New staff, new social media, new deposits...
Numerous people have started their archive and heritage careers at Gloucestershire Archives through paid positions, volunteering tasks and/or work experience. Last September we were delighted to welcome two new members of staff to our Service.
Ally Bartley (on the right) is based in the Access and Engagement Team and is also helping us with our communications. She is the driving force behind our new and increasingly successful Instagram account. Please click here to subscribe.
Niamh Devlin (on the left) is our Trainee Archivist and as well as being involved with research room duties, is learning how to accession and catalogue new deposits, broadening her experience so that she can undertake the post graduate archive administration qualification in the near future. Here she describes the collections she has been working on so far:
Only 4 months into 2026, the Collections Management Team have already taken in over 150 accessions. As Trainee Archivist, I’ve worked with the team to process some of these accessions and I’d like to highlight a few stand-out collections which I’ve enjoyed working on.
In March we received a photo album which contained photographs and newspaper cuttings of a campaign to save the Coln St Aldwyns village pub, The New Inn. This album is an excellent record of community spirit and successful village campaigning. When boxing the album, I used one of our “composite” boxes, ideal for when we have individual or small groups of records that will not fill up an entire box alone. We always try to maximise the space in our strong rooms. We’ve posted about the album on our Facebook and Instagram pages, where you can read more about the campaign and have a look at photographs in the album.
Another recent accession I’ve enjoyed cataloguing came from Tewkesbury Museum. They deposited three volumes which belonged to Raymond Priestly, who was born in Tewkesbury and joined various Antarctic expeditions. The volumes have been personalised by Priestley including photographs, illustrations, signatures and newspaper cuttings all relating to the expeditions he was a part of. I’ll be going into more detail in an upcoming Hub blog, which you can visit here
The album and volumes were particularly exciting to process. However, I’m now looking forward to working on new accessions including material from the Cotswold Savoyard group and the Women’s Institute. The wider team have been tackling larger parish collections, digital accessions including our recent all-staff photograph and photographic slides and glass plates of Gloucester and Tewkesbury. As a result of this work, they'll soon be lots of new online catalogue entries for you to browse, order and enjoy.
Incoming accessions
We get new items every week added to our collections, coming from a wide variety of people and places across Gloucestershire.
Earlier this year we received the papers of William Lionel Joyce Ford, who was a priest in the Church of England in the late-19th century and early-20th century, collection reference D17358. We received his ordination certificates as deacon and priest and a photograph of William. Parish records and documents relating to the church regularly come to the archive although the personal records of priests themselves aren’t usually included. It is especially satisfying to put a face to these documents, making them come to life.
The collection also includes a certificate of merit for his wife Dorothy Sumner for attendance at Guild meetings. Dorothy was the daughter of Reginald Sumner, a solicitor and warden of St Mark’s Church, Gloucester. The documents were given to the archive by a descendant of William and Dorothy in January 2026.
In addition to the many deposits for parishes, councils, businesses and families, we also get slightly unusual collections covering local events and topics. Earlier this year we received two volumes of election posters, collection reference D17417. They are from 1802 to 1919 and include newspaper cuttings and posters for local events. They cover Cirencester and the surrounding area in the most part but also have examples from Stroud and other districts of Gloucestershire.
They are particularly interesting as they have been collated together so we can see how local politics developed across the area over time. They also include some fascinating allegations made against opponents. They are also large, with dimensions of 53cm x 43cm x 12cm and 53cm x 42cm x 9cm. Having these posters together in two volumes is unusual and very useful for researching local history across the 19th and early 20th centuries. It makes it much easier to follow stories and campaigns and how they relate to events across the county and the country.
You are welcome to view either of the collections mentioned above in our public searchroom. For information on making an appointment and registering for an ARA Archives card (our reader's pass) please see the Visit Us section on our website. Also, if you are interested in hearing more about new incoming material, we publish a blog about our accessions every month, available here