Meet the professionals...
In August, Max Parkin, an archivist based in our Collections Management Team, had the opportunity to attend the ARA [Archives and Records Association] Conference held at the Delta Hotels, Bristol. This annual event is a great way for archivists, conservators and records managers to converge, share knowledge and network with one another. In a jam packed 3 days, Max attended countless talks, met an abundance of colleagues from across the profession and attended two wonderful social events in the evenings.
The opening keynote speech set the tone for what was to come, with an inspirational talk on the importance of gathering the records from underrepresented and ethnic minority groups. The day proceeded well, with talks on ARA Strategy, new ways of working with inter-generational practices and trauma informed approaches to working with archives.
Day Two kicked off with highly topical talks on managing cataloguing backlogs, new approaches to appraisal and cataloguing ethics. Our Head of Service, Heather Forbes, delivered a talk on the importance of outreach, and our conservator Ann Attwood, provided a session on current practice in archive conservation. Both were very well received. An eye-opening talk on the environmental effects of digital storage closed the day, talks wise, but then there was the Gala Dinner at which we discovered that Gloucestershire Archives had won 'Record Keeping Service of the Year' as voted by the public. A great honour indeed!
Heather Forbes and Max Parkin with the award at the Gala Dinner
And just to prove it came home, the rest of the staff with the award!
At this point we need to say a BIG THANK YOU to everyone who voted for us. If you somehow missed all this excitement, you can read our nomination here
Back to the Conference, the final day was a case of last but not least, as Max attended a talk about emotions in archives. Record keepers regularly have to process traumatic archives, and it is important to find ways to deal with the knock-on effects of dealing with sensitive material or triggering content.
To conclude, Max felt that attending the conference had been both interesting and pertinent to his job, and he was really grateful for the opportunity to attend, thanks to an ARA Bursary.
Gloucestershire Archives at the Gloucester History Festival – Voices Scriptorium Session: Sight Loss Then & Now
On Saturday 13th & Sunday 14th September, Voices Gloucester hosted Scriptorium Sessions at Blackfriars in partnership with the Gloucester History Festival. One of the sessions was entitled ‘Sight Loss: Then & Now’ and was a mini project that Gloucestershire Archives had worked on. It was the brainchild of Sarah Goddard, a sight-impaired mixed-media artist and writer who created a brilliant podcast series investigating experiences of sight loss in Gloucestershire in the 19th and 20th centuries through drama, discussion and lived experience. As part of this project, we found some examples of sight loss in the archives and Sarah selected one and created a short play based on it, which was subsequently recorded by Gloucester’s am-dram group, the Crown Players – plus a certain John Putley from the archives (face for radio, voice for TV!). The play was based on a letter of 20th October 1834, from James Waite (a blind innkeeper) to the Lord of the Manor and Freeholders of the parish of Horsley. The Scriptorium session was a chance for Sarah and John to share the challenges of blending historical fact with storytelling fiction and how it felt to be involved. This has subsequently tied into a series of forthcoming events at the archives called ‘Reading the Records’, where we will be working with the Sight Loss Council to open our service to people who are visually impaired.
The Scriptorium stage ready for Sight Loss: Then & Now
Getting ready for 2027!
Thanks to a grant of 9.5k from the Lloyds Register Foundation, plans are well underway to celebrate the 200th anniversary of Gloucester Docks in 2027.
The image below shows the newly commissioned Gloucestershire Mariners' exhibition in the buttery of the 13th century Blackfriars Priory, on display as part of the History Festival in September 2025.
This physical exhibition will be shown in a variety of different venues around the City over the next few months including the National Waterways Museum in Gloucester. Alongside this, there is also an online exhibition available via here and staff at Gloucestershire Archives have also produced a research guide to maritime resources in Gloucestershire for anyone interested in the history of the Docks and the people who lived and worked there.
The Gloucestershire Family History Society have also been busy researching crew members, see their separate article for a fascinating tale about a missing crew member. However, plans are afoot to create temporary blue plaques to commemorate crew members lost at sea. They'll be more news on this and other dock related activity over the next few months leading up to the main celebrations in 2027.
Reading the records, open to all
For past four Wednesdays, we have held a series of sessions for a small group of visually impaired and blind people, collectively titled 'Reading the Records'. Six sessions have been planned in total, concentrating on different types of records. We've touched and talked our way through the 'treasures' of the Archives, Police records, tools of the trade - items used by archivists and conservators, listened to an array of sound recordings and handled a selection of media and associated machinery from the early 1900s, right up to the modern age. Our latest session will involve another partner service, the Gloucestershire Family History Society, who will be providing one to one assistance with online resources to research family histories. And, in our final session on 5th November, we will be reading from the school log books and hearing about the history of education in Gloucestershire.
Feeling the button samples from the Erinoid collection Undertaking conservation repairs with Rachel
Holding the first County Council minute book Inspecting Raikes the rat and a nibbled register
People have queried our use of traditional flyers to advertise the Reading the Records sessions as well as social media and word of mouth. It is worth noting that many people who are visually impaired can see to some degree and even if you are registered blind, there are all sorts of devices which can help you to navigate your surroundings.
Julie Stephens, a regular attendee who was born blind, gave us a short demonstration of the free and very clever app called ‘Be My Eyes’. You simply take a photograph of whatever you are trying to see and in a matter of seconds, an audio description will be sent to your phone. Whilst preparing for the 'Reading the Records' sessions, we’ve had to think outside the box. We've incorporated a touch and feel element using associated objects in each session and have selected particularly informative, amusing or sad pieces of text to read out. We initially thought that the traditional PowerPoint presentation wasn’t the best way to operate…or was it? This type of presentation might still be interesting for partially sighted people and/or carers with full sight. And by using the ‘Be My Eyes’ app, any images involved can be accurately described for everyone, meaning that the whole experience is inclusive.
Sound recordings. Heidi the guide dog was not impressed! Helen and Jemma accept the wand from Helen Wollington (Talking Newspapers)
We have also acquired a useful tool which I’m describing as a wand because it is quite magical! This small device can be pointed at text on a screen which can then be highlighted and enlarged, making it significantly easier for the audience to see. We are extremely grateful to Gloucester Talking Newspaper, who, represented by Helen Wollington, one of our regular volunteers, have purchased a wand for us to use, not just for Reading the Records presentations but for all our other learning and outreach activities too. We have also been supported by representatives of the Sight Loss Council as we've developed these sessions.
It has been a successful series and consequently, we plan to run it again in the New Year. We also have other ideas on how we can make our Service as accessible as possible. In September, thanks to funding from the Skilling Up the South West grant [more on this external award in our January 2026 newsletter], the Access and Engagement Team at Gloucestershire Archives visited Kresen Kernow, formerly known as Cornwall Record Office. We wanted to see what they had done with Heritage Lottery funding specifically aimed at making their service more accessible. We came back inspired. Consequently, in the New Year, we are planning to run a survey on how we can make the Heritage Hub more user friendly with a view to applying for funding ourselves in the near future. We want to ensure that our Service remains inclusive, interesting, relevant and appealing.