Balloon flight over Gloucester, 1895

Items relating to almost any topic under the sun can be found within the collections at Gloucestershire Archives – and that includes hot air balloons.

Robert Welch Designs: Archive and Collections Project

Who was Robert Welch and why Gloucestershire?

Robert Radford Welch (1929 -2000) was a silversmith, industrial and domestic designer who was born in Hereford and grew up in Malvern. After studying in Birmingham and London, he set up a studio and workshop at the Old Silk Mill, Chipping Campden in 1955. This building was formerly the workshops of C. R. Ashbee’s (1863-1942) Guild of Handicraft, from 1902, and still houses the workshop of one of the Guild silversmiths, George Hart.