Geoff North
It was with great sadness that we learnt of the death of Geoff North on 17 January 2021 from Covid-19. Geoff was a member of the Friends of Gloucestershire Archives for many years and became a trustee in October 2019. We will miss his loyalty, friendship and wise counsel.
Geoff, and his late wife Elaine, were stalwarts of the Cheltenham Local History Society and the annual Gloucestershire Local History Association’s History Day, noted for their research, displays and second-hand local history bookstalls. Geoff was a regular visitor to Gloucestershire Archives and a leading expert on WW1 Voluntary Aid Detachment hospitals – he had a file on every one in the county, related photographs and artefacts and gave excellent talks on this topic and others. He and Elaine collected Gloucestershire postcards and original material relating to the Cheltenham area, which Geoff and Steve Blake had been sorting and depositing at Gloucestershire Archives.
He will be greatly missed by us all.
Prestbury Fields and Hill
The Friends of Gloucestershire Archives, together with generous contributions from both Cheltenham and Prestbury Local History Societies have successfully bid at auction for a bound volume containing a number of maps of ‘Prestbury Fields and Hill’ as allotted by an inclosure act of 1731.
Gloucestershire Archives doesn’t hold an official copy of the Inclosure map or award for Prestbury, and although several copies of the act and award can be found in our collections we don’t have any corresponding maps.
We’re very grateful for the support of all three organisations to enable this document to be permanently preserved and made available to researchers.
