Archive

The landscape of Worcestershire, like the landscape of many rural counties, is scattered with the remains of buildings and places associated with World War I and World War II military infrastructure, civil defence and commemoration. From airfields, army camps, military hospitals, munitions factories and prisoner of war camps to anti-invasion defences, air raid shelters, drill...

This year marks the 80th anniversary of the evacuation of Allied troops from Dunkirk. Within the archives are stories of this event by Worcestershire people, recorded as part of our WWII oral history project carried our 20-25 years ago. The operation, codenamed ‘Operation Dynamo’ which took place between 27 May and 4 June 1940, is...

An unusual find from the Worcester Porcelain factory where you would normally think of richly decorated find pottery such as in January’s find of the month, but it tells an interesting WWII story of how a small component made a big difference in our lives. Our archaeologists were working on a site by The Royal...

With VE day tomorrow we thought we’d share about the 1939 Register, available to search via Ancestry & Find My Past. With the current guidance to stay at home we spoke to both companies who have allowed free access at home. What is the 1939 Register? It is a register of civilian population in England...

This week events are taking place in the UK and across in France to mark the 75th anniversary of the D-Day Landings, considered to be the largest seaborne invasion in history. Some of the people involved were interviewed 20 years as part of our Second World war oral history project.   Bad weather and secrecy The...

One of our fascinating recent deposits here at Worcestershire Archive Service is a German map of the county, which was part of the “Sonderausgabe!” or “Special Editions” published between 1937 and 1940. These were copies of the Ordnance Survey half-inch maps, scaled up to 1:100.000 to put them in line with standard German maps issued...

Earlier in the year we posted a blog ‘Who put Bella in the wych elm‘ as part of our Monthly Mysteries series.  In it we hinted that the link with Clara Bauerle, the German singer and actress, was one which was still being actively explored.  We can now reveal that the researcher who was following...

‘Finish your articles re the Wych elm crime by all means. They are interesting to your readers, but you will never solve the mystery. The one person who could give the answer is now beyond the jurisdiction of the earthly courts.’ In 1953 ‘Anna’ of Claverley wrote those intriguing words in a letter to journalist...

Jean North interviewing Mrs Hewlett  Getting Started It’s 20 years since the then Hereford and Worcester Record Office took its first tentative steps into the world of oral history.  The first project was quite an ambitious one – a five year project to record local people’s reminiscences of World War II.  Valuable support came from...

For many World War II ended with VE Day in May 1945.  For others, such as the 2nd and 7th Battalions of the Worcestershire Regiment serving out in the Far East, the War would not be over until August 1945.  After some days of rumour and speculation the news broke that the Japanese had finally...