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This week’s Treasure is a roof finial which has been selected by Laura Griffin, Senior Finds Archaeologist. The item is a rare example of decoration that would have been found on high status houses hundreds of years ago. Here, Laura tells us more: These two ceramic heads were originally from a single object called a ‘roof...

This week Emily Hathaway, Historic Environment Countryside Assistant, has chosen Worcestershire’s field barns and outfarms as her Treasure: The significance of field barns and outfarms in the Yorkshire Dales and Derbyshire is well recognised; you may not, however, automatically associate Worcestershire with these often humble but highly distinctive buildings. Field barns and outfarms are farm...

This month, in order to set the documents covered by the Manorial Documents Register project in context, we will look at what a manor looked like in the landscape.  This is a really brief overview, but if you wish to find out more, lots of exciting work has been done by archaeologists and historians—please do...

This week Mike Glyde, Historic Environment Planning Officer, has chosen to highlight how Worcestershire’s crop marks can reveal the history buried beneath us: As a general rule, most archaeological remains lie buried and unseen beneath our feet.  It is hidden from view, passing away the decades, slowly fading away. But the past is not always...

Worcestershire Archive and Archaeology Service has been commissioned by English Heritage to undertake a project aimed at appraising the impact of flooding and flood mitigation on the county’s distinctive and rich historic environment and landscape character. Worcestershire is particularly vulnerable to riverine and rainwater flooding with large areas of the countryside, including numerous historic towns...

The first copy of the much anticipated children’s history of Worcester, “Stories of Worcester”, arrived at The Hive yesterday to the delight of staff and authors alike. Pat Hughes (front left), co-author of ‘Stories of Worcester’ and WAAS staff Claire Haslam (r-l) and Julia Pincott (r-r) who have assisted with the process of publishing the...

This week’s Treasures, brought to you by Archaeologist Rob Hedge, were uncovered during a recent community excavation called ‘DigMinster’. The series of finds uncovered during the course of this project provide an insight into a largely forgotten chapter of Kidderminster’s industrial heritage: Last year, our archaeologists led a month-long community excavation at St Mary’s Church...

During the process of sorting and arranging the Lyttelton collection, one of the boxes was found to contain a locked volume.  There was nothing on it to indicate what it was and there was no key anywhere in the boxes.  It was referred to as a ‘locked volume’ in the original list which accompanied the...

This week’s Treasure has been chosen by Jack Hanson, Historic Landscape Officer. He has decided to highlight an area west of the village of Alvechurch, Bromsgrove as representative of the many locally distinctive, significant, and valued historic landscapes across the county which remain largely under-represented and unprotected. Alvechurch Marina, along the Birmingham to Worcester Canal  While many historic...

This week’s Treasure is a large series of docquets, which form a part of the Croome collection – the archives of the Earls of Coventry: As part of the official papers of Sir Thomas Coventry (1578-1640) 1st Baron of Allesborough, Lord Keeper of the Great Seal of England held in the Croome collection are a...