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HISTORY OF WORCESTER CITY TO BE SHARED WITH THE PUBLIC

Worcestershire County Council Record Office has been awarded £228,000 from the Heritage Lottery Fund towards a project to list and make more accessible the historical archives of Worcester city.

The city's archives date from the 1520s and chart the activities of the corporation touching on all aspects of life including the running of markets and fairs, regulation of charities, residential and business growth, navigation of the river and canal, Pitchcroft, the bridge, running schools and electricity and the laying out of railway and tram lines and the roads system.

Having the archives available should coincide with the opening of the new Library and History Centre, scheduled for 2011, and will make a huge continuation to understanding the historical development and heritage of Worcester.

Adrian Gregson, Record Office Project Officer, said: ‘I hope this project will really encourage local people from all walks of life to take an interest in their local heritage and to understand their own identity and local community much more. It is a wonderful opportunity for the City and for the Record Office.’

Anne Jenkins, HLF Regional Manager, added: ‘The project will make it really simple for the public to locate all sorts of information about places they know in Worcester. Thanks to this grant lots of people will be able to take part in activities that will reveal the hidden history of the City and help them to learn valuable research skills.

The University of Worcester and Worcester City Council are working in partnership with the Record Office on the project, which will last for three years, starting in April. It will give local schools, community centres and a range of local organisations the opportunity to be involved in accessing and understanding the city's heritage.

Worcestershire Record Office is celebrating its 60th anniversary and had nearly 90,000 visitors last year, with nearly 40,000 actively using the resources. As well as having curation of William Shakespeare's Marriage Bond, the Office has also begun cataloguing the Croome archive relating to the landscape gardens in Worcestershire, recently gifted to the Record Office.

The Heritage Lottery Fund has also awarded £803,500.00 to Gheluvelt Park and £985,500.00 to the Commandery and Fort Royal Park.

The Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF) enables communities to celebrate, look after and learn more about our diverse heritage. From our great museums and historic buildings to local parks and beauty spots or recording and celebrating traditions, customs and history, HLF grants open up our nation’s heritage for everyone to enjoy. Since its conception, HLF has supported 22,500 projects allocating over £3.6 billion across the UK.

For further information please contact Sarah Barnwell, Heritage Lottery Fund – Tel: 020 7591 6046 or 07973 401 737, email: barnwells@hlf.org.uk, website: www.hlf.org.uk, or Adrian Gregson on 01905 26186 or agregson3@worcestershire.gov.uk.

Educational use of the collection

We have commitment from the local education inspectorate and are negotiating with primary and secondary schools, to establish curriculum work to begin in the Autumn term of 2008, as well as teacher training days and pupil research skills work.

We are also developing adult education research classes, including direct connections with the archaeological surveys and excavation on the new WLHC site, in partnership with the City and County Archaeology Services.

Open days in the community

These will use the records of that specific area and involve displays of the records; presentations using them, supported by other records within the Worcestershire Record Office collections; and ‘bring-your-own-archive’ sessions. It is likely there will be a local intergenerational or oral history dimension to these days. These open days will also address the specific interests of the BME community.

Partnerships

We will also be working with Worcester Community Housing to use the slum clearance records with members of the community who were relocated to the City’s housing estates, particularly the Brickfields and Dines Green areas of the City, to instigate memory reminiscence. The University is interested in developing this part of the project to allow their students the opportunity to be research facilitators. It would most likely be the History/Heritage students that would be interested in using this opportunity but other angles such as Art, Film or IT could also be explored.

Lease, 1797

Website and IT

We are intending to produce a website which will include resources for schools as well as a link to the Record Office online catalogue, which is currently still in the development stages but should be running by the time the project begins. Another IT avenue that is being explored, is that of a GIS system, which, in its final operation, would allow people to click on their local area and be told which records were available for it.

Extract from Chamber Order Book, 1619

Volunteers

There is also potential for volunteers to be involved at various stages of the project, particularly the initial cataloguing and sorting.