After a period of hibernation the Heritage Hub building project has come back to life. On 1st April 2019, our new contractors, Beard Construction, took over from where Lakehouse left off. Beard is aiming to complete the building project by August 2019.
The Gloucestershire Family History Society (GFHS) was founded 40 years ago this April. As we all know, 40 is a significant birthday (hang on though, if 60’s the new 40, that only makes them 20… Move on! Ed) and so it was only right and proper that this milestone was marked by a special event.
And so, on Sunday 28 April, we were joined by around 250 people who came to see the GFHS in their smart new home at the Gloucestershire Heritage Hub- a pleasingly high number as lots of people had heard about the event on BBC Radio Gloucestershire. Some 40 GFHS volunteers were on hand during the day to welcome visitors and show them the Resource Centre.
Not quite Sports Personality perhaps, but there’s been so much happening and so many achievements this year, that it’s worth a quick look back now before we move too far into 2019.
Due to problems with our contractors, our building work isn’t quite complete, but our shiny new public area is, by universal agreement, a huge improvement on what went before. It was good to leave behind our temporary research rooms at the end of March and to introduce improved opening hours including the first Saturday of each month. We’re particularly pleased to co-locate with our friends from Gloucestershire Family History Society, so the Heritage Hub really does feel like a partnership space now.
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There’s been lots of respectful remembrance activity across Gloucestershire over the last week, and it’s not quite finished yet. If you’re attending Cheltenham races on Sunday (18th), please make time to pop into the Centaur for a day long programme of activities and displays called Gloucestershire and Racing Remembers. Gloucestershire Archives will have a presence, in partnership with Cheltenham Local History Society.
An image appearing in the Cheltenham Chronicle and Gloucester Graphic for Saturday 16 March 1918. When the racecourse should have been celebrating the annual National Hunt festival, it was instead being used as a VAD Hospital.
Our last post announced our History Festival events over the coming week, but there’s much more happening involving the Hub and its heritage partners over the rest of the Festival. At 14.30 on Friday 7th September Dr John Chandler, a Trustee of the County History Trust, delivers his talk Before the Spa at the Heritage Hub, looking at Cheltenham‘s development from Anglo-Saxon times until the 18th Century. The event is fully booked though, so please don’t attend it if you don’t already have a ticket.
Gloucester’s first royal charter, from the time of Henry II (c.1155)
The Archives cares for a range of royal charters relating to Gloucester, and these will be on view at Blackfriars Scriptorium between 10.00 and 14.00 on Saturday 8th. You can also attend an illustrated talk about them in the Buttery at Blackfriars at 11.30 that day. Again the exhibition and talk are free, but pre-booking is required, quoting reference CV15. Continue reading
Yes, Heritage time is firmly upon us again, beginning this Saturday (25th August) with Gloucester Retro Day. We’ll have a stall providing information about the Heritage Hub in Kings Walk, and we’ll be joined by members of the Fielding & Platt Heritage Group with a display about the Company, and by Gloucestershire Society for Industrial Archaeology with a Lister’s display. We’ll be there 10.00-16.00, so do come and say hello.
Retro Day 2017: Members of the Fielding & Platt Heritage Group meet some famous faces
Volunteers from Cheltenham Local History Society have been producing more detailed lists of a number of local solicitors’ collections, supporting the production of the Victoria County History volume for Cheltenham. These lists are now becoming available through the online catalogue. Russell Self, who has been co-ordinating this volunteer activity, takes up the story:
Cheltenham Local History Society volunteers at Gloucestershire Archives, July 2016
