How does your garden grow?
At the first sight of daffodils and cherry blossom, we warmly welcome Spring and start to turn our attention towards the Heritage Hub's community garden.
For those of you who have not been to the Hub in recent weeks or not ventured into the garden, we are pleased to report that it is a hive of activity and for once, we are not talking about the bees! Helped by a team of volunteers co-ordinated by Project Grow, hundreds of little seedlings are revealing themselves to the great excitement of all staff but particularly our Green Pledge Project Team.
To celebrate this development and to shine a spotlight on the important work they are doing, the Green Team are hosting our next Saturday event 'How does your Garden Grow', 4th May, 10-4pm. There will be a series of short informal sessions on local green initiatives, ideas for your garden and a Q&A session for your gardening queries. There is a bookable talk by Marion Hill, the Green Pledge Learning and Outreach Officer on 'Gloucestershire Gardens, Great & Small' and a screening of the hugely popular and thought provoking film 'Six Inches of Soil'.
Also on the day, there will be a tour of the community garden by the designer responsible, vegetable seed planting, various short films, nature based information stalls and a display of garden themed documents held at Gloucestershire Archives. We're even offering free lunchtime soup made from locally grown vegetables.
And whilst we are talking about roots, why don't you visit our onsite partners at the Gloucestershire Family History Society, open from 10am on the day, to discover more about your family heritage.
Booking is essential for the main talk and film. For further information please go to How does your garden grow? | Heritage Hub
Join us at the Heritage Focus Day!
On 1st June, the Gloucestershire Heritage Hub will be holding a second Heritage Focus Day and this year our keynote speaker will be Mark Horton, a leading archaeologist who you may have seen on ‘Time Team’ (Channel 4), ‘Time Flyer’ (BBC2) or ‘Coast’ (BBC2).
He will be presenting a talk aptly titled ‘My Career in Ruins’ and will be joined by representatives from Gloucestershire Archives; Gloucestershire Libraries; The Museum of Gloucester; Stroud Museum in the Park; Gloucester Cathedral Archives and Education Centre; Cheltenham College Archives; The John Moore Countryside Museum; Cotswold Archaeology; freelance experts; Cultural Heritage Institute, Royal Agricultural University; heritage volunteers for Gloucestershire Family History Society, Gloucestershire Constabulary, the Jet Age Museum, the Canal and River Trust, Stroudwater Textiles Trust and members of the Archives and Records Association.
Heather Forbes, Head of Gloucestershire Archives is also giving a talk about her career to date. Apart from Gloucestershire, Heather has worked at London Metropolitan Archives, Hampshire Archives and was also the archivist of the beautiful Canterbury Cathedral for a number of years. Consequently, she has overseen a variety of records, artefacts and now even a document of international significance.
This free event, which runs from 10am-4pm is an excellent opportunity to see what archivists, conservators, museum curators, librarians, archaeologists and other heritage-based professionals do on a day-to-day basis. Attendees can learn about training paths and there will also be ‘have a go’ opportunities, demonstrations, films showing throughout the day, a document display of ‘treasured archives’ from the collections held at Gloucestershire Archives and ‘behind the scenes’ tours of the archive strongrooms.
For further details and to book a place on the talks and workshops, please go to https://www.heritagehub.org.uk/events/heritage-focus-day/
Green Pledge Project update
The Green Pledge Project will release new podcast episodes every month – and you can listen to the first two NOW! Podcast | Gloucestershire Archives
Hear stories from local people talking about changes in the environment they’ve seen over their lifetime and what they do to tread more lightly on the planet.
We’ll look at records from the archives and reflect on what they tell us about now and the future. And you can listen to shortened versions of the oral history interviews we’re recording with people who’ve worked to protect nature in all sorts of ways, including farmers, environmental managers and campaigners.
Episode 1 – Introducing our busy project team, as well catching up with Gloucestershire Wildlife Trust volunteer, Sara Kinsey, as she works with Heather Forbes, sorting documents, including beautiful nature journals and notebooks from the 1930s.
Episode 2 – join the team at the Greener Together event at the Two Rivers Converge Festival, Tewkesbury Abbey, Feb 2024. Under the enormous suspended model of Gaia, we talk to stall holders about their work and local people. All laced together with the beautiful Gaia soundtrack.
Coming Up! Listen to our interview with John Meadley. In 2012 John was voted Environmental Hero by the Heart of Gloucestershire Community Awards. John talks about his early influences as well as his work on international and local projects.
You can listen to all episodes here - Podcast | Gloucestershire Archives – You can also listen via Spotify, Amazon Music.
Subscribe to be notified when the next episode is released.