- 13th July 2015
The Sound Domes on Level 2 at The Hive contain clips of oral history interviews, edited by Julia Letts, that are activated to play out when people walk underneath them. The Domes have recently been updated to include new excerpts from interviews about Bromsgrove. As part of the District Council’s Townscape Heritage Initiative, Worcestershire Archive and...
- 7th July 2015
Late 16th Century German stoneware jar The annual Festival of British Archaeology is about to start, and as part of this we are offering another of our Behind the Scenes tours here at Explore the Past, where you will be able to go into our Finds Room and handle a selection of artefacts discovered in the...
- 3rd July 2015
Today we bring you another post inspired by the 200th anniversary of the Battle of Waterloo. A story which has been picked up elsewhere is the somewhat grisly one about ‘Waterloo teeth’, which serves as a stark reminder of just how far we have come with dental practices today. The story goes that in response to...
- 30th June 2015
Following on from our previous post about the 200th anniversary of the Battle of Waterloo we have come across a letter at the Hive from a soldier who was at the battle. Local man Henry Martin was an officer with the 2nd Battalion 44th Regiment of Foot (East Essex) and seems to have served in...
- 18th June 2015
Today is the 200th anniversary of the Battle of Waterloo and we’ve been looking for documents and sources relating to the famous battle within our collections here at Worcestershire Archives. Here is the story as it was told in the Worcester Herald of 24 June 1815. In the days before TV and radio this was...
- 15th June 2015
To commemorate the 800th anniversary of Magna Carta, and the 750th anniversary of the Simon de Montfort parliament, we have put together a display of original 13th-century documents on level 2 of The Hive. This complements the Magna Carta and Parliament exhibition on our Touch Table, which features images from the Parliamentary Archives. For those...
- 12th June 2015
Worcester and Worcestershire have been associated with the Black Pear for many years, and they can be seen on coats of arms for various organisations such as the County Council and the County Cricket Club. It is said that Worcestershire soldiers had them on their banner at Agincourt, and there is a story that Elizabeth...
- 27th May 2015
This year marks the 75th anniversary of the evacuation of Allied troops from Dunkirk. The operation, codenamed ‘Operation Dynamo’ which took place between 27 May and 4 June 1940, is one of the most celebrated military events in British history. The German and Allied armies had faced each other across the Franco German border for...
- 8th May 2015
VE Day party held in the paddock at the rear of Landsdowne, Port Street, Evesham, 1945. Photograph from Worcestershire Photographic Survey courtesy of Mr Perkins of Evesham. The end of World War II in Europe had been on the cards from the beginning of 1945 following a series of surrenders by the German Army. So...
- 5th May 2015
One of the volumes held in the Palfrey Library has been found to have a charming painting hidden on its fore-edge. The volume, entitled ‘An Address to Persons of Quality and Estate’ by Robert Nelson, dated 1715, includes a fore-edge painting showing a view of Worcester cathedral from the river. The painting is revealed by...