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In October I held a ‘Caring for your Documents’ workshop where people brought along their precious letters, certificates and documents from their own family archive.  We talked about the need to protect and preserve these items, and the best ways to go about cleaning and displaying them, as well as the need to store them...

This is the eighteenth 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 has digitised and made more accessible the Charles Archive collection, which is now accessible at ADS.   This blog examines 31 High Street...

  Archaeologists don’t metal detect, do they? Walk over a ploughed field and you’re bound to see bits of pot and metal sticking out the ground. Artefacts are easily disturbed and moved over time from their original location into the topsoil – metal detecting is an easy way to check for interesting finds missed in...

Our Explore the Past guide is doing a remarkable job at helping people research their roots. But don’t just take our word for it, see what professional genealogist, Emma Jolly, has to say about it…   Our Explore the Past guide is a real treasure – 70 pages of everything you need to know about...

Ridge and furrow earthworks, the remains of former field systems, exist across Worcestershire. They are often overlaid by the straight boundaries of later inclosed fields and form an important part of the landscape character in Worcestershire and the identity of local areas.  The pressure for land for development and changes in agriculture in the second...

  Ruardean Castle, in the Forest of Dean, is a nationally important site. Despite this, relatively little is known about it – when was it first built and occupied until? Did it start life as a motte and bailey castle or ringwork (defensive site protected by a ditch and bank), and when was it converted...

How a chance find in the archives inspired research into a Worcestershire Resident and Midlands MP, with international consequences. In May 1972 the British Library of Political and Economic Science undertook a survey of the personal papers of politicians of the Twentieth Century. One of the people contacted regarding their parliamentary career, was retired MP...

An ordinary day in the archives… there’s no such thing! Find out more about how we spend our time…. There’s no such thing as an ordinary day in the archives…every day is different, and that’s part of the reason why I love working in archives.   Today, for example, I’ve been on duty at The Hive. ...

As today’s theme is #archiveanimals this blog will look briefly at the history of the animals in our homes, our pets, and the special place they have held in our hearts for centuries through some of our documents here at the Hive. As today’s theme is #archiveanimals this blog will look briefly at the history...

School log books can provide the researcher with information on the day-to day running of a local school but also how national events affected school life. Here we explore some of the varied information that be found in our collections. As anyone will know, who has tried to find out about the life of the...