Closed Week
Much as we love having everyone in doing their research or volunteer work during the rest of the year, our annual closed week is a welcome opportunity to close our doors for a few days so that the staff can have a chance to catch up and focus on tasks which otherwise it is difficult […]
Field name maps
Foxall Field Name Maps now online! “To those of us who have any feeling for the land in general and the land of Shropshire in particular, it must be a matter for regret that many of the old field-names familiar to generations of our forefathers are today almost unknown” So starts the introduction to H […]
Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year
As the emphasis on shopping, either for presents or for bargains in the sales, reaches fever-pitch, it is interesting to look back on yuletides of previous centuries, when customs, superstitions, and charity were the order of the day. One perennial theme of certain long-standing customs was that of sharing with the poor. Each season had […]
Unlocking the River Severn
Interested in history? Want to try something new in the New Year? Interested in learning new skills or meeting new people? Whether you’re new to using archives or have previous experience, these six FREE workshops are all about discovering the stories of the River Severn. We’ll be exploring collections and finding out why the river […]
Explore Your Archive, Nov 2018
Explore Your Archive is a campaign that showcases the best of archives and archive services in the UK and Ireland. The campaign aims to promote the phenomenal archival collections held by organisations – public and private – across the UK and Ireland, whatever their size and scale, and wherever they are. At Shropshire Archives we […]
National Survey
Thank you to everyone who participated in the survey of Survey of Visitors to UK Archives, which we ran at Shropshire Archives between 17 October and 4 November 2018. We had almost 100 responses which provides a good sample of feedback on the service. Overall feedback, especially on staff, was very positive. We send off […]
Institutionalising the Poor
Almshouses, Infirmaries, the House of Correction and the Asylum Workhouses were not the only institutions that housed the poor, particularly before 1834 when paupers were dealt with by the community. Other institutions where you might find them include: Almshouses/Parish Poorhouses Almshouses relied on charitable donations and were usually run by religious houses or organisations. You […]
Meet the Owens
A blog post written by Archivist, Sara Downs…. Last year, my colleague, Ivar Romo, and I were fortunate to be able to catalogue the Owen family records. The collection when deposited came with funding from the owners to catalogue the collection. The Owen family are well known internationally through their company Rubery Owen. Rubery Owen […]
House history, starts 22 Jan 2019
Every house has a story; tracing the history of your property and finding out about the people who lived there can be absolutely fascinating but can also be time consuming and possibly frustrating. Old buildings have often been altered and since documents rarely give a date of construction, it is unusual to be able to […]
Ted Picken and Bucknell
A blog post written by Anthony Price, volunteer researching photographs at Shropshire Archives. Tony was featured when Midlands Today visited Shropshire Archives (6 Sep 2018) and talked about the Picken photographs. He’ll be researching and writing more about this fascinating photographer in the future and at the same time we will be digitising the photographs. […]