Locating and dating a Three Choirs Festival photograph, by Simon Carpenter

Simon is the volunteer archivist for the Three Choirs Festival and has written this blog to coincide with the Hereford festival 2022.

Blogging a Building (23) – the end of an era, by Heather Forbes

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On 7^th December 2020 we signed the completion certificate for Gloucestershire Heritage Hub.  This signified the end of the snagging period following the handover of the completed building and site in August 2019.  It therefore seemed appropriate to bring to an end this series of Blogging a Building, started by Jill Shonk back in February 2017. You can read the whole series here by searching for Blogging a Building, and see a pictorial record of how the building project developed from January 2017 to December 2020. We accidently missed out number 18, ambitiously jumping from 17 to 19! 

Blogging a Building 22 – New signs of life, by Kim Kenny

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.

Howard Read, the new site manager getting ready to complete the project.

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Building news

After 18 months of building work, the end is approaching and we will soon be able to take possession of our lovely new facilities.

Blogging a building (19)

If you have visited Gloucestershire Archives since the newly refurbished public area re-opened you will have noticed that we are still a building site. Phase two of the build is now in full swing with the new training suite under construction. We are looking forward to the end of August when all the building work will be completed.

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The building work is gathering pace with much activity taking place particularly inside the building.

The new windows along the front of the building have been reinstated. (The view on the left was taken from the site manager’s office.)

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I recently went on holiday and returned to find a lot had changed in the space of a week.  It was great to see!  So I thought I’d bring you up to speed with what’s been happening since my last post –  hopefully you’ll be pleased too.  Here goes…

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Since April, the Heritage Hub site – both outside and in – has been a hive of activity.

Externally, we’ve been creating firm foundations.  The 26 tonne piling rig shown in the images below arrived on the back of a lorry from Devon.  It drilled 87 piles 10 metres deep to underpin our new strong rooms in a matter of days.

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So, what’s been happening this week? Well, our builders have removed the giant slab that formed the base of the Horsa Hut they demolished last week.  The excavator swapped its careful claw for a pummelling pecker and broke it into tiny pieces.  Result!  You can see, but not hear (unlike those of us working onsite!), this for yourself from the images below – also by clicking on this video link: https://youtu.be/Y6hKgdm3s90

These works are all part of the groundworks needed to prepare the way for the three new specialist storage rooms (‘strongrooms’ in archives-speak) that are going to be built onto the back of our main building. They also involved an unexpected rescue operation: saving and re-homing a displaced hedgehog, now safe in our Archives Support Officer, Jenny’s garden and enjoying the company of other prickly friends.

Recently rescued hedgehog happily snoozing

Back inside, the inner entrance door to the old Archives reception has been removed and the builders are ready to knock down some walls to create the new Heritage Hub spaces. They’ll be able to get on with this as soon as they have the necessary propping design (another new term for my construction vocabulary).  I’m discovering there’s a lot more to this building malarkey than meets the eye!

 

Jill Shonk

Access & Learning Leader

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As hoped, there’s been plenty of visible action this week!

Inside, our builders have begun the process of removing internal walls to create the new Archives research room and linked volunteer workspaces. And the view from the corridor outside my office door has changed, as you can see from the image below.

Former Archives reception area, leading to former research room

In its current state, it’s easy to imagine how the building must have worked when it was home to Kingsholm School. More so if we add in the reminiscences of former pupils – apparently the long, wide corridor doubled up as a gym!

If you look closely at the image you’ll also spot the walls that are due to be removed as works progress (the blue ‘OUT’ lettering is the giveaway), so we can begin to see what the building should look like when it reopens as Gloucestershire Heritage Hub.

Outside, the landscape has changed dramatically! The Horsa Huts next to the railway track have gone, freeing up space for a new access route to our collections storage areas.  It’s been a fascinating learning experience, watching the Huts (formerly a conservation lab and archaeology store) disappear: I was expecting to see everything flattened in a dramatic swoop but I was wrong.  Instead, an excavator operator carefully deconstructed the Huts using a muncher (‘get me’ with my new vocabulary!), picking off the different construction materials and sorting them into piles, ready for recycling.  You can see this for yourself if you click on this link: https://youtu.be/PTVW5-ar1iw

Bye bye, old conservation lab

Demolition almost complete

 

‘All very exciting.  More next week!

Jill Shonk

Access & Learning Leader