Building work started

Hurrah!  Works to create the Heritage Hub facilities at our Alvin Street premises in Gloucester are now underway, ably led by Paul Lander, the Site Manager employed by our builder, Lakehouse, to oversee things.

Heather Forbes, Head of Archives and Paul Lander, Site Manager for Lakehouse

Paul and his team have until the end of this year to complete the planned works, which will be done in two phases.  All being well, we should have the new Archives research room and Gloucestershire Family History Centre facilities up and running by the summer.  Meanwhile, we’re doing our best to offer a service that’s pretty much ‘business as usual’ for everyone that wants to use the documents in our collections. So we’re running a temporary research room in the Frith Centre, which is next to our main building – it’s a bit smaller than we’re used to but we can assure you of the same warm welcome!  

If you'd like to see how the building works are going, click on the 'Blogging a Building' link in the 'In this section' box at the far right of this page. 

 

Thank you to the Friends of Gloucestershire Archives

Making Gloucestershire Heritage Hub a reality

We are very grateful to the many organisations and individuals that have supported the 'For the Record' project that's allowing us to set up Gloucestershire Heritage Hub.  Our Head of Archives, Heather Forbes would like to acknowledge them in turn, beginning in this issue with a special thank you to the Friends of Gloucestershire Archives who have been journeying with us from the onset.

Heather Forbes, Head of Archives

 

Thank you, 'Friends', for your support

Our new Community Heritage Development Officer, Sally Middleton shared a quote that struck a chord with us all the other day: ‘Volunteers are unpaid, not because they are worthless, but because they are priceless’ (from The National Council for Voluntary Organisations’ conference, 2016).  And with the priceless role of volunteers very much in mind, I’d like to take this opportunity to thank the Friends of Gloucestershire Archives for their key role in supporting the ‘For the Record’ project.  Here are some examples:

Fundraising

The Friends kicked off their major fundraising efforts, initially needed to secure match funding for the crucial stage one bid to the Heritage Lottery Fund in 2014, with a sponsored marathon.  Since then the Friends Fundraising Committee has worked really hard, submitting a variety of funding bids and generating income to make the project plans a reality.   The building work is now fully funded so we’re currently working with them to raise monies for the furniture and fit-out, and for the activities to be delivered at the Hub once the new facilities are up and running.  I’m particularly grateful to fundraising committee members Stephen Haygarth, Clive Andrews and James Hodsdon, the OS map group, and all Friends who have supported the project with individual donations and/or supporting Friends’ events.

Developing Gloucestershire Heritage Hub

The Friends also play an important role on the 'For the Record' Stakeholders Advisory Board, which has been meeting every couple of months since 2014.  Represented by the Chair of the Friends, initially Stephen Haygarth and now Clive Andrews, they've made valuable contributions to discussions around plans to develop the emerging Gloucestershire Heritage Hub community, including decisions about the Hub building, branding and website, and this e-newsletter.  Along with other board members, they play a vital role in ensuring the project provides maximum benefit to our partners and those wishing to use archives. 

Friends are also helping us to make the right decisions about the new Heritage Hub facilities.  Most recently, we were very glad to have volunteer 'buddies' Liz Jack and Maureen Anderson with us when we were testing sound-insulated seating for people accessing Audio-Visual records or holding one to one conversations in busy parts of the Hub.  You can read more about this at https://gloucestershirearchives.wordpress.com/2017/03/03/blogging-a-building-2/  And, as we move forward with the Hub fit out, we're grateful to have the Friends on board with plans to develop displays that will enhance the visitor experience.  These include a wall mural to acknowledge the financial contributions that have helped to make the Hub a reality, the future donations that will help us to keep on developing it, and the key role of the Friends in making all of this possible.   

Many, many thanks to all our Friends!

Blogging a Building

 

Access & Learning Leader, Jill Shonk is writing a weekly blog about works that are happening to create the new Heritage Hub at the Archives' Alvin Street premises.  You can catch up with her 'Blogging a Building' diary entries via the links on the Gloucestershire Archives' Blog Homepage at: https://gloucestershirearchives.wordpress.com/.  And you can stay up to date with future entries by becoming a Gloucestershire Archives blog 'follower'.  You'll find the 'sign up' box if you scroll down the menu on the right hand side of the blog Homepage, as shown below: 

If you decide to follow us your information will be held securely and you can unsubscribe at any point.

Keeping Digital Archives Safe

Our e-preservation experts are developing standards and procedures to process digital material effectively and keep it secure and accessible into the future. They’ll be sharing this as part of the Gloucestershire Heritage Hub training programme, which will be offered at the new Heritage Hub venue and via the Heritage Hub website.

 

Solving the digital dilemma

Have you ever lost a digital document or wondered what to do with your ever-expanding array of digital photos?  If so, you're not alone!  But, rest assured, we're on the case at Gloucestershire Archives as digital records are just as important as traditional paper-based records.  Here's what we're doing to tackle the technical challenges they present and ensure the digital records in our collections are safe - also our plans to help others, like you, do the same.

As part of the 'For the Record' project, and using Heritage Lottery funding, we’ve been able to employ an archivist experienced in e-preservation, Claire Collins to lead on our digital preservation provision.  She has been working with our Heritage Lottery funded Skills for Future trainee, Ros Farr and four volunteers, including two students recruited from Gloucestershire University’s Degree Plus placement scheme.  And they’ve been using a software toolkit (‘SCAT’) to process digital records donated to Gloucestershire Archives. The toolkit, based on a low cost approach using open-source software, has been developed for us by one of our longstanding volunteers, Dr Viv Cothey, a nationally recognised expert in the field of e-preservation.  It allows us to create, store and access ‘packages’ of data safely over time – replicating, in a virtual world, much of what we do to look after our traditional collections.

We’ve also joined a network of English public archives services that are working in partnership with The National Archives on a six month project called Archives First. The project aims to ensure important records can be preserved and accessed beyond the life of a particular software system (15 years is a long time in this respect!) and some of the activity involves liaising with suppliers of major software systems used by local government. 

All of this is helping us shape the advice and support we're going to offer to local people.  We’ll be doing this through online and onsite training once the new Gloucestershire Heritage Hub website and venue are up and running.

Heritage Hub Collections Care training at Dr Jenner’s House

On 2 March this year, Gloucestershire Archives Collections Care team (Ann Attwood & Rachel Wales) went to Dr Jenner's House, Museum and Garden to train volunteers in Collections Care.   The Jenner Trust is an independent charity which cares for The Chantry, where Dr Edward Jenner practised as a country doctor, and celebrates his life, work and achievements as the father of vaccination and the science of immunology.

The Trust contacted us in December to ask if Gloucestershire Archives could provide collections care training for five of their archive volunteers. Three or four of the volunteers were relatively new and hadn’t had any formal training before.  Much of their work is basic collections care, packing, handling and cleaning. 

As we are in the process of developing the modules for our Heritage Hub ‘Keeping’ training, which provides support for organisations preserving documentary history in Gloucestershire, we were glad to work with the Jenner Trust to provide a training event that would be useful for their volunteers, and potentially others too.  They were also happy to act as a ‘critical friend’, and to give us plenty of feedback to help us develop future training modules.

By the end of the morning volunteers could:

• Understand the importance of collections care
• Identify and manage risks to their collection
• Understand and source archival materials
• Appreciate a range of options for protecting collections
• Use and handle collections in a safe way
• Practice improved basic craft skills
• Use simple protective enclosures
• Link collections care activity to a helpful framework
• Prioritise improvements
• Be aware of other trusted sources of collections care help and advice
• And begin their own journey – by taking away an action plan.

Our aim is to establish and build relationships with people and organisations keeping and caring for archive collections in Gloucestershire by offering Collections Care ‘pick & mix’ training modules linked to heritage sector benchmarks in collection care, with follow-on support as required (charges may apply).

Other modules in development are:

• 'House-keeping' including cleaning, pest control, environmental control and mould prevention
• 'Safe Use' including preparation for display and for digitisation
• 'Specialist' such as caring for photographs, finding and working with a conservator, and salvage of water damaged items.

Training being delivered to The Jenner Trust volunteers.

Rachel shows volunteers how to use a bone folder to get the perfect fold!

 

Eating an elephant…

We have lots of information on our website to help people find, use and understand the archive and local study collections we look after.   As part of our preparations to become the Heritage Hub, we are looking at these resources with a fresh eye to make sure they are accessible, relevant and up to date.  It’s a big task and so we’re following the well - known advice on how to eat an elephant,  and  tackling it bit by bit!  We started  off with our online parish register guide as the website stats tell us that this is one of our most popular downloads. The majority of parish registers which we hold can now be viewed and searched on Ancestry’s website so we’ve updated the guide -and the online catalogue- to reflect this.   We’ve also made sure our extensive series (64 in all!) of research “mini guides” are up to date and take account of our recent digitisation partnerships with Ancestry and Know Your Place.  These short but informative little guides cover key topics and types of documents.  They include useful tips on how to find specific collections in the online catalogue and are well worth checking out if you haven’t already seen them.   Research guides - Gloucestershire Archives

 

The Research Mini Guides window.

Gloucestershire Local History Association

About Gloucestershire Local History Association

Gloucestershire Local History Association (GLHA) is a voluntary organisation of around 50 local history groups across Gloucestershire.  We aim 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.  You can discover more about us at gloshistory.org.uk  Our activities include an annual Summer meeting, hosted by one of our member organisations.  This year's event will be in Tewkesbury on the afternoon of 24 June 2017 and Tewkesbury Historical Society will be our host. It will begin in Tewkesbury’s historic Old Baptist Chapel, which recently benefited from Heritage Lottery funding, and there will be an opportunity to see a newly-built ‘interactive’ scale model, showing how the Chapel changed form between the 1500s and the 1970s. Please come along if you're interested - you can download our event programme and a booking form here - we'd be pleased to welcome you.  Meantime, you can have a sneaky peek at some images of the scale model if you click on the 'Tewkesbury Old Baptist Chapel' link in the 'In this section' box at the far right of this page. 

  

Featuring Tewkesbury Local History Society, one of GLHA's member organisations              

Tewkesbury Historical Society was formed in 1991, to fill a vacuum in a historical town which had no historical society.  Besides the usual monthly meetings of such societies, members are involved in researching the town’s history and are keen to make this important information accessible in both written and digital media. 

With this in mind, the Society publishes an annual Bulletin of Research which, over the period, has merited two winners and nineteen members short-listed for the Jerrard Award.          

It has also marked significant milestones, such as the 50^th Anniversary of the loss of the town's railway in 1961, and published biographies of the citizens killed in both World Wars.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                       

                              

Tewkesbury Local History Society sees its website, ths.freeuk.com, as an increasingly important method of communication.  Recently, it also made its Woodard Digital Database of Local History, the outcome of a 25 year project, available to members online via Google Drive.

The Society is looking forward to welcoming the county’s historical enthusiasts to this year's Gloucestershire Local History Association Summer meeting, which it is hosting for the second time. David Elder, author of THS Publication 10, Literary Tewkesbury will be leading one of the guided tours. 

Old Baptist Chapel, Tewkesbury

Back in 2015 Gloucestershire Archives was pleased to support the Tewkesbury-based John Moore Museum's bid to Heritage Lottery Fund for a project to make the town's historic Old Baptist Chapel more accessible.  The 1:12 scale model of the Chapel shown below was commissioned as part of the same project. It was designed and built by Mark Cunningham and Nigel Cox, working to a brief supplied by Simon Lawton and Jemma Fowkes and can be configured to demonstrate the four main periods in the life of the building: a 1500s Merchant’s House; early 1700s Baptist Chapel; 1800s reduced Chapel and cottages; and the Chapel as restored by Freddie Charles in the 1970s.  As you can see, it is an attractive and accessible way to help people understand the history of this important local landmark.

 

You can discover more about the Chapel by going along to Gloucestershire Local History Association's 2017 summer event, which is being hosted by Tewkesbury Local History Society.  Click on the 'Gloucestershire Local History Association' link in the 'In this section' box at the far right of this page for more information.  

Victoria County History

 

The Victoria County History (VCH) is a national project to write an authoritative history of all the parishes in England.  Although the project began in 1899, it had a slow start in Gloucestershire: a general volume was published in 1907 but work on the detailed parish histories did not start until 1960.  By 2010, when funding from the county council and University of Gloucestershire came to an end, nine volumes covering almost half the county had been published. These are available to consult at Gloucestershire Archives and most of them are also available online http://www.british-history.ac.uk/search/series/vch--glos.

The Gloucestershire County History Trust was set up in October 2010 to enable the project to continue locally.  It supports the VCH Gloucestershire Academy, a group of editors, commissioned by the Trust, that is working with volunteers to undertake the necessary research and writing.  The County Archivist, Heather Forbes serves as a trustee and we have received generous practical and moral support from both her and her staff, with the Archives' Alvin Street premises providing an important hub for our activities.  In September 2016 we published The Vale of Gloucester and Leadon Valley (Volume 13), which completed coverage of the county west of the River Severn.  We are currently working on 3 areas:

14: Yate and the Sodburys,

15: Cheltenham hundred,

16: Cirencester and district.

We welcome new members to the Academy, whatever their interests and experience. We are also seeking people to act as local ‘ambassadors’ and as trustees, particularly from Cirencester and South Gloucestershire. If you are interested, do contact me.

As we write sections of editorial, we post the drafts (https://www.victoriacountyhistory.ac.uk/counties/gloucestershire/work-in-progress), on which we welcome comments.

You can find out more from the VCH Gloucestershire Academy website where you can also download our regular newsletter.

Jan Broadway

admin@vchglosacademy.org

 

Victoria County History – South Gloucestershire

VCH Volume Gloucestershire XIV - Yate and district.  Work on the three adjacent parishes of Chipping Sodbury, Lttle Sodbury and Old Sodbury began in 2016 and is expected to take about two years.  Beth Hartland is researching the medieval period for all three parishes, while Phil Baker works on the early modern and later material.

We have been very fortunate to receive significant grant support for this stage from the Bristol & Gloucestershire Archaeological Society and further assistance from South Gloucestershire Council and Hanson plc.

If you are interested in joining the volunteers who are helping with the research for this volume, please see our Academy website for more details.

Comments on the drafts are very welcome, and should be addressed to vchglos@btinternet.com. The first two are about schools, and are posted at https://www.victoriacountyhistory.ac.uk/counties/gloucestershire/work-in-progress/sodburys.

 

History project seeks local coordinator

You may have seen the new history of Yate by Rose Wallis, which came out in 2015. The research for it was carried out by a charity, the Gloucestershire County History Trust – supported by a South Glos Council grant. It was the first step in a new project to investigate and write up all the nearby parishes, to the national standards set by the Victoria County History (VCH). The Trust has now begun work on Chipping Sodbury, and draft sections written by our main researcher, Phil Baker, are starting to appear online, at

https://www.victoriacountyhistory.ac.uk/counties/gloucestershire/work-in-progress/sodburys . Another researcher, Beth Hartland, is working on the medieval sources for all three Sodbury parishes.

 Although most of the specialised investigation is done by paid professionals, there’s a lot that volunteers can do, especially with more recent sources. This was true at Yate, and we’d like to create a similar set-up at Chipping Sodbury, where we already know there are willing hands. However, what the Trust lacks is someone on the spot, to provide a personal bridge between local volunteers (and their local knowledge) and the rest of the ‘VCH Glos’ effort, whose centre of gravity tends be Gloucester itself, where many of the relevant archives are.

 Ideally, we’d like someone with an active heritage/history interest, who is local to the Sodburys and perhaps also knows the scene in the neighbouring parishes we’ll be tackling in due course. In the first instance, the task is to organise, guide and encourage volunteers, and generally promote the project locally – adding up to a few hours per week. Depending on inclination and aptitude, there are also openings for new trustees.

 If this sounds like you, or someone you know, then James Hodsdon, chair of the Trust, would be delighted to hear from you: jj49@btinternet.com or 01242-233045.

 The Yate book is available from the Yate Heritage Centre and Chipping Sodbury Tourist Information, as well as public libraries.

 

The Dowty Project

Still in its very early days, the Dowty Heritage Project is looking to gather memories from former employees and other people with a connection to Dowty.  We already have some willing interviewees lined up and are in the process of arranging suitable times for chats.  We would like to hear from others too, as this will help us to create a more comprehensive record of the firm's social history.  So please email archives@gloucestershire.gov.uk if you'd like to take part.  Meantime, we're pleased that two new volunteers have come on board to help with interviewing and are arranging for them to receive training soon. 

We'll be adding these spoken histories to the extensive Dowty archive, which is held at Gloucestershire Archives.  And once the new onsite Heritage Hub is up and running we'll be working with a project archivist to catalogue this important collection, which was rescued from destruction over 20 years ago after a takeover of Dowty in the early nineties. We'll also be on the lookout for other documented memorabilia about Dowty eg things that retired employees might be looking after personally.  We'd like to make sure this is well looked after and to share the hidden histories that emerge, and we'll be working with Archives staff to help make this a reality. 

 

      

Gloucestershire Family History Society

Gloucestershire Family History Society's new Family History Centre is on its way. 

Building works are underway to create a new home for Gloucestershire Family History Society's Family History Centre.  The new Centre will be based in Gloucestershire Heritage Hub, which is being developed at Gloucestershire Archives' Alvin Street premises as part of the 'For the Record' project.  It will provide a bright and spacious area where people will be supported to research the histories of people with local, national and international roots.  And there will be a dedicated office for Gloucestershire Family History Society (GFHS) volunteers.  In this article GFHS Chairman, David Howells shares what's going on behind the scenes to prepare for the move.   

 

Image shows the new Family History Centre under development

Preparing for the move to our new premises

We're not going far (our current premises are already on the Gloucestershire Archives site, adjacent to the main Archives building) but our planned move is definitely keeping us busy.  As well as working with Archives staff to develop customer services arrangements for the new Heritage Hub, our Family History Centre volunteers have been going through our paperwork and assets to see what we can get rid of.  This means we sometimes have equipment and books available at the Family History Centre for a suitable donation. It's worth checking from time to time to see what's available as we're offering everything on a first come first served basis.  We anticipate there will be more to sort out when we get there.

There's still quite a lot to do and it'd be good to have some extra help, especially with the move itself, which is likely to be in July.  Please contact any of our Family History Centre volunteers if you would be able to support us in any way.  You can do this by dropping in or via the contact details on our website at http://gfhs.org.uk/the-society/contact-us/

Our Ongoing Activities

Our Family History Centre will be open as usual whilst we prepare for our move.  We're also busy with a number of projects:

Memorial Inscriptions, War Memorials & Rolls of Honour

Some of our volunteers are currently photographing and transcribing Memorial Inscriptions, and adding these to the current records that we hold.  And we have other volunteers who are doing the same with War Memorials and Rolls of Honour.  We're putting all this information, both newly created and already created, on a searchable database and will be making it available to our Family History Centre visitors to search; it currently contains approximately 110,000 names.

Gloucester Old Cemetery Removed Headstones

In the 1970’s the decision was taken by Gloucester City Council to remove headstones in the old cemetery in Tredworth Road, Gloucester. At the time the Cemetery staff recorded the inscriptions in a number of ledgers. Some of our members are transcribing these records which will eventually be put onto a database in the Family History Centre for visitors to search.

Other projects

All of which require volunteers; please register your interest at the Family History Centre.

We very much look forward to the move and generating a wider interest in Family History generally. Meantime, you can visit our website here

Friends of Gloucestershire Archives

 

The Friends of Gloucestershire Archives have a unique role among the organisations associated with the Heritage Hub. First, we raise funds to support the Archives, particularly important in these days of local authority austerity.  Secondly, we promote the Archives’ activities so that more people understand and appreciate the importance of the county’s documented heritage.

We are actively encouraged in our work by our Patron, Dame Janet Trotter, the Lord Lieutenant of Gloucestershire who is also Custos Rotulorum, the custodian of the county’s records and documents.

Over the past two years the Friends have raised almost £100,000 towards the cost of the Heritage Hub. We are determined to continue fundraising for document purchase, equipment and any other things which will benefit the Archives.  Some members also give valuable time to transcribe and catalogue documents.

Another activity of which we were immensely proud was the establishment of Gloucester Rugby Heritage, a project to preserve and catalogue Gloucester Rugby Club’s historical documents.  This featured in the Winter 2016 edition of this newsletter and you can find the article at: glos-heritage-hub.tfemagazine.co.uk/heritage-hub-winter-2016/local-history/gloucester-rugby-heritage  Gloucester Rugby Heritage has been so successful that it recently became a charity in its own right. 

In order to promote the Archives, the Friends have agreed to sponsor some of the talks at this year’s Gloucester History Festival. We are also exploring how members can be ‘ambassadors’ in their local communities, watching out for documents which might be lost if not deposited at the Archives.

Like many other Heritage Hub affiliates, local members also have the opportunity to meet together to hear talks and enjoy occasional outings to places of historic interest, especially ones not normally accessible to the general public.

It is an exciting time for the Friends, one full of fresh opportunities. New members are always welcome and we are currently encouraging membership from Archive visitors who come from beyond the County of Gloucestershire but care about its heritage.  The membership fee is small but the chance to make a real difference is considerable. Visit our website at: www.foga.org.uk

Know Your Place: West of England

The 1st, 2nd & 3rd editions of all Gloucestershire Ordnance Survey maps have been uploaded. Gloucestershire Archives’ tithe and inclosure maps have also been digitised and will be added soon. Groups can now start adding images and other content to the community layer. http://kypwest.org.uk

The project runs until June 2017 and expands on the very successful Know Your Place Bristol website. The project is funded by the Heritage Lottery Fund, with generous match funding and support from local authorities and heritage groups in the region.

Help us to run a successful series of events

We are working with a number of museums, archives, and cultural and heritage centres across the region to organise and host a series of community events targeted at local interest groups and the public.

People from all over Gloucestershire taking part in a workshop at Museum in the Park, Stroud.

 

We are recruiting events volunteers to help run and support these events across Gloucestershire, Bristol, Bath, Somerset and Wiltshire. For more information and a detailed description of the role and how to apply, contact: Alice Millard, Assistant Project Officer, kypwestofengland@southglos.gov.uk

Avon Local History and Archaeology

ALHA’s local history day 2017 will be held at UWE Frenchay on Saturday 22 April. The topic will be The Street, broadly interpreted. Streets are so much an everyday feature of ordinary life that we tend to take them for granted. They differ in their origins, in how they have changed over the years, in how we and our predecessors have used them, what part they have played in people’s lives, how they looked (to artists as well as users) and how the look of them has changed. Streets have had their ups and downs, not just physically but also in how people have regarded them socially.

         

 

 Our speakers, from different parts of our area, will look at various aspects of streets at different dates in different places and over different periods of time, and will outline their changes, visually, environmentally and socially. Presenters include -

Pat Hase on Weston-super-Mare High Street;

John Chandler on Chipping Sodbury;

Mike Manson on Old Market, Bristol;

Peter Malpass on Corn Street;

Jenny Gaschke on the Braikenridge street views; and

Steve Poole on policing street disorder.

For further information: www.alha.org.uk; William Evans, Tel, ans and fax 0117 968 4979. wm.evans@btopenworld.com

Aerospace Bristol

Construction of the new Concorde building is well under way with the roof and external cladding fully completed and internal fit-out in progress. Listed building hangar 16S now has a new power-floated floor and near completion of the internal structures for the visitor services and learning spaces. The retail fit-out contractor has been appointed and catering fit-out about to be tendered. The construction and fit-out programme remains on schedule for opening in early summer 2017.

Exhibition design is complete and most packages have been tendered or at Invitations to Tender stage covering fit-out, graphics, mounts, showcases, AV and interactives.

Over 140 active volunteers have now largely completed the conservation and restoration of the large objects going on display. These are now being wrapped and ready to move to the museum in the first 3 months of 2017. Small object conservation is being carried out by two Conservators seconded from Bristol Museums Services The curatorial team are finalising text and image selection from our archives and external sources

Of the £19m budget, there remains a £2m funding gap. The Bristol Aero Collection Trust has launched a public appeal for support.

Linda Coode/Adam Jones

South Gloucestershire Council

South Gloucestershire in the First World War Project: 2014 – 2018

This project commemorates the contribution of the local people during the First World War and the challenges they faced. The project is unique because many of the WW1 projects only ran for the first year of the centenary. This project runs from 2014 – 2018, the full span of the centenary of the Great War. It is funded by the HLF and South Gloucestershire Council.

The elements used by the project are wide-ranging, diverse and innovative, from online learning resources, school visits, and a social media drama on ‘Twitter’ to the use of QR codes. With a local South Gloucestershire focus it encourages a wide range of people to want to find out more about the history of their local area during the First World War.

There are 62 war memorials in South Gloucestershire and an estimated 1500 names of people who were killed. This part of the project enables all the family and military information that can be found of each of those names in one place on the project website.

 A QR (Quick Read) code

www.southglos.gov.uk/ww1 for further information Cherry Hubbard, Project Engagement Officer, cherry.hubbard’southglos.gov.uk

  

A Forgotten Landscape Project

This season’s talks will be at Tockington Methodist Church, Lower Tockington Road, Tockington BS32 4LG.

Talks start at 7:30 and run for about an hour. Talks are free but you MUST book your place at http://www.aforgottenlandscape.org.uk/get-involved/events/

For AFL Project news, events and opportunities, generally, www.aforgottenlandscape.org.uk/get-involved  Or contact Katie Scaife on 01454 863 043 or Katie.scaife@southglos.gov.uk

 

      

 

The Station Road Centenary

Aircraft has clearly played a leading role in the modern industrial history of Gloucestershire and inevitably we focus on Bristol and Gloucester aircraft history. Nevertheless, a lesser known event is also taking place namely the Centenary of the Station Road industrial site in Yate, another key element of the Gloucestershire aircraft story.

In 1917, German POWs based in Yate completed the construction of a vast military industrial unit,  the Western Aircraft Repair Depot, one of a handful of air bases tasked with repairing aircraft, which were enduring staggering losses at this time.

 

With an aircraft and engine repair works and airfield, Yate became a vital cog in the West Country war effort. During the 1920s and 1930s, the western side of the plant continued aircraft production and eventually specialised in aircraft gun turrets. The factory proved a victim of its own success. The German Luftwaffe identified the plant as a key target and struck twice in early 1941, leading to 55 casualties. It was the most traumatic event in the history of Yate. Production continued in several dispersal site around Bristol and Gloucestershire.

 

 

After 1945, the site spawned Parnall (Yate), which manufactured anything from cookers to washing machines to the modern Whirlpool tumble-dryer. Like Parnall Aircraft before 1945, the site has a commuting workforce from Bristol and Gloucestershire and remains a significant manufacturing force in the region.    

The Centenary celebrations will take place in May 2017 at the present Whirlpool factory.

Yate Heritage Centre

 

South Gloucestershire Museums Group

South Gloucestershire Museums Group is an unincorporated association. The aims of the group are to promote inspiration, learning and enjoyment through the exploration of museum collections for the benefit of local communities and the general public.

Membership is open to museums and heritage centres that are open to the public and whose collecting area is wholly or partly within South Gloucestershire.

Meetings take place about five times a year at different museums and are organised by the ex-officio secretary, the South Gloucestershire museums and heritage officer. The meetings include museum development to take the opportunity of providing training and development when representatives of local museums, who may be trustees and/or volunteers or professional staff, come together in one place. Where applicable, downloadable presentations from these sessions are available on this page. 

Group members:

• Acton Court
• Aerospace Bristol (Bristol Aerospace Collection Trust)
• Avon Valley Railway (Avon Valley Railway Trust)
• Dyrham Park (National Trust)
• Frenchay Village Museum (Frenchay Tuckett Society)
• Kingswood Heritage Museum (Kingswood Heritage Museum Trust)
• South Gloucestershire Mines Research Group
• Thornbury and District Museum (Thornbury and District Heritage Trust)
• Rolls Royce Heritage Museum (Rolls Royce Heritage Trust)
• Winterbourne Medieval Barn (Winterbourne Medieval Barn Trust)
• Yate and District Heritage Centre (Yate Town Council)

Touring exhibition promotes heritage

We are launching a pop-up travelling exhibition to promote local heritage.

The museums group, has created an exhibition of nine exhibition banners/stands to promote and raise the profile of heritage generally. It is hoped that this will also attract more enquiries of and visitors to each museum and heritage site

As well as an introduction panel, there is a banner for Avon Valley Railway, Frenchay Village Museum, Kingswood Heritage Museum, Thornbury and District Museum, Yate and District Heritage Centre, Acton Court, Winterbourne Medieval Barn, and Aerospace Bristol.

For more information please visit the S.Glos museum development page at South Gloucestershire Council

 

 

Great War Drama Project

The new Great War Drama Project is to create a heritage learning resource as a new play for South Gloucestershire schools about the First World War and how members of this community were affected at home and on the battlefield of the Somme. The Brass Works Theatre will work in partnership with South Gloucestershire Council (including their 4 local heritage centres), several South Gloucestershire schools and UWE to complete this project.

This project will explore the real lives of people from South Gloucestershire in 1916 in order to create characters for the piece from real history. This will build on the foundations of the Twitter project, which was run by South Gloucestershire Council as part of their FWW project. It created an innovative window on the heritage of people in South Gloucestershire during the Battle of the Somme. It enabled the public to view snippets of the lives of 10 characters, both at home and in France, through the medium of Twitter. Followers were able to get a flavour of these stories through tweets.

         

 

To read more about the characters visit   South Glos About The Somme

So far Adrian Harris from Brass Works Theatre, with assistance from Cherry Hubbard, Engagement Officer, WW1 Engagement with Gloucestershire, has been into Bradley Stoke School, Mangotsfield School and Kings Oak and Sir Bernard Lovell with 6 workshops. This means the Great War Drama Project will have engaged with 150 year 9 school children.

Contact: Adrian Harris: adrian.papercut@googlemail.com

Police Archive Volunteers and website

We have had lots of interest in our website gloucestershirepolicearchives.org.uk  The website has been created by the Gloucestershire Police Archive Volunteers. The Archive Volunteers group was establised in the year 2000 as a Millenium project.  Since then a database of archive material and images has been created which contains almost 2,000 entries - with many more waiting to be added.

We also have a growing group of volunteers and interns from the University of Gloucestershire working on preserving memories through oral history and collecting more photographs.

Please get in touch if you would like to join us.  The website is a new venture and we would love some help! You don’t have to be an IT whizz- our website is designed for community use and you’ll be shown how to upload content.  So if you would like to join our team and help to preserve and share Gloucestershire Constabulary’s unique archive collection, contact kate.maisey@gloucestershire.gov.uk .  You will receive a warm welcome.