Cataloguing South Gloucestershire Councils

The records of the predecessor bodies to South Gloucestershire, Northavon Council and Kingswood Council have recently been catalogued and are fully available to view by the public.

Black and white photographs of Thornbury Castle and Church on the left and Thornbury Castle on the right. (Ref DC/NA/S/15/3)

Minnie and Margaret…just two of Gloucestershire’s ‘Wonder Women’.

Back in 2018, to commemorate 100 years of women’s suffrage, archive staff collectively worked on a PowerPoint exhibition, to highlight all types of activity by Gloucestershire women. There were slides on sportswomen, academics, teachers, musicians, writers, poets, and ladies who were not afraid to speak their minds, represent their communities and fight for change. This exhibition has been revisited whilst researching content for our forthcoming Saturday event, ‘Wonder Women’, 2 March 2024, 1-4pm.

Horse-lorries

What’s a ‘horse-lorry’? It was simply another phrase for a horse-drawn wagon or cart, but one that was often used in connection with the railway companies but was also used extensively elsewhere as prior to the 1920s – and in some instances well beyond that date – most companies relied on horse-drawn transport to move their goods, obtain fuel and deliver their products.

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.

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…

What do archives and archivists have in common with barbecues, chefs, cooks, comedians, libraries, librarians, and several churches in Gloucestershire?

Well, they all have St Lawrence (or Laurence) as a patron saint. And since today, 10 August, is his feast day, I thought I’d have a bit of a look into his story.

Lawrence, or Laurentius to give him his proper Latin name, was born in Spain in 225 CE, and became a deacon in Rome under Pope Sixtus II. Unfortunately for Sixtus, in August 258 CE, Emperor Valerian issued an edict that all bishops, priests and deacons should be immediately put to death, and Sixtus was executed. The prefect of Rome then demanded that Lawrence should hand over the riches of the Church. Lawrence, evidently a clever chap, asked for three days to get the treasure together, and then spent those three days distributing it as widely as possible among the poor and safely hiding the Church’s records so that the prefect couldn’t get his hands on them. On the third day, he presented the poor and sick to the prefect, saying that these were the true treasures of the Church, and that the Church was therefore much richer than the Emperor. The prefect was not best pleased by this, and Lawrence was sentenced to death alongside six of his fellow deacons; the prefect was so angry with Lawrence that he had him roasted on a gridiron. Apparently, after Lawrence had been suffering for some time, he cheerfully cried, “I’m well done on this side. Turn me over!”