Latest news

  • 23rd March 2020
Online Resources – Ice Age Worcestershire

A couple of years ago we ran Lost Landscapes, a project on Ice Age Worcestershire, along with Museums Worcestershire. Funded by National Lottery Heritage Fund and Arts Council England we drew together research and information on half a million years of history, from the time our first ancestors arrived until the end of the last...

  • 20th March 2020
Shakespeare in the Archives: His Grandfather’s Will

In addition to the documents relating to William Shakespeare’s marriage, we also hold the will of his maternal Grandfather, Robert Arden. Again, as with the marriage bond, this is here because they needed to come to the Consistory Court of the Bishop of Worcester as Stratford upon Avon was in the Diocese. Robert was a...

  • 18th March 2020
Shakespeare in the Archives: William Shakespeare’s Marriage

Among the thousands of documents in the 12 miles of archives we hold, some stand out more than others, and Shakespeare’s marriage bond is one of these. Everyone has heard of William Shakespeare, but there is very little about him as a person in Stratford as opposed to his plays and literary life. Here in...

  • 12th March 2020
Archive Card Launch

The new Archive Card reader’s ticket has now been launched and we will be issuing them at WAAS from next week, so head online to www.archivescard.com for more information and to sign up for yours today before you visit. For the last few years a new reader’s ticket scheme has been under development by the...

  • 11th March 2020
Eduardo Paolozzi – The Pop Art Pioneer

The life and work of internationally acclaimed artist and sculptor Eduardo Paolozzi was celebrated on 7th March, on what would have been his 96th birthday. Born in Leith, Scotland to Italian parents, Paolozzi moved to England in the 1950s. Widely considered a pioneer of pop art, he was influenced by the principles of Surrealism and...

  • 8th March 2020
Run by Women for Women: Female Friendly Societies

How the Female Friendly Societies of the 18th and 19th centuries gave women support, friendship and financial security in the hardest of times.   Before the establishment of the welfare state, support for those unable to work was limited; you could turn to the workhouse, poor relief or charity, but for many the answer was...

  • 6th March 2020
Murchison’s Silurian System

Have you heard of the word Silurian? Perhaps you heard it via the long-running British science fiction television series Doctor Who? The Silurians, a race of reptilian humanoids first appeared in the 1970 serial ‘Doctor Who and the Silurians’ to the Third Doctor, Jon Pertwee who claimed to have ruled Earth long before humans evolved. The Silurians have continued to...

  • 3rd March 2020
Hidden in Plain Sight: a discovery in Worcester, St David’s Church

Sheena-Payne Lunn, Historic Environment Record Officer for Worcester, investigated the First World War origins of St David’s Church, Worcester, a couple of years ago. The article was originally available via the Home Front Legacy website. With that website no longer available we’ve shared it here so people can still read the fascinating story. The recent...

  • 28th February 2020
Find of the Month – Jan. 2020

During an archaeological excavation near Worcester city, the team found a lot of evidence of expected urban activity, but two styles of pottery stuck out as particularly striking sitting in the rubble layer above the remains of an older building. Found above a layer of building demolition material dating from the 1700, one was a...

  • 27th February 2020
Small Pits, Big Ideas II: Researching rural Worcestershire

Worcestershire Archaeological Society (WAS) has received a National Lottery Heritage Fund grant of £62,700 for an exciting county-wide archaeology project – Small Pits, Big Ideas II. Made possible by money raised from National Lottery players, the project will enable six rural communities across Worcestershire to explore the origins of their settlements and contribute to academic...