Tomato dribbling at the Gloucester Railway Carriage and Wagon Works

There 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.

What’s beneath our feet?

As part of the development activities for our For the Record project, we’ve been looking into the history of our Alvin Street site. And we’ve unearthed some fascinating facts.

‘The Howse that was so fayre’

This is the story of ‘The Howse that was so fayre’, investigated by Chipping Campden History Society over the past eighteen months. In 2013 Gloucestershire Local History Association’s annual Local History Afternoon carried the theme of ‘Gloucestershire’s Special Houses’. There was an obvious one for us, Campden House.

The papers of Gloucestershire Area Ramblers’ Association collected by Antony (“Tony”) John Drake MBE (1923-2012)

In 2011-2012 I was an archive trainee at Gloucestershire Archives before heading to Liverpool University to qualify as an archivist. I then completed my first professional contract as a project archivist at Hull History Centre before returning to Gloucester in January 2014 as a project archivist. My post, which is externally funded,