Four Welsh archive services will receive funding totalling over £28,000 to undertake vital conservation work on fragile and damaged items in their collections, thanks to a partnership between the Welsh Government and the National Manuscripts Conservation Trust (NMCT). The funding will conserve items to which access had previously been extremely restricted due to their condition, … Continue reading Welsh archives benefit from partnership funding

Denbighshire Archives have recently received some great news that their application to the NMCT has been accepted. The grant will cover the cleaning, repair, repackaging and scanning of the Denbigh Borough Charters (BD/A). The Charters granted to the Borough of Denbigh are the oldest surviving borough charters in North Wales.They provide rare evidence of Wales during … Continue reading Grant Success for the Denbigh Borough Charters!

Food shortages during the First World War were considerable, with wholesalers and retailers becoming bound by numerous regulations and the whole population seeing the beginning of rationing. The first attempt at rationing was made with an order restricting meals in hotels and restaurants in December 1916, and by 1917 food prices has doubled with only … Continue reading Food Control during the First World War

Naming it Inspirational Archives, staff from the Royal Commission have come up with a novel twist for this year’s Explore Your Archives campaign. They have planned a day where visitors are welcome to come and discover the many unique collections of the National Monuments Record of Wales archives, and then gain inspiration to create something … Continue reading Inspirational Archives: Come and be Inspired by the Royal Commission’s Archives, 18 November, 2pm–7pm

Using one of the gems housed at the West Glamorgan Archive Service, historians have the chance to travel back in time to see how Swansea used to be 150 years ago. Staff at the archives have digitised a very detailed map of the town and made it available as an interactive resource CD to help … Continue reading Swansea in 1852

With only days to go until the biggest rugby competition in the world begins, rugby fans visiting Cardiff this autumn will be able to enjoy a special display at National Museum Cardiff as part of the celebrations surrounding the Rugby World Cup. First Minister for Wales, Carwyn Jones officially launched the Kick-offs and Keep-sakes display … Continue reading National Rugby Stories competition winners announced at new rugby display

Staff at Pembrokeshire Archives in Prendergast, Haverfordwest, threw open its doors on Tuesday to show the public what goes on behind the scenes. Tours of the building took place and visitors were given the rare opportunity to view the repository block  where over 133,000 items from Pembrokeshire’s archival heritage – some dating back to 1272 – … Continue reading A peep into the past

Cynefin is an innovative HLF funded project which aims to digitise all the tithe maps of Wales. The project’s showcase currently is a sophisticated and enjoyable crowdsourcing website which aims to get the public involved in transcribing tithe documents and geographically positioning the maps. This website, and many of the digitised maps will be shown … Continue reading The tithe maps of Wales showcased at the National Eisteddfod