'Inspiring Teachers’ session on WWII

We held the first 'after school' teacher session at Gloucestershire Archives on Tuesday 4 March. It was a great success with an inspiring and motivated group of teachers attending from across the county. Our Community Heritage Officers, Jemma Fowkes and John’s Putley ran the session along with Historic England’s Michael Gorely.

Targeted at both primary and secondary schools, the meeting aimed to stimulate the teaching of WWII by providing an array of original sources, followed by a discussion of how to use them in the classroom. We looked at photos of land girls and the Home Guard, telegrams hastily written informing of air attacks, journals, WWII recipes, rationing books, identity cards and air raid shelter plans. Scariest of all were the Luftwaffe aerial photographs identifying bombing targets within the county.

The next session will be held on Wednesday 21 May, 4-5.30pm at the Heritage Hub, Gloucester. The theme will be Gloucester Docks and we will be combining historic documents and discussion as well as having a short talk on the history of the Docks.

For more information, please contact jemma.fowkes@gloucestershire.gov.uk

Smile...you're on camera!

We had an interesting meeting on 19 March with the current group of Heritage Ambassadors. The group runs annually for Year 10 and 12 students with an interest in history and heritage. We have an excellent programme for 2025. Pupils have already taken a 'behind the scenes' tour of Gloucestershire Archives, and looked at old maps, suffragette diaries and much more!

At the latest meeting, Harriet Hughes, Museum Lead of Hundred Heroines, discussed the organisation’s active promotion of women in photography. It was fascinating to hear about such a relatively new and vital organisation. Harriet also invited Adam Pensotti, Head of Canon’s Young People Programme, to speak to the Ambassadors. Adam discussed his journey into professional photography as well as the important work Canon are undertaking with their global Youth Programme.

With photography being a way for everyone to record and reflect the world they live in, the meeting was a wonderful way for our Ambassadors to consider their own use of film as well as the future of amateur and professional photography. It was great to consider the role that visual arts can play in the heritage sector and its enduring importance. Thanks to Harriet and Adam for their thought-provoking talks.

At our next meeting in May, the Ambassadors will be taking a tour of Gloucester Docks, including the Tall Ship, with Gloucester Civic Trust.

https://hundredheroines.org/

https://www.canon.co.uk/sustainability/empowering-young-people/

Food for thought - how a simple postcard can make us think...

All kinds of unexpected discoveries can start you on a family history ‘adventure’ and once you’ve begun, you don’t really know where it will lead.

One of our members donated a small collection of postcards to the GFHS Library many years ago.  Postcards are fascinating, not only because of the picture - most of the ones we’re looking at were produced in the 1920s and 30s and so show places that have changed out of all recognition - but also because of the names, addresses and messages they include on the back.

This one caught my attention: 

Although the picture is a pretty standard view of the Winter Gardens in Cheltenham, it is the back which I thought is a bit unusual.  The postcard is addressed to ‘Mr Perry, Grocer, Chedworth’ but it doesn’t include a traditional style of message.  Instead it is a shopping list written by G Hicks of Yanworth, of items he would like to have delivered.  Lots of leads to follow up here.

Mr Perry was easy to find in the census returns.  In 1901 Mortimer Perry was living with his wife, Rosa and young son Albert in Cheap Street, Chedworth.  He was described as a ‘grocer & shopkeeper’.  By 1939, he’d retired, left the village and moved to Charlton Kings; he died in 1949.  He was born around 1866 in the village of Notgrove and was the son of Reuben Perry, a substantial farmer in the village.  He was apprenticed to James Beale Ransford who owned a large drapery and grocery store in Bourton-on-the Water as well as acting as the village’s sub-postmaster.

The sender ‘G Hicks’ was also reasonably straightforward to identify.  George Hicks was an agricultural labourer, and in 1921 was working on Yanworth Farm for the Earl of Eldon.  He was also born around 1866 in the village of Clapton, near Bourton-on-the Water and seems to have worked as a labourer, either on farms or for the railway all his life.  His wife died in 1931 which perhaps explains why George himself was writing the shopping list.  In 1939 he was living in Yanworth with his eldest son and he died in 1945 in the hospital in Northleach.

The shopping list itself is interesting since it demonstrates what a wide range of items Mr Perry sold: from paraffin and ‘mixed corn’ to cheese and brown sugar.  It also hints at Mr Hicks’ lifestyle - perhaps his house didn’t have electricity so he used paraffin lamps.  The list includes some prices, presumably added by Mr Perry.  However, what surprised me most was that Mr Hicks, not a well-to-do customer, was expecting his shopping to be delivered. 

You can start your own ‘adventure into the past’ in our Research Centre at the Heritage Hub.  Everyone is welcome and our experienced volunteers will share your enthusiasm and are always happy to help.  Our online resources (including Ancestry, FindMyPast and FamilySearch) cover the whole world as well as Gloucestershire.  We also offer regular online and live talks and social events which are open to all. Please visit our website for more information gfhs.org.uk

To 'sum up', another way to help...

The Friends of Gloucestershire Archives is a registered charity that was founded nearly 30 years ago to support the work of Gloucestershire Archives. We raise funds to allow the Archives to obtain documents and equipment beyond the scope of statutory funding. Members come from all over the world but those living locally have the opportunity to attend regular talks and to participate in visits to places of historical interest.

Every year thousands of people benefit from the unique records held at Gloucestershire Archives, informing and inspiring their learning and research.  With your help the Friends can continue supporting this valuable service, gathering, keeping and sharing the archives and the wealth of human stories they contain for current and future generations.

Every gift, no matter the size, will help us continue our vital work and could support us in purchasing ‘at risk’ collections, cataloguing and conserving significant documents, or learning and outreach activities.  There is a collection box in the Reception for cash donations.  However, we have now recently purchased a Sum Up machine which accepts card payments. Archives staff involved with Reception duties have been shown how to use it so please ask them for help if you wish to make a donation via this route. 

​And if you have any questions about the work of the Friends of Gloucestershire Archives and would like to join us, please contact us at: contact@foga.online

Thank you.

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After-school teacher session on Gloucester Docks

Wednesday 21 May, 4-5.30pm

Primary and secondary teachers welcome

The session will include a short talk on the history of the Docks. This will be followed by the opportunity to look at historic documents – some hundreds of years old! – and an informal discussion about how to use them in the classroom. Please bring a camera so you can photograph anything you want to use with pupils.

The session will be led by Historic England’s Michael Gorely and Gloucestershire Archives Staff.

This informal session is free and you do not need to book in advance.

The session will be held at The Heritage Hub, Clarence Row off Alvin Street, Kingsholm, Gloucester, GL1 3DW. Free parking is provided at the Hub.

For more information, please contact jemma.fowkes@gloucestershire.gov.uk

 

Forthcoming free events at the Heritage Hub

Our Saturday events, held on the first Saturday of each month, 1-4pm

3rd May - 'Help, Rescue, Mend' - the work of our County's emergency services, past and present

7th June - 'Journeys Through Time' - archives with international connections through travel or conflict

5th July - 'Restoring the Natural Balance' - A Green Pledge Project event

2nd August - 'Under, Over, Through' - a focus on all forms of road transport and relevant archives

6th September - 'Family History Fair' - expertly led by the Gloucestershire Family History Society

And don't forget our Secrets Revealed Online Talks delivered to your home on the fourth Wednesday of each month

Other events for your diary...

10th May, 2pm - The Russell Howes Memorial Lecture in the Dunrossil Centre (Heritage Hub)

'The Garrison of Gloucester in the Civil War based on an article by Russell Howes'

 Speaker: Chris King

22nd July - 22nd August - Exhibition of Second World War resources, prepared by local students engaged in work experience with Gloucestershire Archives in the Wheeler Room, Tuesday- Friday, 9am-4.30pm (Heritage Hub)

24th July, 2-4pm - 'A Summer Sing Song' to commemorate the 80th anniversary of VE and VJ Day, the end of conflict in 1945, with wartime songs sung by the Library Choir interspersed with readings from the Archives on wartime themes, followed by afternoon tea in our beautiful Heritage Hub community garden

For further information and to book for all of these events please go to www.heritagehub.org.uk

We look forward to seeing you.

Cheltenham Local History Society's Afternoon

You are welcome to attend Cheltenham Local History Society's afternoon event at St Andrew's United Reformed Church Cheltenham on Saturday 12 July 2025. The theme this year is ‘Hospitality’ with the emphasis on hotels, public houses, cafes and restaurants and social clubs.

 As in prior years, this event consists of displays and talks and it is also a good opportunity to meet up with members of other societies associated with local history. 

For more information please go to https://cheltlocalhistory.org.uk/

 

Remembering the Second World War in South Gloucestershire

Thanks to funding from the Heritage Lottery Fund, South Gloucestershire Council has been able to uncover the experiences of local residents in South Gloucestershire during the Second World War.  Ten videos are available to view online. You can listen to Jim Perrett, born in 1917 in Filton, who discusses memories of his father returning from the First World War and and then describes his own military service, working as a dispatch rider for the First Calvary Division of the Royal Army Service Corp, carrying messages between units based in Palestine, North Africa and the Siege of Tobruk. Similarly, brother and sister, Ken Evans and Molly Rogers, tell how each of their eleven siblings were in services during the war.

Another participant, Hella Hewison was born in Berlin on 7 January 1925 to German Jewish parents, Hella witnessed Kristallnacht and escaped on Kindertransport. She reads the Red Cross letter from her mother saying goodbye before going to a concentration camp. Hella’s mother and grandmother were both killed and later Hella became the first non-British nurse at Southmead Hospital. Finally, Majorie Bennett, born in Yate in 1922 was working in Newman's factory on the day war broke out.  She tells stories of catching a German spy at Yate Cinema, describes the bombings of Parnall's factory in Yate and then talks about how and why she joined the WAAF despite being underage. 

There is also an online exhibition to see how the war affected the area, including war time industry, those away on the front line, the home front, civil defence, evacuees and prisoners of war and resources for schools and those working with older people.

To access the various strands relating to this fascinating project see https://beta.southglos.gov.uk/south-gloucestershire-second-world-war-stories/#how-the-second-world-war-affected-south-gloucestershire

Police activity at the Hub!

If you read the article in our last newsletter about the Death Penny you may be interested to know that someone in Canada read the plea on the website to track down the grandson and granddaughter of Alfred James Barnard and contacted someone in France who then contacted Barnard’s great grandson who told his mother that we were looking for her! She contacted us and we put her in touch with the family who have the Death Penny.

The talk season is upon us and we are nearly fully booked for this year and have several bookings already for next year.

We have bookings for Royal British Legion events, WIs, Probus, Local History Associations, National Association of Retired Police Officers and various events linked to employers open days this is on top of the items we provide the constabulary for Police Memorial Day, Remembrance Day and other events as well as the support we give at the Heritage Hub

With VE Day nearly here we have been doing a lot of work linked to WW2 and while going through The Special magazine one of our volunteers found a poem from two Auxiliary police women and a reply from the regulars which is very of its time: 

                         

Lots of people have been tidying out their attics and have been donating documents and photographs to us.  If you have any police related photographs we are always happy to receive Jpegs via gloucestershirepolicearchives@gmail.com.

Queries can also be sent to the same email address. We are also able to scan photographs in our office at the Heritage Hub which is usually open Monday to Wednesday until 2.30 but it is worth checking before you make a visit as we do go out and about quite often.