Articles tagged with: archives

World Heritage in Wiltshire

on Friday, 31 March 2023. Posted in Archaeology, Archives, History Centre, Wiltshire Places

In December 2022 I joined the World Heritage Site (WHS) Coordination Unit as Partnership Officer, based at the Wiltshire & Swindon History Centre within the Archaeology team. I work with partners in the WHS, supporting the coordination of the Stonehenge and Avebury WHS Management Plan.

Stonehenge with a near Winter Solstice alignment, December 2022 (credit: Claire Selman) and a frosty winter morning at Avebury, January 2023 (credit: Melanie Pomeroy-Kellinger)

The opportunity to support the management of these iconic sites has led me to discover even more about our county and its heritage, and there’s a wealth of monuments to explore beyond the stone circles themselves. To help plan a visit, I recommend the walking trails on National Trust’s Avebury and Stonehenge Landscape pages and the historical information on English Heritage’s Stonehenge pages.

In celebration of World Heritage Day on 18 April, I’d like to take the opportunity of this blog to begin exploring the WHS through the range of services available at the Wiltshire & Swindon History Centre.

Oak Apple Day: Grovely, Grovely, Grovely and all Grovely

on Thursday, 19 January 2023. Posted in Archives, Traditions and Folklore, Wiltshire People, Wiltshire Places

A recent enquiry about the Oak Apple Day in Great Wishford proved to be an interesting one to research. I had heard of the phrase ‘Grovely, Grovely, Grovely and all Grovely’ but did not know what it meant. This was an opportunity to put that right.

The ceremony takes place on May 29th. It dates back to at least 1603 when the Charter of the Forest Court of Grovely granted the inhabitants the right to collect dead wood all year round, cut green boughs on Oak Apple Day, pasture cattle, gather nuts and acorns and allow pigs to root in the forest.

2057/E2/1

However, the villagers were exercising their common law rights long before this.

In 1957 Ralph Whitlock was a guest at the lunch, and he wrote a detailed account of the festivities.

3012/118

The day began well before dawn when the young people processed through the village, waking up all the residents by making as much noise as possible. Bells were rung, trumpets played, pots and pans clanged, until every house showed a light to prove they were awake. The whole village then walked to Grovely woods to exercise their ancient rights and customs.

Remembering Hilary Mantel

on Tuesday, 27 September 2022. Posted in Archives, History Centre

The death of the double Booker Award winner has led to many tributes and assessments of Hilary Mantel, described in The Guardian as ‘a glorious original’. Journalists, writers and actors have written and spoken about her considerable talent but also her kindness, thoughtfulness and perceptiveness. I can fully endorse those opinions a result of inviting her in 2015 to see some documents of Thomas Cromwell and the Seymour family held at the History Centre in the archives of Ailesbury of Savernake and Radnor (Hungerford) of Longford Castle, as she was writing the final book of her trilogy about Thomas Cromwell, Henry VII’s righthand man.

The first date she offered coincided with my mother’s funeral which drew a thoughtful and sympathetic response from her. In the lead up to the visit, re-arranged for 15 September, she agreed without any hesitancy to give a public talk and then days before to be interviewed by local press and radio.

I had the privilege of spending a couple of hours showing her the documents, which included the marriage settlement of Henry VIII and Jane Seymour, marvelling at how they stimulated her imagination as she jotted down many thoughts. Two of them, the impressive Seymour Pedigree and a letter announcing the birth of Prince Edward, made brief appearances in The Mirror and The Light.

Hilary Mantel

The talk, to a paying audience of one hundred, was a wonderful event much appreciated and well received by all present. Hilary described the process of writing the novels and also the collaborations in their adaptations to stage and screen. She said that as the first of the trilogy was published, she had written to the owners of Wolf Hall, near Marlborough. She explained that she had used their home as the title of her novel, but that has her books only had a modest readership, she did not anticipate causing any disturbance to them! Despite my pressing her for her expenses of an overnight stay in Chippenham, Hilary waived them, stating the original purpose of the visit was private research. It was a tremendous privilege to have had the opportunity of meeting her and experiencing at first hand the creative processes of such a pre-eminent author.

Steve Hobbs
Archivist (retired)

Virtual WEX

on Wednesday, 03 February 2021. Posted in Archaeology, Archives, Conservation, History Centre, Museums, Schools

It’s that time of year when the first emails land in my inbox requesting placements on the History Centre’s popular work experience (WEX) programme.

This year it is a little different – those early requests are arriving, but students are now looking for Virtual WEX!

In my blog from March 2020 – Celebrating Archives – I was eagerly anticipating a year of anniversaries, the highlights of which were to be Salisbury’s 800th birthday and the 200th anniversary of Florence Nightingale’s birth. Events were planned, projects finalised, and we had an excuse, though none is ever really needed, to dig out some of our archival treasures that show just how connected Wiltshire is to key moments of national commemoration. And letters from Florence Nightingale would have featured in the work experience programme.

Letter from Florence Nightingale written while she was at Scutari Barracks Hospital (2057/F4/64)

 And then… the World Health Organisation declared the COVID-19 outbreak a pandemic. All certainty about future events rapidly disappeared as History Centre staff joined colleagues from across Wiltshire Council in responding to the crisis. While statutory services at the History Centre had to be maintained our usual talks and courses were cancelled; we had to close during lockdowns; our regular jaunts around the county to speak to community groups and history societies ended; and as education officer there were no school visits to plan or deliver, and no work placements to organise.

It was clear we needed to transfer what we could online, and I found myself working with colleagues from Libraries and Leisure to create resources that gave Wiltshire residents virtual opportunities to enjoy heritage, arts, literature and physical activities. The result was the Active Communities page on the Wiltshire Council website – a great resource which will hopefully have a legacy post-pandemic.

I also found myself co-ordinating the History Centre’s online presence. Colleagues, missing out on the daily rhythm of dealing with enquiries and customers, turned their energies to our website and social media platforms. They kept regular users updated and entertained, and engaged with new followers. And the hard work has paid off as we see more users, followers, likes and engagements with our various social media accounts.

Necessity drove us online in 2020 providing many challenges, but now there are opportunities in 2021, opportunities the History Centre wants to exploit. Virtual Work Experience is one of those. There will always be a need for real world, physical engagement with archives and books, photographs, painting and sculpture, artefacts and objects, not to mention being in the audience for a live theatre or musical performance. But while we wait for the time when we can return to in-person talks, courses and classroom sessions we need to make the most of the technology available.

Choose your classroom...

I am working on developing a virtual work experience programme for GCSE and A-level students. Our work placements are always popular and each year we are fully booked, but we are limited in how many students we can take – normally two GCSE students in any given week and a couple of Year 12 A-level students. Geography and public transport also play a part and, while I provide a county-wide heritage education service, WEX students tend to come from Chippenham and the surrounding area.

The plan is to use an online classroom platform to deliver Virtual WEX. This has the potential to significantly increase the number of students the History Centre can reach, extending coverage to the whole of Wiltshire and Swindon, and beyond. I will always champion in-person placements and visits to the History Centre to really get hands-on with historical documents – there is a thrill to seeing and touching a document signed by Charles I or Oliver Cromwell or, having learned about Henry VIII in school, holding the marriage contract between Henry and Jane Seymour. But as an advocate for cultural education, online sessions are a valuable tool in reaching and inspiring young minds. And while students will not be able to handle the documents in a virtual session they will still be able to see them and work with them.

Death warrant signed by Oliver Cromwell. (332/265)

A key aspect of our work placement programme is the breadth of experience students enjoy, not only working with archives and local studies collections, but also learning about the work of the conservators and archaeologists based at the History Centre. It is also satisfying to see the students grow in confidence over the course of their week with us and to hear back from schools about the positive impact the placement has had on the youngsters.

We hope that those who see what we do via an online taster day will be in-person users of our services in the months and years to come. This opening up of access also supports the History Centre’s commitment to inclusion and diversity, not only as part of Wiltshire Council but also within the Archives sector.

WEX 2021 won’t be the same as previous years but we hope a virtual experience will give young people an opportunity to see what enjoyable and rewarding careers can be had in the heritage sector.

Teachers and students wanting to find out more about our plans for Virtual WEX should contact This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. 

Ruth Butler, Heritage Education Officer

Conserving a photograph album in-situ

on Tuesday, 15 December 2020. Posted in Conservation, History Centre

An intriguing project that came across my work-bench for conservation, was a lovely green album with old photographs and postcards, dating back to late 1800s and early 1900s, from Bath Record Office. The album is personalised with annotations, and has some damage from wear and tear over the years.

Turning the pages of the album was quite fascinating, and amongst the many photographs were a portrait of a dog, and a postcard of a soldier with a sweet message saying ‘To The Lass that Loves a Soldier.. From The Soldier (?) .. (at least he hopes so)’.

'Mr Begbie’s Dog’ and a message from a soldier.

Upon assessing the album, it was clear that the album required conservation work, which was divided into two stages; the repair of tears, and securing pages that had become loose.

Pages throughout the album were in need of repair , with tears and areas of loss around the photo corners, and damage around the edge of pages.

The pages in the album were gathered into six sections – one section had become detached from the album and others were held in place with staples. The whole text block had become detached from the binding.

Many albums tell a narrative through the photographs selected, the order in which they are placed, and in the personal touches such as handwritten annotations. We did not want the conservation treatment to affect the story told by the original layout, intention or handwritten notes. Before starting any work, we created a detailed record of the layout to check that the original format had been maintained.

Several treatment options were considered for the album, and it was decided that we would clean and rebind the original pages to re-create the photograph album, preserving the original format and annotations in situ.

This meant that the tears around the photographs would be repaired and conserved, and that the pages would be sewn together and attached to the cover, giving life to the album once again so it could be used by researchers.

History Without A History Centre: what we've been up to while you were away (Part 2)

on Monday, 31 August 2020. Posted in Archives, Conservation, History Centre, Museums, Schools

During lockdown our teams, like everyone, have had to adapt to new ways of working and think creatively about how we continued to support our heritage community and maintain our statutory services. In Part 1 Neil and Dorothy shared some of the work done by the Archaeology team and Wiltshire Buildings Record.  In Part 2 we turn the spotlight on our Archives and Local Studies team, the Conservation and Museums Advisory Service and the Heritage Education Service.

Archives and Local Studies

While lockdown forced the cancellation of our 2020 events programme, we were able to reinvent some of the activities in new formats. County Librarian Julie Davis had planned a talk on The Home Front in Wiltshire, as part of the celebrations for the 75th anniversary of VE Day in May. Instead she turned her slides into an online film show with a recorded narration. Julie also recorded readings from her recent publication From Blackout to Bungalows which explores the effects of World War Two on Wiltshire. These are available on our VE Day page on the website.

Pre-lockdown we were delighted to host a display of artworks by students from Wiltshire College in the History Centre foyer. Community history advisor Joy Bloomfield, who worked with the college on this project, redisplayed the pieces in our search room and created a more widely-accessible online exhibition available via our Facebook page

Julie's Memory Box sessions also went online. Before lockdown the group would use written sources as a springboard for discussion and reminiscence. Unable to meet physically Julie recorded several readings themed on local fairs and industries which are now online to be enjoyed at home. Similarly, Ian Hicks has replicated his popular Introduction to Ancestry.com sessions as online videos. All videos can be found on our youtube channel including four short Welcome Back films featuring members of our team. Creating video content is new for most of us at the History Centre and, we’re not afraid to say, it was a bit daunting to begin with, but we have learnt new skills, gained confidence and seen the benefits of developing online content for the History Centre. Watch this space for more online material over the coming months.

Community history advisor Ian made a video version of his Ancestry workshop.

We have also used lockdown to add more content to the Know Your Place website. Scanned copies of our tithe awards have been added to this already brimming resource. The tithe awards give details of landowners and occupiers plus land use for parishes across the county. In addition, more content has been added to pages of the Wiltshire Community History website, most notably on the subject of Wiltshire schools. Julie has also continued her engagement work with the team of Wiltshire Libraries Local Studies’ Champions to create digital material for the library service's YouTube channel.

Lockdown resulted in the disruption to many arts, heritage and cultural projects but as restrictions eased organisations looked to restart their programmes. The History Centre is delighted to be working with our new partners at Celebrating Age Wiltshire on their lottery-funded project to improve health and wellbeing of older people living in isolation. We are also feeding into the Swindon Heritage Action Zone, which is part of a wider Historic England heritage project and the project officer is working with local people in and around Swindon’s Railway Village to post old photographs onto the community layer of Know Your Place website. 

Visitors to the History Centre usually come to consult documents, but the Local Studies Library is also an important research tool. It contains over 50,000 volumes and is the largest collection in the world of books about Wiltshire. We are always on the lookout for new titles and actively collect any published work that is about Wiltshire or is written by someone with a strong Wiltshire connection.

New titles have been added to the extensive Local Studies collection.

The last few months have been an opportunity to catch up with the backlog of cataloguing, making over 100 new books available to users of the service. They include biographies; newly published research on the two world wars and a beautifully illustrated book of the plants found in the gardens of Salisbury Cathedral Close. Perhaps these books may inspire you to write something and be part of Wiltshire’s written history. New lists of our latest catalogued books can be found in our Local Studies newsletters.

We have also used this time to update our staff toolkit which contains key guides on various collection themes in the hope we have the answers to all your questions at our fingertips. Quite an undertaking, we’re sure you’ll agree. Colleagues have also conducted research on topics such as militia records, the architecture of Salisbury and the Kennet and Avon Canal, plus we have been putting the finishing touches to a major new catalogue for the archive of Westinghouse Rail. This has involved formatting data collected by our volunteer Mike and uploading onto our electronic catalogue.

Like most archives and museums, we have launched a new collection that will record the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on our lives. The History Centre’s Living in Lockdown project aims to collect personal reflections from people in Wiltshire and Swindon on their experiences of Covid-19 and how it has affected daily lives. We are also looking for printed material such as posters and leaflets, or newsletters from local groups, plus photographs recording lockdown, such as public displays of art and craft, and how local shops, services and events have been affected. Read more about the collecting project (including how to get in touch) on our archives pages

Meticulous work by one of our object conservators.

Conservation and Museums Advisory Service

The Conservation and Museums Advisory Service (CMAS) aims to promote excellence in the care and use of collections by providing conservation advice and practical treatments to heritage organisations and the public. We also support museums in Wiltshire to meet professional standards and become sustainable, resilient organisations.

Based at the History Centre, we can normally be found working in our two conservation laboratories, or out and about giving advice to museums, archives and historic houses. Lockdown meant that, like many others, we were confined to working at home and had to find a whole new way of doing things.

Without access to the specialist equipment and chemicals in the laboratory, we had to stop carrying out practical conservation treatments such as x-raying archaeological finds, cleaning coins, reconstructing ceramics and repairing documents. Instead the conservators have taken the time to carry out a number of other tasks.

We have been developing new training and support packages for both staff at the History Centre, and other museums and archives looking to gain Accreditation or better care for their collections. This includes topics like pest management, environmental monitoring and control, collection care planning, and preventative conservation of archives and historical collections. We’ve been looking at services aimed at those involved with archaeology, such as archaeological contractors and metal detectorists. There has also been the opportunity to develop our environmental sustainability plans, becoming greener to help the Council meet its pledge to become carbon neutral by 2030.

Even though the building has been closed, the archives have still required some care and attention, so we’ve been carrying out regular environmental monitoring checks to make sure the temperature and humidity levels in the strong rooms is suitable for their long-term preservation.

Our Paper Conservator tensioning distorted parchment.

We have been exploring the digital world and finding alternative ways of working. A redesign of the CMAS web pages has begun including a simplified web address - www.wshc.org.uk/cmas - and we took part in a twitter conference organised by the Institute of Conservation (#IconArchTC) talking about our treatment of a Roman coin hoard owned by Athelstan Museum, Malmesbury. You can also watch our new video about the conservation treatment of a pair of Pele’s football boots.

Meetings have gone online, and we have been getting to grips with the technicalities and etiquette of virtual meetings, including Wiltshire Museum Group get-togethers. The team has also been available by telephone and email to answer questions and give advice to organisations and the public about all things conservation and museums.

Wiltshire’s museums have been hit hard by the lockdown, with the cancellation of events, loss of income, and other challenges that come from having to close their doors overnight.  Working with South West Museum Development, we have supported them throughout the last few months, answering enquiries to help them look after staff, volunteers and collections, providing information about the latest government guidance, and encouraging applications for the grant funding available. This has continued as museums have started to re-open. Museums in the county have been working hard to address the issues and several have now welcomed back visitors, with special measures put in place to keep everyone safe: Wiltshire Museum, Chippenham MuseumBoscombe Down Aviation Collection, REME Museum, Salisbury Museum, The Rifles Museum, Crofton Beam Engines www.croftonbeamengines.org. More will follow in the not too distant future.

Although the CMAS team is now back in the building and the laboratories, we’re not quite back to normal! It’s likely to be a little while before we’re able to make visits to organisations or carry out face to face training. So, in the meantime, we’ll carry on developing our digital delivery and because we love showing off the work we do we’re planning to add more case studies, videos and a virtual tour of the laboratories to our web pages soon.

If you have a conservation query, want a quotation to carry out some work, or would like to book a free online appointment for one of our conservation surgeries, we’d love to hear from you! You can contact the team by email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Heritage Education Service

As heritage education officer I work with schools and community groups providing facilitated sessions in schools, community settings and at the History Centre. All those face-to-face sessions ended with lockdown. The other aspect of my work involves creating classroom and online resources – and this has very much continued.

In anticipation of the lockdown the History Centre could see that digital resources – our website, blog and social media platforms – would be our way of keeping some of our services operational and allow us to stay in touch with our community of users and volunteers. With that in my mind my role morphed into coordinating the History Centre’s digital services and joining with colleagues in Libraries and Leisure to develop and deliver online services to replace, as best we could, the wide range of physical services provided by our teams. This resulted in the Active Communities webpages and a host of downloadable resources on the Wiltshire Council website.

Screenshot of the Active Communities web page on the Wiltshire Council website.

As our services resume, with new policies and procedures in place, my work on the History Centre’s digital strategy will continue alongside creating classroom resources for teachers. I am also delighted that many of the projects we support are getting back on track, including the Salisbury Soroptimist’s Her Salisbury Story project (funded by the National Lottery Heritage Fund) celebrating the women of Salisbury past and present. I will be providing support and training to the group and their volunteers as they work on this wonderful project.

For schools and teachers looking for new curriculum resources please contact me on This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. I am currently updating the education web pages but please do visit  the education home page for links to online resources.

What Next?

After meticulous planning and much hard work we are delighted to have welcomed out first visitors back into the search rooms on 25th August. Making sure the History Centre is COVID-secure for staff and visitors does mean we have had to put in new procedures for accessing our services and these follow national guidelines and regulations. We are now operating an appointments-only system for accessing our services and face coverings are mandatory for all visitors. To book your archives and local studies visit go to our website.  http://wshc.org.uk/visiting-the-centre.html For other teams please telephone ahead to make an appointment.  

We look forward to welcoming you back.

 

David Plant, Archivist

Heather Perry, Conservation and Museum Manager

Ruth Butler, Heritage Education Officer

Neil Adam, Assistant County Archaeologist

Dorothy Treasure, Buildings Recorder

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