Archive

It’s one thing to read how things were, or record historic objects and buildings, but it’s quite another to hear people talk about the past and telling their stories. Oral history, recording these personal accounts, is an important part of capturing the past that lies within living memory. A key aim of the Market Gardening...

Why not build a scrap map? Whilst at home, why not make a map of your local area, you can draw it, paint it, or make it out of scrap material You are here! When you talk about a map you may think of the layout of a large shop, a map for walking or...

One of the main sources in family history is the census. This has been taken every 10 years since 1801, and you may remember filling it in yourself in 2011, 2001 etc. In the next part of our family history guide we look at this valuable source. There is no one place to look to...

A short History of a corner of a Worcester Street The Butts is a long straight road which runs almost from the River Severn to Foregate Street, Worcester’s main thoroughfare. The Butts stops abruptly and becomes Shaw Street which continues up to Foregate Street. The Butts used to bear to the left at this point...

Maps are always popular, partly because of how they look, but also the information they contain. Modern technology makes it easier to use that information, including being able to show it in pictorial form. This week’s online resource is the Worcestershire Maps website, which features Tithe maps from across the county digitised and put into...

In our series of blogs by former County Archaeologists the excavations at Deansway under what is now the Crowngate Centre came up  quite a few times. This is still the largest excavation ever undertaken in the City and the findings are still significant even after 30 years. It also played a big  part in the...

Over the past year we have been helping Creative CoLab with their Heritage at Home project, funded by National Lottery Heritage Fund. Young people have got involved in learning about their own heritage, and finding out about filming and recording oral history. One of the final aspects was to run workshops about creating and caring...

Archives are only as detailed as the records they contain. In the case of market gardening, integral to the Vale of Evesham for much of the 19th and 20th centuries, there is surprisingly little. Yet records and photographs are out there in family collections, so as part of the Market Gardening Heritage project we’ve been...

Family history is very popular, and we regularly get asked about how to get started. People may be inspired by Who Do You Think You Are?, reading an article, coming across old photos, speaking to relatives or wanting to solve a puzzle. Another prompt can be having a bit of extra time, maybe after retirement...

Today we look at a lockdown day in the life of our Finds Supervisor, Rob Hedge on 16th April 2020 Today, I’m looking at some intriguing pottery from an excavation by Wessex Archaeology North. I’ve been asked to write an assessment. This is a basic quantification of different types of pottery: what type of vessels are...