Latest news

Worcestershire Archive and Archaeology Service have been awarded a one year grant by the Wellcome Trust to conserve and catalogue the historic archives of Powick and Barnsley Hall Hospitals.  Powick Hospital was founded in 1852 as the Worcestershire City and County Lunatic Asylum and Barnsley Hall was opened in 1899 to relieve the pressure on...

On 19th December, between 1pm and 4pm, Worcestershire Archive and Archaeology Service are offering those interested in the history of the County the opportunity to purchase stock that is no longer part of the local studies and archaeology reference collection.  We are keen that our customers and local people have the opportunity to purchase items,...

Last week a school made a return visit to us to find out all about Roman Worcester and the archaeology beneath The Hive. Somers Park had already been studying the Romans, including the Roman army, and this was a great way to link the bigger picture with what was happening locally.  Prior to the building...

This week brings us to the end of our Treasures of Worcestershire’s Past series of posts. Number 52 is the final in the series as it has now run for a full year. The last post has been chosen by Sarah Ganderton, Archive Assistant who is working with us as part of the Skills for...

Worcestershire Archive and Archaeology Service have now introduced an ‘Adopt a Document’ scheme.  This scheme allows you to contribute directly to securing a future for the 12 miles of Archives we hold here at The Hive. For £30, you can select a document from our list of interesting and varied items to adopt.  In return,...

Recently, Rhonda Niven, Conservator for the Archive and Archaeology Service, presented me with a neat, dried bundle of plant material that had been found pressed between the pages of a Croome Estate inventory dated Oct 2nd 1819. The question was, ‘what was this material?’ The most likely at the time seemed to be hay or...

Are you looking for presents that are a little bit different this year?  If so, come to Explore the Past on Level 2 at The Hive, Worcester to see the large range of Books and CDs related to the history of Worcestershire– ideal gifts for young and old.  Brought to you by the Worcestershire Archive...

This week’s Worcestershire Treasure has been chosen by the Archive & Archaeology Service Manager, Victoria Bryant. The artefact Victoria has chosen is a lower Palaeolithic ‘handaxe’, discovered in a field near Madresfield. It was produced by a species of human ancestor named Homo Heidelbergensis during one of the warm ‘interglacial’ periods within the last Ice...

We are delighted to announce that Worcestershire Archives are one of the lucky repositories to be awarded funding from the 2014 round of the National Cataloguing Grant programme. Each year the Cataloguing Grants Programme supports the cataloguing of collections that need external funding to provide access to their content. The 2014 round received applications for over £1.8...

This week’s Treasure is a letter from the Bantock archive, which has been chosen by Lesley Downing, Archive Assistant. This item shows just how far afield the remit of records from Worcestershire Archives can stretch as the letter was sent from Ceylon (modern day Sri Lanka). Although the opinions of the unknown author of this letter may be...