Archive

There have been end-of-harvest festivals celebrated around the world for millennia. In the UK Halloween was originally known as Samhain, a Celtic pagan festival to celebrate the end of the year and the end of harvest. It was the beginning of winter and the work on the land was finished. To celebrate, there were great...

Within the Lyttelton archives is a ghostly story, with a supernatural visitor visiting Lord Lyttelton to inform him he would die in 3 days time.

This October we have explored archives in our collections related to Black History. We hope you enjoy the varied items relating to the Colonial history of Jamaica, Kidderminster cotton spinning, possibly the first autobiography published by an African in Britain, as well as more recent celebrations of Black Heritage. It is important to preserve and...

The diary of a Victorian lady, discovered behind a cupboard in Bradford before being passed to us, was one of the first items to be catalogued by our new Trainee Archivist, Tom Poole. He wrote this blog to share about the diary, what we know about it, and what is still a mystery. As the...

Today is World Earthworm Day and a member of our Archive team who is also a committee member of the Earthworm Society of Britain has been unearthing soil and earthworm related materials from the archives!   Whilst there is a greater awareness about the threats to insect life and the recognition that pollinating insects are...

We are pleased that our Worcestershire Archaeology Day returns on Saturday 20th November this year after our Covid enforced break. We are back in The Hive again on Level 0 with another exciting range of talks. Come and join us for our annual Archaeology Day, with talks from staff and guests about excavations, discoveries and...