Shropshire Archives projects and partners

Telford Culture Zone

The Culture Zone pilot education project has now come to an end though some Telford schoolchildren did enjoy cooking, making lavender bags and learning about 17C life through stories from Shropshire Archives this term. Some work from the projects we did as part of TCZ is at www.archivezone.co.uk. Select the link for more details.

Culture Zone has been succeeded by Find Your Talent, which is another three year pilot project centred on Telford and involving Shropshire Archives and many other cultural partners with schools and youth organisations. Projects are being devised to work with children and young people from 0 – 19 years. We are leading a project, with support from Telford Libraries, where children from Wellington schools are focussing on Wellington Library which was the early 19C workhouse.

The students have visited Shropshire Archives and the Library, researching the lives of inmates and hearing fantastic ghost stories from librarians. They are now dramatising their stories with professional actors and film makers and the resulting short film will be shown on Plasma screens at Shropshire Archives and in local libraries.

We have also received some extra funds from Engaging Places, part of the Campaign for Architecture and the Built Environment who are interested in the project. This will enable us to investigate the old building more fully and talk to planners, architects and members of the local community to find out, and possibly be involved in, plans for the new library - part of Wellington’s new civic buildings. Select the link to Engaging Places for more details.

Discover Shropshire Project

This project aims to encourage people to find out more about their families and the history of their communities.

As part of this project, local history centres have now opened in Bridgnorth Library and Oswestry Library; centres in Craven Arms, Ludlow, Church Stretton and Cleobury Mortimer are to open soon. Copies of resources at Shropshire Archives will be made available in these centres. Project officers have also uncovered a wealth of material in the libraries themselves, which will be catalogued and, in some cases, digitised. Select the link for more details.

The Shropshire Manorial Documents Register (MDR) Project

Shropshire Archives is currently working in partnership with The National Archives (TNA) to list Shropshire's manorial documents on the TNA's online database.

Manorial records are a valuable resource containing useful information for family and property researchers. Unfortunately, because the records are not a collection in their own right, often being part of family and estate collections, they can be difficult to find.

The main aim of the project is to ensure that all manorial records held at Shropshire Archives (the major holder of Shropshire's manorial records) are listed on the database. The information on the existing hard copy MDR is being checked and out of county repositories and private owners are being contacted to confirm their holdings. The Shropshire section of the database will be launched and available to search in the summer of 2010.

The database currently contains the records for several English counties and all of Wales. To search the existing database, please select the link to Manorial Documents Register. For further information about the electronic MDR select the link to 'About the electronic Manorial Documents Register'.

Shropshire Family History Society at Shropshire Archives

Volunteers from the Shropshire Family History Society provide a help desk at Shropshire Archives from 10am-1pm on Wednesdays, Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays. The Shropshire Family History Society was winner of the OSCA (Outstanding Contribution Award) for members' work helping visitors to Shropshire Archives.

Completed projects:

Acton Scott Heritage Project

This was a two year, “Your Heritage” funded, community project run by the Archaeology Service. Community volunteers were given opportunities to take part in a range of archaeological and historical techniques including surveying, field walking, excavation, historical research and interpretation.

One of the main foci of the study was the site of a Roman villa partially excavated in 1844, but the project also explored the parish's medieval and later past.

For more information, please follow the link to the Acton Scott Heritage Project.

Their Past Your Future 2 Project

Shropshire Archives worked with the Shropshire Regimental Museum on this joint project to produce educational resources for Shropshire schools.

Within the museum and the archive collections there is a wide range of photographs, letters and contemporary documents which can illustrate the impact that wars have had on the people of Shropshire. The project enabled us to present these resources in an interesting and accessible way for teachers and pupils to use. Images and documents were selected and reproduced in a booklet and CD on each of the World Wars and a free pack was given to each Shropshire school.

Children from a local primary and secondary school had the opportunity to meet and interview war veterans and many were encouraged then to explore their own family’s experiences and memories of the World Wars. To highlight the cross-curricular potential of archive material, each school also took part in creative writing workshops with local poet, Barry Tench. Examples of First World War poetry, including the Shropshire born war poet Wilfred Owen, were explored and children were able to write their own poems.

Some People Are Gay. Get Over It!
Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender History in Shropshire

"Imagine a young mind feels and knows intuitively a condition as true, but lacks any confirmation from others, is devoid of language and story to validate those tentative feelings and help to shape that embryonic conviction. It is hard to overstate the importance to a young mind of a positive word, a good image and an uplifting story. The witnesses on this DVD, their evidence and testimony, hold up a mirror to young minds. This DVD must be seen by all young people who crave a positive image, supportive words, and a mirroring story, because this DVD will save lives." Fred D'Aguiar

This MLA West Midlands funded project brought together a teacher from the William Brookes School in Much Wenlock with Shropshire Archives. The resulting resource uses archive material from the collections of Shropshire Archives, along with newly gathered video interviews with local people, to look at lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender history, both in Shropshire, and in its wider national context.

Its aim is to support the National Curriculum in encouraging discussion of, and respect for, difference and diversity and to provide an innovative approach to combating homophobic and transphobic bullying.

Combining historical sources with debate of very current issues, this is a cross-curricular resource, relevant to PSHE, Citizenship, History, RE and English. It includes case studies relating to Shropshire people, exercises and worksheets to use with students, plus helplines and contact details for many support organizations.

A copy of the resource has been distributed to all Telford and Wrekin and Shropshire secondary schools.

The Records and Memories of the King’s Shropshire Light Infantry (KSLI) Project

As part of this project, staff recorded over twenty interviews with veterans of the King’s Shropshire Light Infantry (KSLI). Men from all ranks have come forward with memories of their military service, from active service in the Second World War to peace time exercises with the Territorial Army. The oral history recordings are also being transcribed to provide an accurate printed record of the audio tapes.

Another vital part of the project was improving the existing catalogue. This work has brought many hidden treasures to the forefront for digitisation. The collection includes war diaries, personal diaries, letters, scrapbooks, trench maps, pamphlets and pay books. There are also many photograph albums within the collection and staff have digitised the most important photographs, thereby preserving them for the future, and also allowing greater access to many previously hidden photographs.

For more information please visit the Shropshire Regimental Museum pages on the Discovering Shropshire’s History website http://shropshireregiments.org.uk/. There is a link on this page.

Lilleshall Project

Shropshire Archives was awarded £349,500 by the Heritage Lottery Fund for work on the records of the Lilleshall estate. The Lilleshall estate was part of the Duke of Sutherland’s English estates and the records form one of Shropshire’s most significant medieval archive collections. The records currently held by Shropshire Archives fill 250 boxes and include material from the 12th to the 20th centuries.

You can search the basic Lilleshall Catalogue (Collection Reference 972) through the Shropshire Archives’ Online Catalogue.

Discovering Shropshire’s History

The website created by the Discovering Shropshire’s History project www.shropshirehistory.org.uk is now live - click on the link to find out more.

One of the larger projects the team has undertaken is an interactive map of Shrewsbury dated approximately 1630. The map is an original artwork created by local artist Phil Kenning. It is an academically accurate reconstruction with input from Hugh Hannaford, Bill Champion, James Lawson and Nigel Baker. The image is also available as a poster through the Shropshire Archives' online shop.

See also the link to the Discover Shropshire project.

Pay and Power Cataloguing Project

The Pay and Power project was a regional Lottery-funded project aiming to catalogue thirteen archive collections from local record offices across the West Midlands which illustrate the theme of work and politics.

The project started in April 2005, with a roving staff of archivists who spent an average of six months in each repository cataloguing significant unlisted collections. The resulting catalogues are on the Access to Archives (A2A) database on the internet www.a2a.org.uk - a link is provided on this page.

Routes to Roots

The Shropshire Routes to Roots project was based at Shropshire Archives and Oswestry Library, with the aim of digitising local history and archive material for use by teachers, school children and lifelong learners. The resulting website www.shropshireroots.org.uk includes six major learning packages which present aspects of the history of Shropshire in an interesting, fun and unique way.

You can decide whether John Mapp was guilty of murdering Catherine Lewis, uncover the history of Park Hall camp near Oswestry, or discover what it was like the day the canals came to Market Drayton. The site includes images, background information, timelines, quizzes and Teacher's Resources.

Secret Shropshire

The Secret Shropshire project was supported by the Lottery under the New Opportunities Fund ‘Digitise Programme’.

Why not search the website www.secretshropshire.org.uk and explore the county's local history, natural environment and archaeological treasures?

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