Archive

This week brings us to the end of our Treasures of Worcestershire’s Past series of posts. Number 52 is the final in the series as it has now run for a full year. The last post has been chosen by Sarah Ganderton, Archive Assistant who is working with us as part of the Skills for...

Recently, Rhonda Niven, Conservator for the Archive and Archaeology Service, presented me with a neat, dried bundle of plant material that had been found pressed between the pages of a Croome Estate inventory dated Oct 2nd 1819. The question was, ‘what was this material?’ The most likely at the time seemed to be hay or...

This week’s Worcestershire Treasure has been chosen by the Archive & Archaeology Service Manager, Victoria Bryant. The artefact Victoria has chosen is a lower Palaeolithic ‘handaxe’, discovered in a field near Madresfield. It was produced by a species of human ancestor named Homo Heidelbergensis during one of the warm ‘interglacial’ periods within the last Ice...

This week’s Treasure is a letter from the Bantock archive, which has been chosen by Lesley Downing, Archive Assistant. This item shows just how far afield the remit of records from Worcestershire Archives can stretch as the letter was sent from Ceylon (modern day Sri Lanka). Although the opinions of the unknown author of this letter may be...

This week’s Treasure has been chosen by David Everett, one of our long-serving regular customers and a member of the Friends of Worcestershire Archives. David came across the following item nestled amongst the records of Stone parish whilst undertaking research in the Original Archive Area at The Hive. The particularly ghoulish illustrations that accompany these documents make them quite fitting for...

This week’s Treasures have been chosen by Robin Whittaker – our former Archives Manager from our days as Worcestershire Record Office, based at the County Hall branch on Spetchley Road. Although he is now retired, Robin still frequents our Original Archive Area at The Hive, both as a volunteer and as a private researcher. Here, Robin tells...

This week’s Treasure has been chosen by Justin Hughes, Project Officer, who has been working alongside VAMOS Theatre:  WAAS has recently been working again with VAMOS Theatre. During the first week of the Hive’s opening, in July 2012, the Worcester-based mask theatre performed ‘Offal Tales’, the story of twins Elsie and Josie who lived in...

It isn’t very often that an in situ pot turns up at the office for excavation in the lab, and it isn’t every day that you find archaeological evidence for the use of honey in the past, but that’s what happened with this pot… Showing pot in situ, you can just make out the outline...

This week’s Treasure has been chosen by Julia Pincott, Archive Assistant, who shows us how she managed to solve a puzzle in her family history by using sales particulars. Julia tells us more:  One of the many problems facing family historians is how to find the exact location of a property listed on a census...

This week’s ‘Treasure’ has been chosen by Justin Hughes, Project Officer, Outreach; with the second in a series of the stories we have recorded from our oral history projects which are available for loan or purchase at the Hive. This week he describes ‘Bromsgrove People & Places’: WAAS has been commissioned by Bromsgrove District Council...