A Hidden Gem – Archdeacon Street School Log Book

Five or six years ago I discovered a little gem at Gloucestershire Archives: the Archdeacon Street School for Boys log book. At the time, I was researching the names on the Great War memorial at Holy Trinity church. One of the men, William Murray, had taught at Archdeacon school and I was keen to see if I could glean anything more about him.

While I was ordering the school log book from the strongroom an archivist remarked that this was a particularly interesting log book because the Headmaster had recorded his personal observations and frustrations alongside factual information relating to school life.  

Gloucestershire Archives accessions, July-September 2023

The start of October signifies the end of another quarter which means it time to look back on the incoming accessions for the last 3 months. During this time, we have added around 430 new accessions onto our online catalogue. A majority of these are from our Local Studies collections.

Our Community Cataloguing Archivists Jess and Yvonne have mostly completed the cataloguing backlog of Local Studies material, adding around 297 new Local Studies accessions onto the catalogue. This has included several pamphlets relating to Berkeley and Oldbury nuclear power stations, c.1950s-1981; a River Severn Catchment Board handbook, 1934; a guide to St Mary’s Church, Painswick, c.1935; a guide book for About and around Cheltenham, c.1913 and a report on Typhoid Fever: A recent outbreak in the Bristol area, 1950.

As well as Local Studies we have also been working on adding incoming accessions to our online archival records catalogue. This includes 26 new accessions of digital photographs relating to the COVID lockdowns. These were collected in conjunction with a project which will see hundreds of these photos tagged to the Know Your Place Gloucestershire interactive map. They cover most areas of the county and consist of all sorts: from socially distanced queues to turtles doing exercise, from NHS support graffiti to empty motorways at rush-hour…

We also accepted a large collection of hospital records from the former maternity hospitals at the Dilke and Lydney, mostly from the 20th century. On a personal note I was able to find the record of my father’s birth at the Dilke, proof of his mining rights in the Forest of Dean! Other accessions have included the Guardians of the Poor rate books from North Nibley, 1838-1840; the research papers of John Thornell concerning Gloucestershire cinemas and theatres, 20th-21st centuries; the Guild of Weavers, Spinners and Dyers minutes, accounts and journals, 1952-2013 and an account of the voyage by John Burroughs,1872.

A full list of accessions for this quarter can be found in the downloadable PDF below.

accessions-report-july-october-2023Download

COVID Response Know Your Place Project

In my previous role at Wiltshire & Swindon History Centre I ran a remote volunteering project, which involved volunteers working from home geotagging various collections of historic images to the Know Your Place Wiltshire site.

As the project was so well received in Wiltshire, and Gloucestershire also has a KYP site, I was keen to establish a similar programme here, though initially it was unclear what the best content would be….

But then an accession of digital photographs landed on my desk in April of this year and the idea presented itself…