Volunteers' Tea Party

1^st December 2018

We were thrilled that so many of our wonderful volunteers could join us for a festive tea-party on 1^st December. For us it was an opportunity to say ‘thank you’ for all their time, dedication, skill and patience with our ongoing refurbishments. Among many other things, last year volunteers helped us to:

• catalogue and care for some of our collections
• raise our profile on social media
• provide ‘EVOKE’ reminiscence sessions in venues across Gloucestershire and South Gloucestershire
• add World War 1 information into Know Your Place, the award winning digital mapping resource

Many members of staff stepped up to the plate (literally) to provide delicious cakes - giving rise to the traditional cry ‘We’ll never eat all this lot!’ As always, people rose to this challenge and came back for just one more wafer-thin slice until just crumbs and a few neglected clementines remained.  Kate Maisey took anyone who could still move on a spritely ‘behind-the-scenes’ tour, and John Putley entertained the crowd with his talk about ‘Christmas at the Archives. John’s talk featured The Most Depressing Christmas Card of All Time, and many other treasures from our collections. Kate O’Keefe set a fiendish quiz called ‘Proper Gloucester or Great Imposter’- she’s promised to make it a bit easier next time!

  

Racing Remembers

‘Racing Remembers’ in November was a great opportunity to highlight some of the work of Gloucestershire Archives @ the Heritage Hub. The Centaur Hall at Cheltenham racecourse was packed with displays from heritage groups and organisations around Gloucestershire and South Gloucestershire, including ours, all invited to showcase what they have been doing to commemorate the First World War.

Head of Archives, Heather Forbes, was helped on the day by Archives volunteers involved in creating the new World War 1 layer on Know Your Place – one of our key partnership  websites. Drawing in the crowds to our Hub display were the original large boards made by local historian David Drinkwater when he first began his ambitious project to plot the homes of serving soldiers and their families in Cheltenham. Thanks to the enthusiastic group of volunteers from Cheltenham Local History Society, all the images and information gleaned by David’s research can now be accessed online on KYP.

“We spoke to well over 150 people during the day”, said Heather.  “They were fascinated to see how Know Your Place shows the impact of the First World War on Cheltenham families. We are very grateful to David for sharing his hard work and to all the volunteers for contributing to this project.”

  

www.kypwest.org.uk

Introduction to collection care

We held an ‘introduction to collection care day’ on 22 October. Topics covered included:

• identifying risks and appreciating a range of actions for protecting collections,
• understanding and sourcing archival enclosures
• looking at the use of a broad and adaptable framework as a tool to help plan and prioritise activities.

It was great to be able to meet and work with a dedicated group of enthusiastic heritage activists from across the county. Many signed up to receive our quarterly e-newsletter and join the Heritage Hub community. 

   

Participants told us it was a:

 “Really good introduction to ‘collection care’ no matter if an individuals collection or a society’s.”

 “very informative . . .  and have learnt a lot”

We also had some useful feedback to help us make the experience even more helpful next time around, and we plan to hold another introduction day in the new year.  Although we don’t have a date yet we already have a waiting list – watch the news pages on the Heritage Hub website for an announcement www.heritagehub.org.uk

Port of Gloucester Crew Lists all ship shape!

Working one morning a week from November 2015 and finishing October 2018, volunteers Margaret and Terri trawled through 44 large boxes of Port of Gloucester Crew Lists. The boxes included information about ships trading from the port of Gloucester, down the Severn estuary to Bridgewater and Cardiff and beyond.

The boxes contained agreements and log books from 1853 to 1913 and six monthly returns giving lots of information about ships, owners, crews, voyages and significant ‘incidents’ on board. Along the way Margaret and Terri came across mutinies, shipwrecks and desertions!

The documents have now been re-sorted by ship number with new protective enclosures to improve long term preservation, facilitate production and the catalogue and location data updated. (D3080 Port of Gloucester Crew Lists).

 A very big thank you to Margaret and Terri for all their hard work and staying power and for making this enormous collection accessible to all.

  

Ann Attwood - Collections Care Development Officer

11 December 2018

Artist Activity

We are delighted that three of the five commissioned artworks have now been completed and are on display in the Heritage Hub.

If you are visiting the Heritage Hub do have a look at the beautiful artwork.

Natasha Houseago finished her very dramatic oak sculpture, called The Archivist, in November just in time to catch the gorgeous autumn colours. Within the sculpture Natasha drilled small holes and staff and visitors were able to embed small personal artefacts and handwritten messages that maybe future generations will find.

    

Julia O'Connell finished her beautiful printed and embroidered textile panels, called Archive Five (four shown below), in December and these are now hanging in the Frith room.

  

TomatoJack Arts (Lynda Knott and Angela Williams) finished their striking and very colourful mosaic panels earlier in the year and are now on permanent display in the community garden, standing alongside The Archivist.

 

We are looking forward to Imogen Harvey-Lewis completing the final two artworks which we hope, weather permitting, will be by the summer.

For more information about the artists visit -

www.natasha-houseago.co.uk/

www.tomatojack.co.uk/

www.juliaoconnell.co.uk/

www.imogenharveylewis.co.uk/

Kim Kenny - For the Record Project Officer kim.kenny2@Gloucestershire.gov.uk

Thank you to our funders - Allchurches Trust

The royal visit was a good opportunity to thank our principal funders.   We were particularly pleased to welcome our local funders, including Allchurches Trust  who were represented by Paul Playford (Grants Officer) and Emma Smith (Communications and Marketing Manager). Gloucester based Allchurches Trust - one of the UK's largest grant-making charities, kindly donated £5000 to the Friends of Gloucestershire Archives towards the development of the Heritage Hub. The Trust's funds come from its ownership of Ecclesiastical Insurance Group

Since our project is all about community engagement, we put some of Allchurches Trust's funding towards artwork inspired by workshops in care homes and communities across the county. The rest of the grant helped provide community notice boards and interpretation, including the feature photographic walls that were created from the winning landscape photos following a public competition.

We feel these features contribute significantly to the warm welcome we offer community groups and individuals who visit the Heritage Hub, including the Age UK group of Kingsholm residents who now visit each Thursday.

We are most grateful to Allchurches Trust for making this possible, and for joining us on our special day.

Emma Smith and Paul Playford meeting The Princess Royal.

Victoria County History

“Now this is not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end. But it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning.”

Winston Churchill

As we near the end of 2018 all three volumes – Cheltenham, Cirencester, Yate and the Sodburys - are at a point where, although there is still a lot of work to do and I can't claim the end is in sight, I do at least feel that we know where we're going and how to get there and that we are already a good way down the right road. Listening to the lunchtime news today, I could only have wished that our politicians could say the same about the project that Must Not Be Named.

You'll find drafts of our Work in Progress are posted on the VCH Central website (www.victoriacountyhistory.ac.uk/counties/gloucestershire/work-in-progress) and we will be posting more over the next few months.

We welcome comments on these, so do please have a look and let us know what you think. We also make transcriptions of documents we've used in our research available through the VCH Explore website (www.victoriacountyhistory.ac.uk/explore/).

During the building work our regular meetings for volunteers have been suspended, but we are now planning a get-together early in 2019. We are also contemplating running some short training sessions for volunteers on specific aspects of research. Do get in touch, if there's some skill, area of research or type of document you'd be interested in learning more about.

If you are interested in being kept in touch with our activities by e-mail, do let me know.

Jan Broadway, VCH Co-ordinator

janb@xmera.co.uk

GlosDocs – A New Way for Local History Groups to Publish.

Gloucestershire Local History Documents Online (or GlosDocs for short) is an experimental project of the Gloucestershire Local History Association which enables any member group to “self publish” material online.  This might be complete articles, exhibition displays, research notes, image collections, maps, transcriptions, online versions of out of print publications or any other type of document. 

Thames and Severn Canal Company: Minute Books 1783 - 1874 [GA TS\166]

This facility is not intended to replace the publishing of books, journals, monographs and pamphlets in hardcopy format which many groups do very successfully. However, GlosDocs makes available online, valuable material compiled by groups, which cannot be published in hardcopy format due to the constraints of printing costs and distribution. Furthermore very large documents and image collections can be accommodated which are likely to be too big for a groups own website (which would provide links to the material on GlosDocs.)  One way of thinking about the site is that it is an “electronic filing cabinet” where each group  can manage its  “own drawer”. The aim is that if you can use a word processor and book a holiday online then you will be able manage your part of GlosDocs!

Former Llanthony Corn Mill, Merchants Road, Gloucester [Hugh Conway-Jones]

The idea for the website came about at a recent GLHA Local History Day, where as usual, there were some excellent displays by groups on view. A lot of hard work had gone into researching and mounting the displays and it seemed a great pity that they could not have a wider audience. Fortunately this coincided with the emergence of low-cost “unlimited” web space and the availability of suitable open source (“free”) software to handle it online It was also immediately clear that the scope should be widened as described above.

Dauncey's Mill, Uley, Gwladys Davies Photographic Collection [GA D14791]

Over the last few months the site has been slowly under development and the best way to learn about it is to take a look (glosdocs.org.uk). Try terms like canal, Stonehouse, Painswick, Redler, Conway-Jones, industrial archaeology in the search box. Just like a Google search you will get a list of ‘hits’ which you can click on to take you to the relevant “index page” This will give you information about (and links to) the documents available for that topic (normally in PDF format).

Painswick Exhibition - Coats of Arms [Painswick Local History Society]

The Gloucestershire Society for Industrial Archaeology have uploaded a digitised version of the first minute book of the Thames and Severn Canal company (1783-1822) which contains more that 360 pages and is proving popular with canal historians. We have several more volumes to follow. You will find the Local History displays from Stonehouse Local History Group and your group’s could also be put here! At this stage of the project we are happy to advise on the preparation of material and even upload it for you. Please contact the author on 01453 860595 or glosdocs@gloshistory.org.uk for more details

Local History Day Display 2017 [Stonehouse History Group]

GLHA is running an introductory workshop on GlosDocs at Gloucestershire Archives on Monday 4 March 2019 at 2pm. This will not be a technical session but a discussion focussing on how groups might want to make use the facility.

Ray Wilson     Gloucestershire Society for Industrial Archaeology

Dr Jenner's House

In September, Dr Jenner’s House, Museum and Garden announced that it was facing potential closure unless £20,000 could be raised by March 2019. In just two months, over three quarters of the target had been raised, primarily through generous donations from individuals.

Owen Gower, Museum Manager, explained the situation:

“A few weeks ago, whilst being interviewed on local radio, I was asked whether museums still have a purpose in this digital age. It is true that now, more than ever, it is possible to see objects and engage with their stories outside of the museum building, something we’ve seen ourselves this year through our work with virtual reality. Yet there is something simply wonderful about being able to walk in Jenner’s footsteps, to find yourself perhaps standing in the spot where he realised that his discovery could save millions of lives. Or to stand outside the Temple of Vaccinia in the same place that people came for their first ever vaccination, placing their trust in Jenner in the hope of a world free from smallpox. This is what we want to save.

The Temple of Vaccinia, where Jenner vaccinated locals free of charge, has recently been named as one of Historic England's 100 Places telling the story of England

But Dr Jenner’s House isn’t just about looking back. We want to celebrate Jenner’s legacy and part of that is recognising that vaccines still save between 3 and 4 million lives every year. We want to talk about polio, which is so close to being eradicated, to explore the recurrence of measles, and to chart the race to find vaccines for new diseases. We want young people to be inspired by Jenner’s curious mind and to follow his example in asking questions of the world around us. We think that matters and that it is important that we do this against the backdrop of Jenner’s former home.

Clearly I’m not alone in this view. When we asked people to come to Dr Jenner’s House for a photocall in support of our fundraising campaign, over 230 people turned up.

 

Over 230 people came to show their support for Dr Jenner's House, Museum and Garden, which faces closure unless £20,000 can be raised by March 2019

Supporters are welcomed by Dr Timothy Wallington, Chair of The Jenner Trust (L), and Charles Martell, High Sheriff of Gloucestershire (R)

This year we’ve had a 7% increase in regular visitors, despite the best efforts of the weather to keep people away. We’ve opened new exhibitions, refreshed our existing displays, developed a virtual reality game that can be played at home, hosted scientists from around the country on Discovery Day, and so much more. But we know we still have lots to offer. We’ve already been speaking to a range of potential long-term funding partners and over the coming months we will be putting in grant applications to help us develop our offer and make us less reliant on charitable giving. This all takes time, so we hope that you’ll continue to support our campaign to keep the museum open and to raise £20,000 by March 2019.”

Donations in support of the Together for Jenner campaign can be made at jennermuseum.com/together/. Further details can be found by contacting Owen Gower, Museum Manager, on info@edwardjenner.co.uk.

 

Christmas Party

    

An enjoyable time was had by the members, family and friends of the Gloucester Family History Society at their Christmas Party on Wednesday 12th December, 2018 in the Frith Room at the Heritage Hub.

There was a raffle and a good selection of food and a picture quiz (just for fun) done by Sue Woodward. Entertainment was provided by the Crossed Ukeys who are an excellent local, well known Ukulele band. They played a selection of old and new classics. Festive and novelty tunes were also included and everyone was encouraged to sing along, which they did.

Trish Gage

Blowing our own trumpet

At the Friends’ AGM on 11 October we said farewell to two longstanding trustees. Alison Hobson had been Secretary for the past five years, keeping us in order and ensuring that we had records of our meetings.  Sadly, she was retiring on health grounds.  Liz Jack was a trustee almost since the founding of the Friends 25 years ago.  She had fulfilled many different roles over the years, finally as editor of the Friends’ newsletter and ‘caterer-in-chief’.  Liz left with a flourish having produced a 25^th Anniversary cake decorated with edible photos of past and present trustees.  I’m still trying to find out who ate me!

We also said farewell to our President, Dame Janet Trotter, as she came to the end of her term as Lord Lieutenant of Gloucestershire. She has been a staunch supporter of the Friends and regularly chaired our AGMs.  The bouquet of flowers we presented to her, although much appreciated, was a very inadequate token of our thanks and gratitude.

At the AGM Members approved the appointment of two new trustees. Cllr Neil Hampson is a former Mayor of Gloucester, a Councillor for Moreland Ward and a long-time resident of Gloucester.  He has a great interest in, and knowledge of, the history of the County and City.  Dr Cherry Ann Knott trained as an architect, managed the National Trust’s Sudbury Hall in Derbyshire and has a PhD from Warwick University.  Until recently she was a member of the Heritage Lottery Fund’s South West Committee and gave great support during the development of the Heritage Hub.

Blowing our own trumpet

FoGA Sticker

Over the years the Friends have bought, or assisted in buying, many items for the Archives, both documents and equipment. We thought it was about time we blew our own trumpet!  So, we have designed some tasteful labels to affix to items we’ve bought and so publicise what we’ve done.  We hope non-members will appreciate more what the Friends do, and think about becoming members themselves.  The more subscriptions we have the more we can do for the Archives.  And, for members who live locally, there is a varied programme of talks and visits they can enjoy.

Talks

Members at the November talk

Over the past two years we have not been able to hold our usual programme of talks because of the limited space at the Archives during building works. We re-launched the talks at the end of November when Cherry Ann Knott gave a fabulous talk on walled gardens in the welcoming surroundings of the new Dunrossil Centre.  Nearly 40 people sat in the audience enthralled by Cherry’s encyclopaedic knowledge and extensive research.  She spoke about the way walled gardens were designed and used, the plants which gardeners bought in the 17^th and 18^th Centuries and even the tools they used, most of them little different from ones we use today.  Finally, she spoke about the ambitious design for the Heritage Hub’s own walled garden, which will begin to take shape in coming months.

An extensive programme of talks and outings is planned for 2019 so members should watch out for further information. The next event is on 14 February 2019 when Friends will be treated to a special tour of Painswick Rococo Gardens, the only surviving Rococo gardens in Britain.

Clive Andrews

Chairman

Free pick and mix training

Tuesday 5 March, 10-1pm at the Heritage Hub, Gloucestershire Archives is running a free training session covering 2 topics -

Introduction to managing your collections:

• Are people offering you their old documents and photos? 
• Does your community have an “archive cupboard” known only to a few? 
• Do you find yourself responsible for precious archive material? 

If the answer to any of these questions is yes, this module, aimed at people with little or no previous archive or record keeping knowledge, can help.

We will look at how to:

• decide what items to collect 
• organise and keep track of what you’ve got
• share your treasures and involve more people in their local heritage.

Introduction to digital preservation:

• Are you responsible for looking after precious archive material, some of which is digital?
• Will you need to access digital records in the future?

If the answer to any of these questions is yes, this module, aimed at people with little or no previous archive or record keeping knowledge, can help.

We will look at how to keep your digital records:

• secure
• accessible
• meaningful

You can book onto our ‘Managing your collections’ training session taking place 10-1.00 on 5 March 2019 for FREE!

To book go to https://www.heritagehub.org.uk/heritage-hub-events/managing-your-collections-training/

Dates for your diary

Gloucestershire Family History Society Programme of Talks 2018/2019

All Gloucestershire Family History Society talks take place at the Heritage Hub and are free

• Wed 13 March, 7.30pm - 9pm  - Mayhem and Murder on the Midland - to include resources used in tracing railway ancestors. By Chris and Judy Rouse

• Wed 10 April, 7.30pm - 9pm - Finding a Face for the Distant Past - the Birdlip Lady exhibition (to include copies of the exhibits). By Trish Thomas

• Sunday 28 April, 10 - 3pm - 40th Anniversary Celebration - look out for more information nearer the time.

Reminiscence Café

‘Watch this space for our monthly Reminiscence Café starting in the Spring at the Heritage Hub…’

For more information contact Kate O'Keefe  Katherine.O'Keefe@Gloucestershire.gov.uk

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

For the last four and a half years, project staff worked with local heritage organisations and volunteers, to find the stories which would show the people of today, how the lives of the people of South Gloucestershire were affected by the First World War, one hundred years ago.

Together with community volunteers, we discovered how everyone played their part; young men went off to war and young women became nurses, worked on the land or made munitions. Children collected blackberries and conkers and knitted socks for the servicemen. They helped, as scouts, to run messages for the local troops and grow vegetables to keep everyone fed. The local factories made boots, motorbikes and supported the war effort. People did what they could, to keep the country going, but their lives changed for ever.

• We have taken these local stories into over thirty schools across the county and created three very successful travelling exhibitions, which have been seen by thousands of people across South Gloucestershire, in the libraries, leisure centres and other venues.
• In July 2016 we ran an unusual drama, which ran in real time, through the medium of twitter, to mark the anniversary of the Battle of the Somme.
• In partnership with Imperial War Museum we made the archive film ‘The Battle of the Somme’ available to local audiences.
• We created a range of freely downloadable learning resources and provided six local museums with legacy loans boxes full of interesting First World War replica items for school children to handle. The resources include complete lesson plans, in book form for the teachers and volunteers to use in the future.
• We created a war memorial website, where over 1530 names are recorded from the local war memorials across South Gloucestershire. Some have only the name, but most have far more detail to explore, connecting them to the places we know so well today.
• To commemorate the Centenary of the Armistice this year, the project has also facilitated and supported through the on line instruction resources and small grants, the making of thousands of clay poppies as well as other commemorative activities across South Gloucestershire.

So, from the project staff at South Gloucestershire Council, a HUGE thank you for those taking part and making this community part of the project so successful.

South Gloucestershire Museums Group members who contributed so much to the project, receiving First World War Loans Boxes and Learning Resources from Cherry Hubbard, Engagement Officer.

Here are a selection of some of the Armistice Centenary events.

Poppy Gardens in Yate and Sodbury

This involved supporting over a dozen local schools to make the poppies and working with St Mary’s Church, Yate and St John’s Church, Chipping Sodbury, to create the Poppy Gardens. Organised by Yate Town Council, Yate Parish Council, Chipping Sodbury Town Council, Doddington Parish Council, Rotary Club and the Royal British Legion.

 

Pupils from St. Mary’s School and the Head Teacher (Mr. Jon Bird) with the poppies they made.

Several fantastic workshop activities were supported at Aerospace Bristol and the poppies they made were displayed in the public galleries.

Along with local Beavers, Brownies and other groups, Winterbourne Guides had fun making their painted clay poppies which were then placed on the Hambrook War Memorial at Whiteshill.

        

Poster for the Hawkesbury Upton Village Hall by the Badminton Branch, Royal British Legion Commemorative tea and performance with silhouettes on the stage behind.

 

Downend and Bromley Heath in Bloom made wooden poppies in collaboration with local schools. Crowds of people watched beacons lit in Siston and Yate.

Yate and District Heritage Centre, with St Mary’s Church staged various fantastic events, an exhibition, all-day World War One History Day, a play and a vintage, variety entertainment performance.

War Memorials website at:

http://sites.southglos.gov.uk/war-memorials

Many of the memorials now have QR codes located by the side of them as a quick, digital shortcut for people to access the website on the spot. The Museums and Heritage Officer, South Gloucestershire will continue to install QR codes while the Second World War Stories Project is now adding information when provided with research.

The war memorial website is now fully populated, with lists of names for each of the war memorial listings and much more, depending on the research that we have had available for each name. Sadly, sometimes no more than a name can be discovered, but for most there is some indication of who they were, where they lived and how they died for people to discover. This website will be available for the forseeable future and has been extended to take in the names of those fallen in World War Two.

 

The web site entries were checked by those contributing and is now closed for editing First World War entries.

The Exhibition Banners

The exhibition banners are being distributed amongst the South Gloucestershire Museums Group, where they will still be available to borrow. Yate and District Heritage Centre have Exhibition 2, Thornbury and District Museum have Exhibition 3 and the rest are distributed to the relevant museums and other organisations according to subject.

As the project comes to a close, I would like to thank all of those who have given their help and support over the four and a half years of the project to make it such a success. We have had some amazing feedback for the schools and from people viewing the exhibitions.

This project has done what it set out to do, it has raised the awareness of the people of South Gloucestershire, to the valuable contribution that was made during the First World War, by the people who lived in the same area one hundred years ago, and helped them to really connect with this important time in our history.

Cherry Hubbard: Project Engagement Officer 2014 - 2018

www.southglos.gov.uk/ww1

              

South Gloucestershire Second World War Stories project

We are delighted to have been awarded funding by the Heritage Lottery Fund for our South Gloucestershire Second World War Stories project. Made possible by money raised by National Lottery players, the project aims to explore the impact of the Second World War in South Gloucestershire, both during and in the post-war years.

Since April 2018, we have delivered 60 reminiscence sessions, been researching and developing a touring exhibition, researching the names of the fallen on the Counties war memorials, starting to create short films on people’s war experiences and developing a schools programme. We are very busy, but it is a fantastic project which we are very much enjoying.

Please come and see our new touring exhibition which focuses on the impact of the Second World War on the lives of the people of South Gloucestershire. The themes of the exhibition include ‘At Home’, ‘Civil Defence’, ‘Under Attack’, ‘Changing places’ and ‘Front line’. The exhibition features many quotes from local residents who lived in the area during this time.

Dog fight over Filton, 25th Sept 1940. Imperial War Museum© (CH 1823)

Tour dates, venues and community events

4 - 16 February - Staple Hill Library. Community events - 16 February 10 - 12.30pm

18 February - 2 March - Filton Library. Community events - 28 February 10.30 - 12.30pm

4 - 16 March - Thornbury Library. Community events - 14 March 2 - 4pm

18 - 30 March - Patchway Library. Community events - 19 March 4 - 6pm

1 - 13 April - Bradley Stoke Library. Community events - 11 April 11 - 2.30pm

15 - 27 April - Kingswood Library. Community events - 24 April 2 - 4.30pm

29 April - 11 May - Yate Library. Community events - 3 May 11 - 4pm (TBC)

13 - 25 May - Winterbourne Library. Community events - 24 May 11 - 4pm (TBC)

27 May - 8 June - Cadbury Heath Library. Community events - 31 May 11 - 4pm (TBC)

10 - 22 June - Downend Library. Community events - 22 June 10 - 12.30pm (TBC)

24 June - 6 July - Emerson green Library. Community events - 28 June 11 - 4pm (TBC)

8 - 21 July - Yate Leisure Centre.

22 July - 4 August - Kings Chase Shopping Centre, Kingswood. Community events 25 July and 3 August 10 - 4.30pm (TBC)

2 - 15 September - Avon Valley Railway

16 - 28 September - Hanham Library. Community events 28 September 10.30 - 12.30pm

The community events are designed to enhance the exhibition. Please come along to the events and share your, or your families, stories of life in South Gloucestershire during the Second World War. Bring along your photographs and we can scan them to add to the ‘Know Your Place’ website.

We want to share your stories about what it was like to grow up, live and work in South Gloucestershire during or in the aftermath of the war.

If you feel you can contribute in any way, such as putting us in contact with individuals whose story you think we should capture, please contact ww2stories@southglos.gov.uk

War memorial information: southglos.gov.uk/leisure-and-culture/museums-and-galleries/war-memorial-sites/

What a year it has been for Gloucestershire Police Archives.

As I write this we are getting ready for our final event - the Force Carol Service just before Christmas. This year we have attended 12 events including evening talks and provided unattended displays at 3 other events.

We have dealt with 82 enquiries, many of them coming in through the website but we have still been out and about collecting items from people who have contacted us in other ways.

We are also working with researchers to provide them with information for articles that they are writing or for talks that they are giving. This is great as it means that we are always building up our knowledge of the history of the Constabulary which employed its first officers on 1^st December 1839.

  The reopening of Bearland Police Station

  Remembrance at Police Headquarters

  Attending Prestbury Local History Society meeting in October

Despite the best laid plans the Police Archives are still working out of Stroud Police Station but we all hope that it won’t be too long before our move to the Heritage Hub happens, making us and our knowledge much more accessible.

Sue Webb

For more information visit gloucestershirepolicearchives.org.uk/