Worcestershire Archive and Archaeology Service
Worcestershire Archaeology
No. 28: March 2012: ISSN 1468-1862
Reaching the heights
with Worcestershire’s Past
In this issue:
The Hive
Wilden Church
Waterside, Upton
Find out more online:
www.worcestershire.gov.uk/archaeology
Worcestershire Archaeology
New home - New Organisation
The new Worcestershire Archive and Archaeology
Service was born on the 1st January 2012 when
Worcestershire Historic Environment and
Archaeology Service and Worcestershire Record
Office merged after many years of collaborative
working.
The Archive and Archaeology Service will be
based at The Hive and will continue to provide
all the resources previously available as well as
new, exciting opportunities to explore the past.
The facilities provided at The Hive will be a great
improvement on those currently offered, and will
include:
• all the records of the County's past
(12 miles of archive) together in one place for the first time;
• access to the Historic Environment Record
(26,000 records) of the County and City and a place to talk to archaeologists about your interests;
• a search room for consulting original archives and a large self-service area for using a new range of sources on history and archaeology;
The Worcester Book..
a book by Worcester folk,
about Worcester folk and for Worcester folk.
• a local studies and archaeology library;
• improved guides to help you find your way around
the Archive and Archaeology collections;
• a conservation laboratory for the repair and preservation of documents;
• prearranged group visits ‘behind the scenes’;
• a programme of history and archaeology based events and activities for all ages and interests.
The Hive doesn’t just contain our service but also houses
the first joint University and public library in Europe
and the Worcestershire Hub. The building will also be
the venue for a wide range of arts events and includes
a café and shop. It sits in a stunning location in gardens
overlooking the river. Many people will have visited
the site when the archaeology beneath it was being
excavated.
Finishing touches are now being made to the landscaping
around the building and we are getting ready for our
move in mid March. We are really excited about moving
and hope you will visit us when The Hive opens to the
public in July.
www.thehiveworcester..org
WB2 is the project behind the new Worcester Book.
It will follow the life of the city through a year and a day,
from September 1st 2011 to September 1st 2012. Ten years
on from the first Worcester book, which followed the
Cathedral City in photographs from
2001-2002, so much has changed yet so much remains
the same. The 2012 edition will be capturing big and
small aspects of the life of the City in the year that will
includeZ the Queens Diamond Jubilee and the arrival
of the Olympic Torch. The story will be told by 30 or so
photographers who are mainly from the local community.
Throughout the year, the working pictures can be seen
on Flickr through a link from www.worcesterbook.co.uk
The final copy will be The Worcester Book published
by Henwick Hill Press and will be available in time for
Christmas 2012.
Worcestershire Archaeology
The Iron Harvest
Landscape Management Challenges
On Friday 17th February 2012 The Western Front
Association is hosting a talk by Charlotte CardoenDescamps who lives at Varlet Farm in Poelcapelle on
the Western Front.
Wyre’s unique landscape tells a
fascinating story. Through the Grow
with Wyre Project, the Wyre Forest
Landscape Partnership has engaged
with the local community and visitors to develop
programmes that tell the story of the landscape and
to help future generations to understand Wyre and to
conserve and celebrate its heritage.
Charlotte will talk about the continual unearthing
of Great War ordnance, including unexploded shells,
barbed wire etc., by Belgian and French farmers.
Charlotte describes the problems it creates and how it
is dealt with in this talk.
All are invited from all ages and all walks of life and the
Association welcomes non-members.
The event will be at Callow End Village Hall, Upton
Road, Worcester, WR2 4TE. from 7.30pm – approx. 10pm
and there will be a book stall for all your military needs,
plus items such as cap badges etc to buy and a raffle.
Suggested donation on entry is £3 which enables the
branch to pay for costs.
The project is now ending and a two day conference
is to be held on 15th and 16th March 2012 in Wyre Forest
Discovery Centre.
The conference will provide an overview of the project
and allow delegates to learn how the project has
investigated ways to manage the challenges of this rich
and diverse area.
For more information contact Carole Balcon carole.
[email protected]
Worship in Windows and the Willis Organ.
Farms of Eastern Worcester
Worcestershire Local History Forum will be holding a
Day School on Saturday, 29th September 2012 at All
Saints Church, Wilden, Stourport-on-Severn.
This new book by Barbara Hopper includes research on
56 farms in the parishes of Claines, Hindlip, Warndon,
St Martin’s, Whittington and St Peter’s. Many of these
have given their names to suburbs within the City.
There are 104 pictures in the book, including aerial
photos from the 1960s and coloured maps showing the
farms with their fields by name as at the time of the
tithe survey in 1840.
This tiny Victorian church has a fascinating history. Built
by Alfred Baldwin, who owned the iron works across
the road, the church is famous for its windows. It is
the only church in England to have all its windows by
William Morris. The lovely Victorian organ is by Henry
Willis, but is now in a sorry state and one of the aims of
the day school is to raise funds for its repair.
Alfred Baldwin married one of the five MacDonald
sisters. One of these, was the mother of Rudyard
Kipling; the husband of another became the President
of the Royal Academy, while another sister married the
pre-Raphaelite painter, Edward Burne Jones. Alfred’s son
was three time prime minister Stanley Baldwin, and his
grandson, Earl Baldwin, will be visiting the dayschool,
bringing a range of interesting artefacts and giving a talk
about his family.
The church organist will give a demonstration, the
warden, Dr Pam Craven, will speak about the windows
and other talks will include the pre-Raphaelites, church
music, and iron working. It’s planned to end the day
with a blast of music from the ancient instruments of ‘A
Merrie Noyse’. Talks will be in the church, so do bring a
cushion for the benches.
Tickets (£10 + £5 for buffet lunch) will be available
nearer the date at the church or from Anne Bradford
(01527) 542516.
The book may bring back memories for Worcester
people old enough to remember these farms which
have long since disappeared beneath housing.
They are available for £12, at the History Centre,
Waterstones, Tourist Information, Lyppard Grange
Community Centre or from Barbara herself.
Worcestershire Archaeology
Obituary
Colin Jones, Volunteer Researcher
Colin had been working with us as a volunteer researcher
for sixteen years, when he died unexpectedly on 6th
November, aged 74, after a short illness. He will be sorely
missed by all of us and Fridays just will not be the same
again!
Born in 1937, Colin was a native of Worcester, although
for much of his working life he lived in Kent, with his
wife Sylvia, and was employed in London. He was
educated at Worcester Royal Grammar School and
started his working career with British Rail at Shrub Hill.
In 1957, he was called to do his National Service with
the Royal Air Force, where his aptitude for mathematics
resulted in him being trained as a radar mechanic. One
of his outstanding memories of that time was being
given a flight in a Gloster Meteor jet fighter. After
National Service, he returned to British Rail, but then
took time out from the world of work to become a
mature student at York University, where he gained
a degree in economics. A move to London followed
and employment with the Department of Trade and
Industry. While in London he successfully studied for a
master’s degree in economics at the London School of
Economics. This was followed by a 3 ½ year posting to
Belize as part of the British Overseas Aid Programme.
Back in London, he changed employment to the
Chamber of Commerce before, apparently persuaded by
Sylvia, he took early retirement in 1995 and returned to
Worcester.
With Colin, retirement really was a misnomer, because
he then immersed himself in local politics, and became a
member of the Civil Service Pensioners Alliance. Starting
as the regional representative, he soon rose to the top
to become a national representative, and then chairman.
He attended CSPA meetings in many parts of Britain,
as well as lecturing on the subject of pensions and
representing fellow pensioners in disputes. He served
as Vice President of the Alliance for two years, and was
due to be made President, when he decided to leave
and devote more time to his work with the Archaeology
Service.
As well as his love of reading, the theatre, classical music
and modern jazz, travel was very much a feature of his
and Sylvia’s life, their holidays encompassing a motoring
trip through the North American states, trips to South
America, and a number of visits to the Antipodes. He
was planning a trip to India when he became too ill to
fulfil that ambition.
Colin’s time with us at the Archaeology Service began
in 1995, soon after the start of the national Defence of
Britain Project, when he became one of the half-a-dozen
or so volunteers working on the project, recording sites
in Hereford and Worcester.
This was followed by the Defence of Worcestershire
Project in 2002, when the national project was wound
up. Over the years, most of the other volunteers working
on the project fell by the wayside, but Colin doggedly
carried on until recently, when it became impossible
for him to continue. As a result of his enthusiasm for
computing, he has virtually single-handedly added
something over 2,300 modern defence sites to the
Historic Environment Record over the years. This, and
many of his books on defence subjects, which will be
added to the Archive and Archaeology Service Library
at The Hive, will be an enduring legacy of his time with
us. In addition to his work on the HER, he, and some
of his fellow defence enthusiasts, have produced, or
contributed to, a number of books on the subject
of modern defences. Most recently he acted as both
contributor to, and editor of, the book: “20th Century
Defences in Britain – The West Midlands”, published by
Logaston Press. He was working on a history of the
Royal Ordnance Factory at Blackpole in Worcester when
he became ill. It is planned to complete it in his name.
At his funeral, it was said that Colin was able to
compartmentalise each part of his life, and so achieve
the many and diverse things that he did. He was clearly
a tower of strength and will be greatly missed by many.
While working as a volunteer with the Archaeology
Service, we found Colin to be a most unassuming,
quietly efficient, diligent, cheerful man and a good friend
to us all.
Mick Wilks
Worcestershire Archaeology
The Landscape through time
The Worcestershire Historic Landscape Characterisation
(HLC) project, which began in 2006, is now complete. The
County's historic landscape is sensitive to change and
should be properly understood to ensure its effective
management and enhancement. Part of a national
programme of characterisation that started with Cornwall
in 1994, HLC is a powerful and flexible tool that provides
objective material to inform future frameworks for
landscape planning and management and for shaping
sustainable communities.
The HLC uses a digital Geographic Information System
(GIS) to record the county's historic landscape character.
(Worcester City is conducting a separate HLC project).
This process divides the present-day landscape into
grouped parcels of land that share similarities through
time, using sources such as modern and historic maps,
aerial photographs and the Historic Environment Record
(HER). The result is a picture of how the historic landscape
character has developed over the last thousand years and
reveals its 'time-depth', or how the past can be recognised
in today’s landscape.
landscape character was recorded, that occurred two
hundred years ago. Large tracts of open heaths, lowland
moors, commons and wetlands were enclosed in the early
nineteenth century which, at that time, comprised over
twenty two per cent of the County's total area.
The project report will be published online shortly and
the digital HLC information will be available through an
interactive GIS website planned for late 2012.
by Steve Crowther
Upton Flood Defences
On 20 January, the Environment Agency held a ‘Heritage
Day’ at the archaeological excavations at Waterside where
the new flood defence wall is being built. Pupils from
Upton-upon-Severn Primary School and Harriett Baldwin,
MP, came along to find out what was going on there.
Working on behalf of the EA our excavation team had
uncovered the massive foundations of the 16th century
stone bridge. Built soon after 1539, the bridge was
frequently damaged - for instance, just before the Battle
of Worcester, the Royalists pulled down one arch. It
finally succumbed to the floods of 1852 when one arch
collapsed and the bridge had to be demolished. In 1854
an iron bridge with a drawbridge section on the Upton
side was built, but this was soon replaced in 1883 by a
more practical swing-bridge. The excavations revealed
the foundations and wall which had supported the swing
bridge which match similar remains on the opposite side
of the river.
Other finds have included the remains of old street
surfaces and roadside walls and a long-lost marker stone
with letters cut into it.
Worcestershire’s Historic Landscape Character map.
Post-war field amalgamation, over 30% of the county’s
total area, is shown in orange
One of the most surprising results has been the amount
of landscape change that has occurred in Worcestershire
since World War Two. Fifty per cent of Worcestershire
has undergone some kind of historic landscape character
change since 1945. Nearly thirty one percent of that
is because of the amalgamation or reorganisation of
fields by hedgerow removal, a consequence of post-war
industrialisation of agriculture and the construction of
motorways and dual carriageways.
Another similarly dramatic change to the County's historic
Deborah Overton talked to the schoolchildren about
the medieval pottery industry based just up river at
Hanley Castle. The Hanley potters sold their wares in
Upton market or exported them by river to other towns.
Everyone enjoyed digging up pottery sherds from a mock
excavation and then sorting and working out how old
they were.
Mould line buckets
Interior of Ford Foundry
Worcestershire Archive and Archaeology Service is
the main contact point for all information about
archaeology in the county.
For information on projects mentioned in the newsletter,
or to join in as a volunteer in our activities for all ages and
abilities, please contact us - we will send details, or put
you in touch with staff who can help.
Unless otherwise stated all photographs and images are
©Worcestershire County Council.
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send an email to our address below with the subject
‘NEWSLETTER PLEASE’.
Cover photos: Main photo -.Recording the former Ford
foundry;
bottom, left to right The Hive; Wilden Church; Heritage
Day, Upton-upon-Severn ©The Environment Agency
For further information contact: By telephone:
07972 570061
By post:
Worcestershire Archive and Archaeology Service
The Hive, Sawmill Walk, The Butts, Worcester, WR1 3DT
By email:
[email protected]
This document can be made available in other languages (including British Sign Language)
and alternative formats (large print, audio tape, computer disk and Braille) on request
from Corporate Diversity Manager on
01905 766938 or at [email protected]