Gloucestershire Local History Association
Who are we?
GLHA is a voluntary organisation made up of around 50 local history groups, societies and organisations across Gloucestershire. It was formed in 2012, following the winding up of the Gloucestershire Rural Community Council’s Local History Committee, which had operated since 1948.
What do we do?
GLHA aims to promote local history throughout the county and to encourage as many people as possible to become involved with the history of where they live.
We are very good at helping with a range of local history enquiries and we can put you in touch with our wide network of relevant local history groups.
The Association acts as a ‘portal’ helping to distribute information about local history activities throughout the county to its members.
Our website www.gloshistory.org.uk is home to a lot of useful information such as:
- Details of the Association’s own events and activities;
- A list of the county’s local history organisations (wherever possible with links to their own websites);
- Details of member groups’ regular meetings;
- Local history speakers;
- Tours and visits offered by a range of organisations;
- Book reviews; and
- Downloadable PDFs of all 120 articles included in the Local History Committee’s annual publication, Gloucestershire History, between 1987 and 2011.
Part of Gloucestershire Heritage Hub
GLHA has had a close relationship with Gloucestershire Archives for a considerable time: our quarterly Forums are held at the Alvin Street building and are always attended by at least one member of the Archives’ staff.
We look forward to welcoming our member groups to Hub activities and helping to spread the word about the work other Hub partners are doing also. We encourage our members to get stuck in at every available opportunity by undertaking projects at the Archives. We often link collections of original material more closely with the collections at Alvin Street, promoting correct care, conservation and documentation in order to preserve our finds for the future.
GLHA is looking forward to maintaining and strengthening this relationship as a partner in the Heritage Hub. We hope to get more people involved in discovering and researching local history as part of a community.
How do I get involved?
The Association organises a number of events throughout the year. These include:
- Four Member Forums, at which representatives of member groups meet to discuss matters of common interest, and to hear a presentation from a speaker on a specific local history-based topic. These have recently included presentations on the Gloucestershire Constabulary Archive, the ‘Know Your Place West of England’ project and the Gloucestershire Gardens & Landscape Trust;
- A Summer Local History Afternoon of talks and tours hosted and organised by one of its members; recent meetings have been held at St Briavels, Lechlade and Chipping Campden;
- An annual Local History Day on a specific theme, which features a number of talks and displays on the chosen theme prepared by some of GLHA’s member groups. Recent Local History Days have focused on ‘Gloucestershire’s special houses’ , ‘The effects of World War 1 on Gloucestershire communities’, and ‘Immigration and Emigration, to from and within Gloucestershire’. The next Local History Day, to be held on 18 March 2017, will have ‘Gardens for food, fun and flowers’ as its theme; and
- A summer evening visit to a place of historic interest within the county; recent visits have been made to the Stroud textile mills, Sharpness docks and Llanthony Secunda Priory.
Cheltenham Local History Society history day 2016.
You can view our Gloucestershire Archives blog here at https://gloucestershirearchives.wordpress.com/