Cheltenham Volunteers 2014-2022
Cheltenham Local History Society cataloguing volunteers was set up in 2014 following an invitation by the Archives to attend two training sessions to introduce us to the process of turning initial light weight cataloguing, by the Archive staff, into fully catalogued deposits.
Eight of us attended and those numbers have remained steady at between eight and ten for eight years. Around the same time Gloucestershire County History Trust took steps to complete the VCH Leadon Valley volume and to extend their support to a VCH volume on Cheltenham (Vol. 15). The cataloguing supported this move by embarking on cataloguing several large solicitors’ deposits. Other projects involved deposits related to Dowty, and maps and 20th century deposits from Cheltenham Borough Council, local Societies deposits. Other smaller deposits with particular relevance to Cheltenham and its environs, such as the Skillicorne (Cheltenham) and Prinn, Hunt and Russell (Charlton Kings) deposits have been tackled.
While Covid led to several ‘lock outs’ we have always returned, with similar numbers, as soon as restrictions were lifted. We have catalogued around 700+ boxes, numerous files, maps and folders, with the number of boxes increasing monthly. We are currently working on the D2202/acc 5213 which consists of around 80 boxes of a further deposit by Cheltenham solicitors’ Winterbotham and Bell, later Winterbotham and Gurney with Jessops. This task will be finish in the next month or so, and Kate Maisey is currently searching for our next task, which is planned to support early work on the parish of Charlton Kings or gaps in research for Cheltenham and Leckhampton.
Other members are currently working on cataloguing and repackaging Cheltenham photographs from the 20th/21st century and researching Leckhampton records to support Louise Ryland-Epton.
We have become a very social group who enjoy working at the Archives with the support given to us by the Archives’ staff.
Sally Self
VCH researchers with Cheltenham volunteers
11 July 2022