News

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

S4C has reached an agreement with the National Library of Wales to ensure that all the channel's programmes are protected and transferred to the National Library's care as part of the National Broadcast Archive for Wales. All S4C content, programmes and series which have been broadcast since the channel's launch in 1982 will be transferred … Continue reading S4C programmes to be protected at the National Library

Throughout June, Cambridgeshire Archives led a social media campaign; the 'Great Archives Bake Off', inviting us to try out recipes from archive collections. Archives services in Wales took part and here are a few of the recipes tried and tested. Amanda Sweet, Anglesey Archives: 'I have chosen a recipe from a note book belonging to … Continue reading On Your Marks, Get Set…BAKE!

The theme for this years’ International Archives Day is Empowering Archives. Sally McInnes, Chair of the ARCW Digital Preservation Group and Head of Unique Collections and Collections Care at the National Library of Wales, explains how services are supporting each other to advance the digital preservation agenda in Wales. The ability to remotely connect and network … Continue reading Teaming up to save the bits: digital sustainability in Wales

“This is a shilling, and here’s a threepenny bit and here’s…” Watching a very elderly woman patiently explaining the pre-decimal currency system of Britain to a genuinely interested and much younger woman was a delight. Even more so when one understood that the older lady had dementia, and the younger was one of a team … Continue reading The Brilliant Past –Dementia and Archives

2020 was the year when we clapped for our carers, and publicly celebrated our health heroes. The nursing profession was a big part of this, and they have continued with their incredible work and devotion throughout the COVID-19 pandemic. Looking through the archives, it is clear that an appreciation of nurses and the nursing profession … Continue reading Decades of dedication – an archival appreciation of the nursing profession

National Tea Day is observed in the United Kingdom every year on 21st of April to celebrate the drinking of tea. The North East Wales Archives (NEWA), Hawarden, holds this advertisement for Ishmael Roberts, Miller, Tea Dealer and Grocer from Lane End in Buckley, mid-19th Century. With over 30 potteries, brickworks and an abundant supply … Continue reading National Tea Day

We are pleased to announce that Archives and Records Council Wales have been have awarded a Covid-19 Archives Fund Grant of £50,000 from The National Archives. This generous award will allow us to develop a national strategy to identify records at risk due to the Covid-19 pandemic, and ensure that they are safeguarded for future … Continue reading Archives and Records Council Wales awarded Covid-19 Archives Grant