News

In December 2021, I was fortunate enough to be able to spend a week at NEWA, Hawarden, learning how to do parchment repairs with Mark Allen, the Conservator, working on some Flintshire mortgages and quitclaims dating from the 1300s to 1600s. The first phase of the practical work was to clean the documents with a … Continue reading Repairing Medieval Mortgages at NEWA

A key element of our Records at Risk project has been to develop a framework to support archive services throughout Wales in surveying and rescuing the records of private organisations. We have developed a number of resources and guidance documentation that provides information on risk monitoring and conducting records surveys, with a focus on remotely … Continue reading ARCW Records at Risk Online Toolkit

While sorting through an old collection of glass slides I came across a set of four showing women in traditional Welsh dress.  The glass slides form part of the WC Rogers Collection (D/D WCR) held at West Glamorgan Archive Service.  The slides measure 12x16.4cm but each slide contains between 14 and 15 images. On further … Continue reading Welsh National Dress: Women at Market during the 1880s

You might have missed Santes Dwynwen day, but it’s still not too late to express your love by sending a romantic card on Valentine's Day. Archives and Special Collections, Bangor University, have this example of a Valentine Card from the 19th century which can be found amongst the Wynn Hall Manuscripts. Paper Valentines became popular … Continue reading Good Wishes: Valentine’s Card, 1875

I am a masters student of Conservation Practice at Cardiff University, and over the last few months I have been volunteering at Glamorgan Archives, assisting with the conservation of the Plymouth Estate maps. These are a collection of maps and surveys from 1766 covering much of the historic county of Glamorgan. They provide an important … Continue reading Conserving the 18th Century Plymouth Estate Maps

Crucial transcripts of the witness testimonies from the Chartist Trials, which reported on the 1839 Newport Rising, the last large-scale armed protest in Great Britain, have been shared by Archives Wales as part of Explore Your Archive week (Saturday 20th – Sunday 28th November 2021) Held online at the People’s Collection Wales for anyone to … Continue reading Witness testimonies from the 1839 Newport Rising uncovered as part of Explore Your Archive week

A wealth of historic documents, each with unique stories from the past, are being shared ahead of Explore Your Archives Week (Saturday 20th – Sunday 28th November 2021).Items highlighted as part of the week include a 12-metre-long family tree from the 1500s claiming that a Welshman is descended from the Virgin Queen, Queen Elizabeth I; an … Continue reading From claims of Welsh descendants of Queen Elizabeth I, to evidence of an octopus in the Bristol Channel: hidden history uncovered for Explore Your Archive week

In Wales, we have been working for many years to break down barriers to digital preservation through working collaboratively to increase capacity and skills. The publication of the National Digital Preservation Policy and accompanying Technical Appendix, on Digital Preservation Day in 2017, aimed at ensuring digital resources of enduring value would be selected for preservation … Continue reading Saving the Bits in Wales

Archivists’ roles are wide-ranging and encompass skills and responsibilities such as the selection of archival materials to be retained, cataloguing and describing their contents, and determining arrangements for public access. Perhaps the foremost responsibility of the archivist, however, is to ensure that the records in their care are capable of being preserved securely and permanently. … Continue reading Covid-19 Archives Fund: Records at Risk Project