Welcome to the April 2025 edition of the Heritage Hub e-newsletter.
On 8th May we, along with other countries in Europe including Germany, will be commemorating the 80th anniversary of VE Day, ‘Victory in Europe’, the end of the Second World War in the West. Then a couple of months later, on 15th August, the same anniversary for VJ Day, victory over Japan will be remembered.
At the Hub we have several events in the pipeline to mark these two important anniversaries.
From 14th-18th July a group of work experience students will be creating an exhibition on the impact of the Second World War using records held at Gloucestershire Archives. This exhibition will be displayed on our community noticeboards in the Wheeler Room from 22nd July until the end of August. Supported by Gloucestershire Archives staff, the students will be in charge of content and arrangement and it will be particularly interesting to see which images and archives are considered impactful by today's younger generation.
A quick scan of our online catalogue reveals that we hold a vast array of wonderful sources relating to the Second World War. Indeed, back in March, Jemma and John, our Community Heritage Officers held an event at the Hub for secondary school teachers specifically focusing on teaching material for this topic which rightly remains on the curriculum.
We remain keen to hear about local people’s involvement in the war effort. Consequently, if you’d like to share, loan or donate any wartime records, accounts and photographs of family members, on a temporary basis to form part of our exhibition or for permanent long-term preservation, please get in touch with us as soon as possible. Finally, on 24th July we are having an afternoon tea party in the Heritage Hub Garden with archive readings and a performance from the Library Choir featuring war time songs.
However, before July we have the Saturday event ‘Journeys Through Time’. on 7th June. This event will look at international connections within our archive collections. Some of these records relate to conflict, for example, the Kindertransport papers, which detail how a group of children escaped the atrocities of Nazi Germany to the safety of Gloucestershire. However, in stark contrast to this, Senior Archivist, Karen Davidson, will be describing her visit to Germany to be part of an international rescue team when Cologne’s archive building suddenly collapsed in 2009. There will also be an exhibition of Ukrainian textiles linked to Vyshyvanka Day, courtesy of the Stroud Textile Trust as well as a display of documents relating to travel for leisure and enjoyment.
