Saturday Events at Gloucestershire Heritage Hub

Staff at Gloucestershire Archives are currently almost as busy as elves making plans for 2024. Christmas is just around the corner and although they’ll be conversations soon enough about which Christmas jumper to wear this year or where have we hidden the Archives’ ornamental reindeer now needed for display purposes, there’s much more thought being given to work related activities scheduled for the New Year.

The good news is that our themed events, held on the first Saturday of every month will be returning and we have already decided on our 12 themes for 2024. Therefore, please think of this blog as a major ‘save the date in your diary’ communication. When details have been finalised, booking will open, normally a month before each event.  

In comes I, Old Father Christmas.

If you are lucky enough, at this time of year you may well come across a group of mummers performing their play. Mummer’s plays are traditional pantomime-like folk plays, usually performed around Christmas time and they feature several odd characters, often dressed in outlandish garb. Historically, they are first recorded in the 1300s as courtly entertainment, but the idea spread. The etymology of the name is also complex, with possible origins from the Middle English word ‘mum’ (“silent”), Momus, the Greek god of censure and mockery, but also from the French and German words for ‘mask’ or ‘masked’, as some plays are performed with the actors wearing masks. 

Learning to love local history! The Heritage Schools Programme at Gloucestershire Archives

It’s amazing how one meeting can trigger some amazing projects. On 30 September 2022, we had such a meeting. Fourteen teachers from fourteen schools, a mixture of primary and secondary mainly from Gloucester, met at the Gloucestershire Heritage Hub for a day dedicated to local history. Centred on a presentation by Michael Gorely of Historic England, teachers learnt how to look no further than their school’s immediate location for inspiration when creating their local history curriculum. Whether situated on a Victorian road or a recent council estate, Michael argued passionately for finding the interest and pride in any surrounding.

The day ended with some time to pause and reflect. We posed the question: what would the schools do if they had the funding and help? For the primaries, they liked the idea of grouping their schools together to create a leaflet about the history of Gloucester’s four main ‘gate’ streets – Westgate, Eastgate, Southgate and Northgate, which date back to the Roman period. As for the secondaries, they wanted a ‘grown up’ day of history speakers and workshops for year 12. Voices Gloucester, a programme led by Jacqui Grange, focusing on celebrating Gloucester’s history, culture and identity through the power of storytelling then instigated these projects, with Gloucestershire Archives supporting. Voices had received funding from Historic England to create two schools’ projects, and so, through them, we were able to bring these two projects to life.