Archive

Philip Astley was credited with being the ‘father’ of the modern circus when he opened the first circus in 1768 in England . Early circuses were almost exclusively demonstrations of equestrian skills with a few other types of acts to link the horsemanship performances. Circus performances today are still held in a ring usually 13 m...

On Twitter on Tuesday we showed an advert from 1869 for Charles R Davies at 80 High Street, Worcester. A few people asked whether we knew any more about him so we had a look. We have found very little. Checking the census the only match appears to be a Charles Rowland Davies born in...

After the 1903 Act, it became mandatory to register motor vehicles with the County Council or Borough in which the driver was resident. Each City and County, and some Boroughs were allocated registrations that consisted of one or two letters to which a number could be added. The first registration issued in Worcestershire was AB...

Happy Thanksgiving Day to all our American friends! The first Thanksgiving is said to have taken place in 1621, when 90 Native Americans and 53 Pilgrims, including two Worcestershire men, ate together at Plymouth Colony to celebrate a successful harvest. The event was described by Edward Winslow, one of the men who travelled on the...

Our Learning and Outreach team have been busy giving a behind the scenes tour as part of Explore Your Archive week. For those not able to undertake the tour, here is an idea of some of the things that happen on a day at the archives Our Conservator has been working on some 1853 Quarter...

The word wigs comes from “periwigs” which was the name of the particular long, curly wigs that became popular after Charles II was returned to the throne in 1660. They were used to simulate real hair and primarily used for adornment. However at the time, head lice were everywhere, and nitpicking was painful and time-consuming. Wigs stopped lice infesting...

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...

Last year Explore Your Archive week saw us feature some extraordinary people with links to Worcestershire. As part of this we held an exhibition of some of the archives and held a successful drop in day featuring talks about the individuals we featured.   During the course of the day it was wonderful to meet some of...

UPDATE 20/11/2016: Unfortunately the weather forecast is absolutely horrendous for tomorrow, so we’ve decided to postpone the site tours. The site is very exposed and ground conditions are likely to be treacherous. Besides being unsafe, there’s not going to be much to see (unless you’re particularly keen on puddles) until the rain passes. We’ll re-arrange...

Worcestershire Archive Service is in the process of cataloguing a collection of four volumes that were deposited with us by Homery Folkes, an architect, local historian and noted antiquarian. These volumes contain newspaper cuttings, postcards, photographs and drawings reproducing architectural details and images from nature.  Obviously the work of someone very interested in architecture –...