Archive

Our Conservator Rhonda has just completed the colossal task of repairing and preserving 15 boxes of Worcestershire wills which until now had been sorely lacking the attention they needed. This project was part of a grant from the National Conservation of Manuscripts Trust (NCMT). These wills are from a collection consisting of over 1050 boxes....

Whilst working on some boxes of 17thC will Rhonda, our Conservator, noticed several which had unusual and intriguing marks at the end of them.

Rhonda, our Conservator, does amazing things to repair and conserve our documents. Currently she is working on 15 boxes of wills, thanks to funding from National Conservation of Manuscripts Trust.

Our 2019 series of Exploring Archives workshops will begin with Wills on Wednesday 24th April. Wills are a fascinating but underused source in our collections, which can help with family, local or house history. They are also a great source of stories. One of our wills has the earliest mention of a fountain pen. Another...

Our collection of over 1000 boxes of Wills, Inventories, letters of Administration and other papers relating to probates granted in the Consistory Court of the Bishop of Worcester and the Worcester Probate Registry provide a fascinating insight into the lives of Worcestershire residents. Dating from 1493 to 1857, the collection was deposited at the Worcester...

The earliest-known black person in Worcestershire whose name we know is believed to be Henry Antonie Jetto. The first reference to him is in a parish register dating back to the late 16th century. The discovery was made by his 11x great-grandson whilst tracing his family history at the Worcestershire History Centre before we moved...

For the final instalment of our Explore Your Archive feature we are looking at a very well known painter, Joseph Blackburn. Whilst Blackburn’s artistic works are famous across the world, details of his personal life are less clear; to date there appears to have been no confirmation of the details of his later life and...

Newspapers can reveal all matter of interesting things and an article with the above title proved to be no exception. On searching for a trail that featured in the Berrow’s Worcester Journal, Saturday, November 24, 1888 nestled to the right hand side was a short article with the heading ‘An Eccentric Clergyman’s Will’ which caught...

The time has finally come to announce the collection which has made it to the number one spot in the countdown of our most frequently accessed collections. This means that more of our users request to see items from within our wills collections than from within any of our collections. So, the number one spot...