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This is the twentieth in a series of blog posts celebrating the life and work of timber-frame building specialists F.W.B ‘Freddie’ and Mary Charles. Funded by Historic England, the ‘Charles Archive’ project aims to digitise and make more accessible the Charles Archive collection.   This blog explores the methods and techniques Freddie Charles used within...

Christmas 1973 was the Christmas of Merry Christmas Everybody by Slade, and Wizzard’s I Wish It Could Be Christmas Everyday, with Slade taking the No.1 spot. Other festive records were Gaudete by Steeleye Span and Step Into Christmas by Elton John at 26. But what were people buying? After visiting the Kays catalogues of the...

** Please note that on 9 Jan we reached our number of volunteers. However Lucy has a waiting list for if anyone drops out**   Would you like to help with research about the River Severn for a major project? Would you like to find out more about using archives? As part of the Unlocking...

This is the nineteenth in a series of blog posts celebrating the life and work of timber-frame building specialists FWB ‘Freddie’ and Mary Charles. Funded by Historic England, the ‘Charles Archive’ project aims to digitise and make more accessible the Charles collection. The story of The Commandery restoration is rather protracted, one which involves plunging...

Rhonda, our Conservator, has recently finished working on a Surgeons Case Book from 1870, belonging to the George Marshall Medical Museum which we hope will be the first of many in collaboration with museum curator, Louise Price. Louise has recently set up an ‘Adopt a Book’ scheme encouraging supporters to contribute to the cost of conservation...

Our Explore the Past guide really is the perfect stocking filler. And, at 70 pages long, it’s packed full of insight on how you can start researching your past – it really is the gift that keeps on giving! If you’re searching for something unique to buy your nearest and dearest, or even your colleagues,...

Over the years wehave been asked, by parents, about what we hold that can be of assistance to children conducting local history research as part of a school project. This resource is created in response to these enquiries and is adapted from one of our publications, created for teachers, to help children answer the question...

  People visit the Archive Service for many different reasons. We have academic researchers, local history researchers, those looking to settle legal disputes through evidence found and, of course, family history researchers. There are many different motivations for looking into one’s family history, and recently we had the pleasure of assisting a researcher with a...

Worcestershire Archive and Archaeology Service has produced a recipe booklet from documents found with its collections. The book is available to buy from Level 2 of The Hive for £4.95 The idea to produce a recipe books began some time ago when, as so often happens, someone found something funny or interesting held within the...

Our collection of over 1000 boxes of Wills, Inventories, letters of Administration and other papers relating to probates granted in the Consistory Court of the Bishop of Worcester and the Worcester Probate Registry provide a fascinating insight into the lives of Worcestershire residents. Dating from 1493 to 1857, the collection was deposited at the Worcester...