Archive

In recent years, documents relating to the business of the Bromsgrove Court Leet have been moved from dusty lofts and boxes under desks to the archive department at The Hive for permanent preservation. The Court Leet is a manorial court, which began when the manorial system was introduced by William the Conqueror in which the...

We have recently completed a project funded by The National Archives to update and computerize the Manorial Documents Register for Worcestershire.  Come celebrate the launch of the database with us at The Hive on Saturday, 22 April, and learn more about these fascinating records and what they can tell us about Worcestershire’s past.  There will...

This week Bethany Hamblen, Archivist, shares a document encountered during the course of the Manorial Documents Register project she is currently working on. A seemingly ordinary court roll becomes a Treasure thanks to an unusual addition on the reverse. Here, Bethany tells us more: This fragment of a musical score was found on the dorse...

This month, in order to set the documents covered by the Manorial Documents Register project in context, we will look at what a manor looked like in the landscape.  This is a really brief overview, but if you wish to find out more, lots of exciting work has been done by archaeologists and historians—please do...

Today we bring you an update post from Bethany Hamblen, Manorial Documents Register Project Archivist: This month, it’s back to basics as we begin to look at what a manor actually was, what it did, and how historians believe the manor changed over time.  Future posts will go into greater detail about the manor’s physical...

We currently have four volunteers in Worcester helping us with the Manorial Documents project, and six in Hereford.  They’ve done some really great work for us so far, transcribing the contents of handwritten and typed manorial index slips onto an Excel spreadsheet.  Soon, some of them will also be helping compile summary histories, or what...

The Manorial Documents Register Project has just entered its second month.  At this stage, the focus is on developing definitive lists of the hundreds of manors in Worcestershire and Herefordshire.  This is not as straightforward as it might seem.  Not every place that has or used to have the word ‘manor’ in the title actually...

Two new projects have recently been launched in Worcestershire Archive Service thanks to the securing of external funding. Maggie Tohill will be leading the project on the Lyttelton collection and Bethany Hamblen will be leading the Manorial Documents Register project. Here they both introduce you to their respective projects: An introduction to the Lyttelton collection...