Latest news

  • 27th March 2019
Volunteers wanted to help with ‘Hidden Histories of Worcester’ Project

We are helping a local arts organisation with an exciting project and we are looking for volunteers to help groups delve into the past in April and May. Equal Vision CIC have been awarded money from Heritage Lottery Fund for “Hidden Histories of Worcester”, a project which aims to help local people to discover real...

  • 21st March 2019
Locally sourced? Recording the farm at Baddesley Clinton

  We recently recorded the farm buildings at Baddesley Clinton, a medieval moated manor site in Warwickshire, now owned and cared for by the National Trust. A close look at the building materials used revealed surprising evidence about where they came from and the people involved in the farm’s construction. Documentary evidence shows that the...

  • 19th March 2019
When Worcester supplied its own Power

The west bank of the River Severn in Worcester has seen enormous change over the past 100 years and, especially in the area around Hylton Road and Tybridge Street, has been the setting for large-scale building demolition and slum clearance. Perhaps most memorable and certainly most imposing of all those buildings was the Worcester Generating...

  • 16th March 2019
Find of the Month – February 2019

  Over 3000 years ago, fingertips were pressed into the damp clay of a large pot, creating a patterned band and dimpling the top. Once dry, it was fired and used before being broken – several large fragments were put into an isolated pit on the gravel ridge east of the River Severn. Prehistoric pots,...

  • 8th March 2019
Juliana la Pottare

Dig a hole in any medieval town or village in England, and you’ll find pottery. On most medieval excavations, potsherds are likely to be the most abundant type of artefact. Popular ideas about medieval crafts such as pot-making are dominated by images of bearded men in dirty aprons, such as this extract from this article...

  • 1st March 2019
Where did cattle come from in Roman Worcester?

An article has just been published which sheds light on the regions from which cattle were brought to Worcester in Roman times. The results, using evidence from bones excavated on the site of The Hive, are in the latest edition of the Journal of Archaeological Science and show how with scientific advances new discoveries can...

  • 15th February 2019
New Evesham Abbey documents acquired

We recently accepted a deposit of a Court Book covering the Evesham Abbey lands in South, Middle and North Littleton. The item had been for sale at auction and following private purchase and assistance from the Friends of Worcestershire Archives, the book is now here in the archives. As it was sold under the Manorial...

  • 5th February 2019
Find of the Month – January 2019

  It’s fairly common to find animal bones on archaeological sites. Most often there’s a range of different bones from an assortment of animals, left over from cooking or butchery. So when the finds trays start filling up with just one or two different bones, it’s a cue that something particular was going on. This...

  • 2nd February 2019
Worcestershire World War 100 – Mediterranean Campaigns

Did you know that the Worcestershire regiment had a battalion at Gallipoli in the First World War? That Worcestershire Yeomanry fought in Egypt and Palestine? Or that Worcestershire soldiers fought at Basra in modern day Iraq? A new leaflet has been produced by the Worcestershire World War One Hundred team all about Worcestershire’s links to...

  • 30th January 2019
Charles I and the Commission of Array 1642

One of the documents which we have in our display cabinets in our strongrooms is a relatively recent addition to our collection. A couple of years ago we acquired a Commission of Array for the City of Worcester dated 14 September 1642, which was just as the first military actions of the Civil War were...