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.
Continue readingIt is utterly amazing what can be found in an archive. Proof of this was recently brought to my attention when I looked at one of our accessions. Accessions are groups of records/documents that come to an archives and we then carry out initial processing of them, which we as archivists call accessioning.
The accession was simply listed as Bourton OTW house-listed building Deeds, conveyances, research plans. The name Bourton immediately aroused my curiosity as it was where I spent the first 19 years of my life and where I still have family. So, I examined the accession more closely. It turned out to be for Three Wells House otherwise known as Eastfield. This sent even more alarm bells ringing as I knew the name Eastfield. Eastfield was owned by the Morris family who also owned the model village (a major tourist attraction in the village) and were publicans of the Old New Inn pub, hotel and restaurant. My grandmother had worked at the Old New Inn for many years as indeed did my sister and myself.
Continue readingAmongst the records placed onto the online catalogue in the last quarter was a long-distance traveller, all the way from Australia! A register of cases at the Cotswold Maternity Hospital for the years 1937-1945, it emigrated post-War with one of the former midwives. Recently her daughter contacted the Archives (through Gloucestershire Family History Society) offering to return the register. We are very grateful to her for this initiative, and for offering to pay a fair sum in postage.
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.
Continue readingIf 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.
Continue readingIt’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.
Continue readingThere was a time in my life when I was distinctly unsure about the origin of gherkins.
Despite it sounding like a book written by the rubbish younger brother of Charles Darwin, The Origin of Gherkins was a topic that I once discussed in detail, with me firmly believing that a gherkin was some sort of special weird vegetable that when grown, developed a natural vinegar-tasting tang as it ripened. This was countered by the belief that a gherkin was a small cucumber that tasted of vinegar because it was pickled.
Now, the pickled bit I could get my head around at an unwilling stretch (I mean, who pickles cucumbers?) but the cucumber part was so far out there my head nearly imploded trying to comprehend that I might just be eating cucumbers in my burgers, but also – and this is the bit that hurts – really enjoying them.
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.
Continue readingThe 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.
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…
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Gloucestershire Archives 