Latest news

  • 18th June 2018
Elgar Archive Update – 18th June 2018

We’ve been blown away by the support we’ve received since the news that Edward Elgar’s archive is being moved from the Elgar Birthplace Museum to the British Library and not to Worcestershire’s county archives here in The Hive as we had hoped. Thank you very much!   We want to update you on the latest...

  • 14th June 2018
Archaeologists at Sansome Street, Worcester

A couple of our archaeologists have been down at the Hanbao/former Toby Tavern site, Sansome Street, Worcester, over the past couple of weeks. It’s attracted a lot of interest. Work is still in progress; here’s a brief summary of what we’ve found so far. This site is just outside the Foregate and in a medieval suburb...

  • 12th June 2018
Exploring Archives Workshop – Quarter Sessions

Stolen ducks, theft of acorns and disputes between parishes are some of the fascinating stories contained with Quarter Sessions. This is the latest in our Exploring Archives series, on Wed 20 June, helping you to discover more about some of the historical sources and how they can help you. You may never have heard of Quarter...

  • 8th June 2018
Elgar Archive Update

You may have heard in the media the news that the Elgar Archive, currently at the Elgar Birthplace Museum, is to move to the British Library in London. We wanted to let you know what is happening and our role in this. Over the past two years the Elgar Foundation has been considering a new...

  • 7th June 2018
Volunteers’ week

As Volunteers' Week draws to a close, here's an account of one of our young volunteer's work on our upcoming Ice Age exhibitions

  • 5th June 2018
Find of the Month – May

Mammoths in Staffordshire? Yes! A mammoth bone was recently discovered along the River Tame in Staffordshire. Megafauna remains are incredibly important for understanding deep history and past landscapes, but they’re more common in the West Midlands than you’d think. Most archaeology occurs within the first metre or so below ground, except for traces of Ice...

  • 29th May 2018
Drama in the Archives

Our archives contain over 12 miles of shelving with thousands of boxes. These boxes contain all sorts of stories, and can be the inspiration for all sorts of creative writing. Various films, TV dramas, books and plays have used archives and the stories they contain as their basis, and we are keen to encourage people...

  • 24th May 2018
Archival Photography at The Hive

In 1990, the Worcestershire Record Office began offering an in-house microfilming service to those individuals and organisations wishing to have surrogates of archive materials in filmic form. Not only did this improve the accessibility of those archives, it also helped to preserve the original material. As the decade moved on and the photographic world became...

  • 16th May 2018
Round Two of Small Pits, Big Ideas

Another four test pits were recently excavated in the small Worcestershire village of White Ladies Aston, as part of the HLF funded Small Pits, Big Ideas project we’re running on behalf of Worcestershire Archaeological Society. So, what did we find this time? As with those dug last autumn, all test pits were excavated by Looked...