Gloucestershire Archives
An Archivist remembers….
I started working at Gloucestershire Record Office (as it then was) on 31st July 1989, so it seemed tidy to retire on 31st July 2026, especially as it’s a Friday! I began and end my career in the Collections Management team, but spent most of my years either as an Archivist in the Searchroom, or attached to that team. Over these 37 years I’ve worked with some wonderful colleagues, many fantastically dedicated volunteers who have seen so many valuable projects through to completion, and several local groups and organisations. I’ve had the chance to acquire many new skills and interests, including how to use maps to investigate features in the landscape, and how to conduct successful reminiscence recordings. We won’t mention copyright!
You haven’t seen the last of me. Although I don’t plan on volunteering myself, I hope to return as a researcher later in the year. And it seems appropriate to nominate my favourite document held in the Archives. As many colleagues know all too well, that would be D1099/P2, the 17th Century post-enclosure map of Homestallend, part of the Manor of Todenham, which is attractively coloured, has nice added features, and unusually shows buildings in 3D, rather than the usual block plan.
As one of my aims now is to learn at least rudimentary Japanese, I hope this isn’t Sayonara! Best wishes everyone!
Paul Evans
Gloucestershire Archives named joint winner of national sustainability award
Heather Forbes, Christina Wheeler and Hannah Basnett (Green Pledge Project sponsor, project manager and project officer) receiving the award from paleoanthropologist, author, and stand-up comedian Ella Al-Shamahi in London, May 2026). Photo credit: Hayley Bray
Gloucestershire Archives has been named joint winner of Sustainable Project of the Year at the Museums + Heritage Awards 2026, alongside Lambeth Palace. The award recognises outstanding environmental action across the heritage sector and celebrates projects that show how sustainability can be embedded into both buildings and day-to-day practice.
The Archives received the award for its two-year Green Pledge Project funded by the National Lottery Heritage Fund, which brought together work on collections, community engagement and practical carbon reduction. Through the project, staff, volunteers and partners explored Gloucestershire’s environmental history while also taking direct action to reduce the organisation’s own environmental impact.
Work included an environmental audit, the installation of solar panels and electric vehicle charging points, biodiversity improvements, waste reduction, and the replacement of energy-hungry systems with lower-energy alternatives. The project contributed to a major improvement in the building’s energy performance, moving it from a G rating to an A rating.
The project also had a strong public-facing element. Gloucestershire Archives catalogued and promoted environmental records, collected new environmental collections, worked with partners including Project Grow and Wiggly in the community garden, and used creative activities such as the travelling exhibitions, talks and an installation at Cheltenham Science Festival to encourage people to make personal climate pledges.
Judges praised the Green Pledge Project as an example of broad community impact and deep organisational commitment to environmental sustainability. For Gloucestershire Archives, the award is not only national recognition for a successful project, but also a powerful statement about the role archives can play in helping communities understand the past, respond to the climate crisis and create lasting change for the future.
Read all about it here
The project was also awarded ‘highly commended’ in Gloucestershire County Council’s own excellence awards last month.
Gloucestershire Archives Summer Work Experience Week (13–17 July)
Between 13 and 17 July, Gloucestershire Archives hosted its second summer group work experience programme. Eight students, aged 15–17 (Years 10–12), from seven schools across the county took part: Holmleigh Park High School, Severn Vale School, Ribston Hall High School, Stroud High School, Churchdown School Academy, Newent Community School and Cheltenham Bournside School.
The main project for the week was to work collaboratively to create an exhibition on the community noticeboards for our September Saturday event, Go with the Flow which will explore the theme of rivers.
The students began by searching our online catalogue for documents relating to local rivers and waterways. Through their own research, they identified eight topics to focus on: river dangers and water safety; flooding in 1947 and during the 1960s and 1970s; poetry inspired by local rivers; the Purton Hulks, Britain's largest ship graveyard; links between witchcraft and rivers; Gloucester Docks and shipping; and fishing.
As part of the project, the students were shown how to select, order and process document requests before accompanying staff into the strongrooms to retrieve the records. They learned how to assess suitable material for display, considering whether items had a strong visual appeal or “wow factor”, were robust enough to be copied, and were accessible and legible for visitors.
Each selected item required a caption that was clear, concise and informative, while also including the document reference so that visitors interested in viewing the original records could locate them in our searchroom in the future.
In addition, each student selected one or more river-related documents to read or discuss on film. The resulting video will be shown during the September event, and all of the students thoroughly enjoyed taking part in this activity.
It was particularly rewarding to observe how the group approached the final stage of the exhibition project. By the end of the week, the students were confidently working together, chatting, sharing ideas and helping one another as they arranged the copied documents and decorations on the display boards.
With both the exhibition and film completed, the students spent their final day with the Gloucestershire Family History Society (GFHS), researching their own families and local businesses. One student discovered that she was related to someone who had “Santa Claus” as part of their name, much to the amusement of the entire group.
Overall, the week was a great success, providing the students with an insight into archive work while helping them develop research, teamwork and communication skills through a real-life public engagement project.
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
Local History
New Heritage Trail for Gloucester!
When working out a series of walking routes between the heritage sites in Gloucester, I was struck by how close they all are – even when walking to Llanthony Secunda Priory, the other side of the city, beyond the main docks complex, which is well worth a visit if you haven’t been recently.
But you can be an armchair traveller too. If you check out the QR code on the leaflet or go directly to the website you can click on each of the 20 sites and find out more about them.
Most of the online material was creating during the Covid pandemic by City Voices (now Voices Gloucester) in conjunction with members of Gloucester Heritage Forum and film company, Squeaky Pedal. So you can see short videos, 360-degree fly-through some of the buildings, and in some cases audio files of the cleaners or caretakers of heritage sites describing their roles.
Both the original project, and the most recent development of the printed map were developed very swiftly in response to funding opportunities, so as time permits the online resource will be developed further and refined.
Thank you to our original funders Historic England, and to recent funders Atkins Realis and National Highways (who are working on the cycle scheme from Gloucester to Cheltenham). And of course to our partners Voices Gloucester, Gloucester Heritage Forum and Gloucester History Festival.
Heather Forbes
Family History
Gloucestershire Family History Society
Come to our Fair!
It is always a joy to meet up with fellow enthusiasts, whether your passion is rugby, stamp collecting or (in our case ) family history. No matter how many events you go to, there is always someone interesting to talk to and something new to discover.
We’re delighted to host another Family History Fair in the Heritage Hub between 10am and 3pm on Saturday 7 November. This is one of the popular series of monthly Saturday events in the Hub and we’re grateful to the team from Gloucestershire Archives for supporting us by providing behind-the-scenes tours, a display of some of the amazing documents held in the Hub and much more.
What are are we planning?
We’ve invited representatives from other Family History Societies and locally-based heritage organisations to come. So, if you have Traveller ancestry or your family contributed to Gloucester’s maritime industries, to name just a couple, you’ll be able to get specialist advice as well as sharing your own discoveries.
DNA is something which baffles many people but can prove so useful in finding ‘lost’ family lines. If you’d like to find out more, book one of the short advice sessions we’ll be offering between 10am and 1pm. You can book on arrival.
It is always great to have the chance to share experiences, talk to experts and get help with those pesky brick walls. It really doesn’t matter how experienced you are - there is always something else to discover. If you’re just beginning your research there will be plenty of people on hand to offer help or suggestions. If your family doesn’t have local roots, no problem - many of the online sources in our Family History Centre cover the whole world and our own volunteers will be on hand to advise.
Listen to an expert
We’re very privileged that Dr Sophie Kay, a professional genealogist with many years experience has agreed to be our keynote speaker. Sophie has an international reputation and a wide range of interests so her talk will offer something to everyone interested in family history in its widest sense. Please book for the talk on the Heritage Hub website heritagehub.org.uk
More to family history than meets the eye!
You soon realise that you can take your research a lot further than names, dates and places by delving deeper into the lives of your ancestors and their neighbours. We can show you some of the sources we have which could be useful and we’ve invited some local history groups to come to the Fair so they will also be able to help you.
You can even put your own family aside and look at the people who lived in your community and so had an effect on where you live. The sky is the limit - who would have guessed that men from Lancashire came to Colesbourne to make clog soles for the mill workers in Oldham or that a Cheltenham-based firm exported orchids to the Mikado?
What might you discover?
Look out for more information on our website gfhs.org.uk and social media over the next couple of months!
Vicky Thorpe
Friends of Gloucestershire Archives
FoGA news
The Friends have had a productive summer so far. Clive, Cherry-Ann and I had the opportunity to represent the Friends at the Hub's 'Heritage Matters' day in July. It was a great opportunity to promote FoGA and encourage membership sign-ups.
We have also increased our presence on social media. Our new Instagram campaign, #FoGAFinds, highlights the documents and projects that the Friends have funded over the years. We've had a steady increase in followers and engagement, so it's been a positive campaign so far. If you'd like to see what we get up to, please do give us a follow here: @friendsofglosarchives
Our next joint talk with Gloucestershire Family History Society (postponed due to the heatwave in June) is now taking place on Thursday 13th August in the Dunrossil Centre at the Heritage Hub. David Cook, a FoGA Trustee, will be presenting a talk about 'The Birth of an Airport, the Early Years of Staverton.'
The doors open at 2pm when light refreshments will be served before the talk commences at 2.30pm. All are welcome, so if you have any friends who might be interested in this subject then please feel free to invite them along.
Dates for the diary:
Mystery Tour – Sunday 4th October
AGM with speaker Dr Timothy Brain OBE, respected historian and former Chief Constable of Gloucestershire – Thursday 8th October
Maureen Anderson with "College connections between St Paul & St Mary and the island of St Helena" - Thursday 22nd October
Niamh Devlin
Events
Upcoming events at the Heritage Hub
Saturday 5th September, 12-4pm - 'Go with the Flow' a focus on our local rivers and freshwater.
Saturday 3rd October, 1-3pm - 'Hops, apples, grapes' a focus on local brewers, cider makers and wine growers
For more information and to book your place on any of the day's talks, please visit the Heritage Hub Events page. You can also find details of our monthly online 'Secrets Revealed' talks there.
Gloucester History Festival tickets now available
Gloucester History Festival | Autumn Festival
5 - 20 September 2026
Tony Robinson, Caroline Quentin, Jung Chang, Dan Jones, David Olusoga, Penny Mordaunt, Michael Wood, Nick Crane, Amy Jeffs, Emily Hauser, Martin Sixsmith, Ronald Hutton and Andrew Graham-Dixon are just some of the world-class speakers who will be joining us this September.
Join 150 of Britain’s top historians, authors and broadcasters in a mouthwatering programme of 52 events in the magical setting of Blackfriars Priory, Gloucester. Join us via livestream or in-person for new revelations and something to quench everyone's curiosity. There is also an incredible line up of 30 free events in the Scriptorium Buttery: bring the family and immerse yourself in the past.
There’s something for everyone at this year's Autumn Festival!
Book now: gloucesterhistoryfestival.co.uk | 07847 138531
Additional information and updates about the festival can be found on Facebook, Instagram and X
Voices Gloucester: A Busy Season of Heritage, Culture and Community Events
Voices Gloucester continues to bring people together through a vibrant programme of events celebrating local heritage, creativity and diverse community stories. From exhibitions and living history to films, talks and guided walks, there is something for everyone to enjoy over the coming weeks.
The programme begins on 8 August with a private view of Friendly Furniture at St Mary de Crypt, taking place from 12.30pm to 2.30pm. This special event offers an opportunity to explore the exhibition and meet others involved in the project.
In August, Voices Gloucester will be appearing at Car Boot Soul in Hempsted Meadows on 16 and 23 August, with activities taking place during normal car boot market hours.
September brings a packed calendar of events. On 5 September, Tony Conder will be bringing Gloucester's history to life in costume as part of the city's Gloucester Day celebrations.
The following day, 6 September, Voices Gloucester will take part in a Human Library event hosted by the Gloucester Neuro Diverse Artist Collective in the Dunrossil Room at the Heritage Hub, from 12pm to 4pm. Visitors will have the opportunity to engage in conversations that challenge perceptions and celebrate diverse experiences.
A series of Scriptorium Sessions as part of the Gloucester History Festival follows on 12-13th September at Blackfriars Priory, Gloucester. On 13 September, historian Janina Ramirez will speak at 11am, followed by a Voices Gloucester-led guided walk using the new Heritage Trail map. Later in the day, visitors can enjoy talks on Morelands Matches at 3.15pm and Tankers on the Severn at 5.15pm.
On 15 September, Voices Gloucester will contribute to the Ukrainian Heritage and UK Institutions Conference at the Victoria and Albert Museum, highlighting the importance of heritage in supporting communities and preserving cultural identity.
The month concludes on 20 September with Our Eid & Hidden Horses, featuring two films and a question-and-answer session in the Dunrossil Room at the Heritage Hub, from 3pm to 5pm.
These events showcase the breadth of Voices Gloucester's work, combining heritage, storytelling, community engagement and creative expression. We look forward to welcoming both familiar and new faces to this exciting programme of activities.
For further details of all these events please see the Voices Gloucester website
Friendly Furniture
