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It is unusual to find information on a naval career in our archives. Here we discover something more about the life of Charles Dixon, whose naval career appears to have begun in the 1770s. The Foley Scrapbooks which are part of the Palfrey Collection have always been one of my favourite archives. And no matter...

Have you ever wondered what happens to the boxes, files, books, photographs, maps etc. after you have dropped them off   with a member of the archive team?   Do you feel a pang as those items that have cluttered up your attics and hallways for years disappear behind the door, wheeled off on a trolley...

Ten years ago I took a series of photographs of Worcester that were inspired by the book Worcester in a Day by Michael Dowty. In celebration of this anniversary we take a look at some of the photographs to see how Worcester has changed. This year marks the thirtieth anniversary of the publication of Worcester...

Drinking, fighting and behaving badly with the neighbours’ wives – this was no local layabout accused of causing trouble around the village of Alvechurch in 1642, it was their vicar. ‘That the said William Hollington is usual[ly] a frequenter of alehouses where he spends much time both day and night as well on the Sabbath...

Today marks the start of the 2018 Explore Your Archive launch week (17th-25th November). Explore Your Archive is a campaign delivered by the Archives and Records Association (UK & Ireland) that showcases the best of archives and archive services in the UK and Ireland.  Over the coming days we will seek to highlight some of the stories,...

  The cold and ice of the last glacial reached its worst about 21,000 years ago. Since then the earth has become warmer, allowing humans to return to Britain 15,000 years ago across Doggerland, the area now covered by the North Sea. But the impact of the Ice Age remains all around us. Today, about...

  A new two year project focussing on the market gardening heritage in the Vale of Evesham has just been awarded £68,700 by the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF) and £5000 from Historic England. The project is being run by Worcestershire Archive & Archaeology Service (WAAS), in partnership with Cleeve Prior Heritage Trust, Vale Landscape Heritage...

  Few areas of science generate as much controversy and debate as human evolution. The teapot sherd discovered during an excavation at Kilbury Drive, Worcester, shows a snippet of a scene in which apes dressed in human clothes are brawling in a tavern. It is an example of a popular Victorian ‘meme’: satirising the idea...

After several days negotiation a ceasefire was agreed between the Allies and the Germans at 5am on 11 November 1918 to come into effect at 11.00 that day. British Commanders were told ‘Hostilities will cease at 1100 hours today, 11th November.  Troops will stand fast on the line reached at that hour …’  German troops...

  There isn’t one Ice Age: there have been at least five. Some were millions of years ago and one even billions of years ago. The most recent, the one we all call ‘The Ice Age’, is known geologically as the Quaternary. It lasted from two and a half million years ago until about 12,000...