Archive

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...

Are you looking for presents that are a little bit different this year?  If so, come to Explore the Past on Level 2 at The Hive, Worcester to see the large range of Books and CDs related to the history of Worcestershire– ideal gifts for young and old.  Brought to you by the Worcestershire Archive...

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...

We are delighted to announce that Worcestershire Archives are one of the lucky repositories to be awarded funding from the 2014 round of the National Cataloguing Grant programme. Each year the Cataloguing Grants Programme supports the cataloguing of collections that need external funding to provide access to their content. The 2014 round received applications for over £1.8...

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...

After Thomas Boyce died in 1920, Dandy Row, Pleasant Row and three houses in Chestnut Street were left to his son Rowland. In July 1936 it was proposed that the city council purchase Dandy Row, Pleasant Row and the land between from Rowland O’Hara Boyce for the purposes of widening Severn Street. Demolition orders had...

At No. 2 Dandy Row, lived Nathaniel Wale and his wife Ellen. Nathaniel married Ellen Morgan in 1870 and the newlyweds moved into their home in Severn Street where in early 1871 their first child Ellen Maria was born. Sadly, their baby daughter died the following year, but they had five further children: Anne Marie...

The Webb Family who lived at no 4 were one of the many fishing families that lived in the area. Isaac Webb baptised in 1790 was the founder of this fishing dynasty. He was an apprentice fisherman. He completed his apprenticeship and received his freedom of the City in 1812. He married and had 11...

John Baylis was born around 1868. His father Samuel Baylis is also a previous resident of Dandy Row. John and his wife Susan (who died in 1908) had five children, Sidney, Gertrude, Edith, Arthur and Bertram. For many years John worked at Worcester Porcelain as a china printer, although in some sources he has also...

Fanny Martin and her only child Henry William came to live at Dandy Row after her husband William died in 1891. Henry William Martin was born in 1887, and we have found that he attended St Peter’s School.  Worcestershire Archive and Archaeology Service, ref: b899:749, BA9294/49(iii) Henry Martin died, aged 30, on 15th September 1917...