about the diary, what we know about it, and what is still a mystery. As the...

Family history research can take you beyond the census, via newspapers, and into the original archives. One of our staff researching her great-great-grandfather in Worcester discovered he built some important local buildings, including the now demolished Worcester Dispensary. His name shows up on building plans and in his church cashbook, as he kept himself busy.

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...