Skip to main content

News

Free event to celebrate Explore Your Archives 2015

  • 5th November 2015

Tea and Testimony:Discovering the extraordinary lives of ordinary people

Worcestershire’s historic past is made up of multiple layers of the lives of its residents – sometimes dramatic, sometimes tragic, sometimes unacknowledged and occasionally even forgotten. Many of these people, though ordinary, actually had an extraordinary impact upon the world.

Worcestershire Archive Service has a wealth of resources on hand to help uncover more about the lives of many Worcestershire people. To celebrate the Explore Your Archive 2015 event, staff have been busy uncovering the secrets of five of Worcestershire’s extraordinary residents: Joseph Blackburn, celebrated painter; Ann Osborn, midwife; Arthur Horner, one of the early Artic explorers; Joseph Garrett, the first County Surveyor for Worcestershire and Harry Martin, talented Royal Worcester Porcelain painter killed in WWI.

To celebrate the unsung talent of these Worcestershire people we are inviting you come along for tea and the chance to learn more about their lives. We will also be delivering a family history taster session, in which we can help you get started with your own research or answer any questions you might have. There will also be a chance to learn more about the Worcestershire World War 100 project and the People’s Exhibition. We will have documents and sources on display for you to browse, as well as an exhibition of items in our cabinets.

The event will take place on Thursday, 19th November, 10am to 1pm at The Hive, Level 2, Room 3. You can come along for the whole event or just pop in for one of the sessions:

10am: Discovering the extraordinary lives of 5 Worcestershire people

11am: Starting your family history taster session

12pm: Worcestershire’s World War 100 and the People’s Exhibition

The event is free and no booking is required – simply come along on the day to hear our recollections and even share recollections of your own extraordinary ancestors if you like. Free tea and biscuits will be available throughout.

We will be featuring the stories of each of the Worcestershire residents we have researched throughout the Explore Your Archive campaign, so keep an eye on this blog to find out more. 

Comments are closed.

Related news


  • 23rd April 2026
True Crimes – Florrie Porter

With funding from the National Lottery Heritage Fund, we are having a series of free talks at The Hive on ‘True Crimes’. Using documents found in a deposit made by West Mercia Police, our second talk focused on Florrie Porter. In 1944, Florrie’s body was discovered on the grounds of a school in Lickey End....

  • 10th April 2026
Bickmarsh Hoard – Life in 9th century Bickmarsh

Imagine walking along a quiet country lane in rural Worcestershire. Fields stretch away on either side, and the landscape feels peaceful and timeless. Yet over 1,100 years ago this same landscape may have been a place of uncertainty, where someone buried a small collection of coins in the ground and never returned to reclaim them....

  • 8th April 2026
Bickmarsh Hoard -The Coins

This is the second post in a three-part series exploring the remarkable ninth-century Bickmarsh Hoard discovered in Worcestershire. Catch up on part one. The discovery of the Bickmarsh Hoard in 2022 revealed a small but remarkable collection of ninth-century coins buried in the Worcestershire countryside over 1,100 years ago. In this second blog in our...