The Hub at the Festival of Archaeology

A few weeks ago, Ant and I had the opportunity to attend the Festival of Archaeology launch event at Westonbirt Arboretum. This event was organised by the Council for British Archaeology, who invited us to have a pop-up stall during the day.

The event gathered heritage organisations, archaeological groups and reenactors who offered archaeological and heritage-themed talks, stalls and activities throughout the day. Around 6,500 people attended the event, so it was all hands on deck at our stall.

We were set up in the shade (the day reached the low 30's, so we were very grateful) alongside other heritage organisations. Throughout the day, we greeted a whopping 75 visitors. We had productive conversations with visitors as we could hear directly about their experiences of our service. We were pleased to hear that many visitors had either heard of or used the Hub before.

It was important for us to represent all areas of the Hub, so we brought along lots of Police Archives, GFHS, Gloucestershire Archives and Heritage Walking Trail flyers. We also encouraged families to come along to the garden, especially as it's now the summer holidays. Our Heritage Hub pencils and ARA pin badges also went down well with younger visitors!

Before we left, we had a quick look around the reenactment stalls and had the opportunity to network with a few archaeological organisations. It was a successful day of outreach, and we're looking forward to seeing some new faces at the Archives.

Niamh Devlin