Wolverhampton Archives and Local Studies

Join us at City of Wolverhampton Council’s flag raising event this morning at 10.50am, St. Peter’s Square, as we recognise and pay tribute to the Caribbean Windrush generation of Wolverhampton.

The photograph is of the first seven arrivals from HMT Empire Windrush in Wolverhampton. Photograph courtesy of the Express & Star Wolverhampton Archives and Local Studies

City of Wolverhampton Council would like to invite residents to join a flag raising event this Friday 21 June at 10.50am in St. Peter’s Square as we recognise and pay tribute to the Caribbean Windrush generation of Wolverhampton.

The Deputy Lord Lieutenant, Martin Levermore MBE, will open the event with Pastor Gilroy Brown also attending.

We hope to see you there.

The photograph is of the first seven arrivals from HMT Empire Windrush in Wolverhampton.

Photograph courtesy of the Express & Star Wolverhampton Archives and Local Studies

The 6th June marks the anniversary of D-Day. We are featuring the stories of some of the local men who were involved in the Normandy landings on this day in 1944. We are also sharing photographs from The Express & Star digital photo archive of the wounded from the invasion beaches arriving at West Midlands hospitals. As the photographs were taken at night during the blackout, the caption notes that they were taken at 10.35pm without using a flash.
Wolverhampton Today

On a football-related theme, does anyone recognise either of these teams from the kits, badges, etc? This photograph has come from The Express & Star digital photo archive, dated 17 December 1964, but the caption on the back is not particularly helpful...

Please be aware that, due to the Wolverhampton Wanderers FC vs. Coventry City FC FA Cup match this Saturday 16th March, which kicks off at 12.15, we will not be able to provide access to our car park and most of the surrounding roads will be closed at least an hour before kick-off.

A reminder of our opening times over the festive period:

We will be closing at 1pm on Saturday 23rd December, and will not reopen the service again until 1pm on Wednesday 3rd January 2024.

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to all our visitors and followers!

Remembrance Day 2023

We will remember them

Image of a poppy featuring the Haig Fund, published in Express & Star in November 1972, from the collections of The Express & Star digital photo archive
Wolverhampton Today

If you are planning on visiting us tomorrow, please be aware that, due to Wolverhampton Wanderers FC Home match versus Tottenham Hotspur, which is kicking off at 12:30, our car park will be unavailable to visitors after 11 am, and the surrounding roads will also be closed. Please bear this in mind when travelling and make alternative arrangements if necessary.

Stuck with your family history? Penny Smith of the Friends of Wolverhampton City Archives will be delivering a course to help discover more!

Things are setting up nicely for our Local History Fair, today 10am-4pm. Come in out of the rain and talk to local experts on a whole range of topics, and sample the delicious cakes provided by the Friends of the Archives. Adults £2, children £1. We've got activities for children and a display for Black History Month, as well as some Very Important People visiting...

Our Local History Fair returns on Saturday 21 October 10am – 4pm.
Visitors will have the chance to talk to representatives of numerous local history groups, organisations and societies including the West Midlands Police Museum, the Wfa Wolverhampton, Archaeology in Mind - AiM, The Black Country Living Museum, The Museum of Wolverhampton and South Staffordshire, Black Country Society, The Wolverhampton Society, Moseley Old Hall - National Trust, Central Youth Theatre, Wednesfield History Society, The Lace Guild, Midland Ancestors, and Wombourne History Group, among others. The Friends of Wolverhampton City Archives will be providing refreshments, cakes and sandwiches throughout the day, for a small donation, as well as running a raffle in aid of Wolverhampton City Archives.
Entry to the Local History Fair will be £2 per adult and £1 per child. No need to book just turn up.,

In preparation for our Local History Fair this Saturday 21st October, the service will be closing at 12 on Friday 20th, and there will be no archives service available on the 21st.

The Local History Fair returns on Saturday 21 October 10am – 4pm.

Visitors will have the chance to talk to representatives of numerous local history groups, organisations and societies, and Birmingham Museums will be bringing along some items from their handling collection so children and adults alike can get a real feel for historical objects and artefacts.

Confirmed stallholders include the West Midlands Police Museum, the Western Front Association, and Wolverhampton Archaeology Group, among others. The Friends of Wolverhampton Archives will be providing refreshments, cakes and sandwiches throughout the day, for a small donation, as well as running a raffle in aid of Wolverhampton City Archives.

Entry to the Local History Fair will be £2 per adult and £1 per child. No need to book just turn up.

Do any of our eagle-eyed followed know what trophy Billy Wright is holding on the right please? Middle is the FA Cup and the left is the League Championship trophy, but any assistance with the one on the right would be gratefully received. Thank you very much in advance!

History Begins at Home is a nationwide campaign aiming to ignite conversation with friends and family, through the power of our past

July is , remembering all things, sun, sea and sand related.

Attached is a photograph of a very pleasant outing, which I am sure was a day very much out of the ordinary for these children from Wombourne on a school outing to the seaside in the 1930s (P/3459)

Good news!
We’ve been nominated for the “Records Keeping Service of the Year 2022” award. Your vote would really matter to us. And we want to thank you again for all of your continuous support. You can find the link to the voting page below.
https://www.surveymonkey.co.uk/r/D2CM9NP

Copy of ARA Excellence Awards 2023 - Voting Take this survey powered by surveymonkey.com. Create your own surveys for free.

Between the 1st-7th June is Volunteers Week. A celebration of the contribution people make across the UK through volunteering in their local communities. We would like to say a big thankyou to all our current volunteers who commit their time to helping us at the archives.

We are looking for more volunteers to help us here at Wolverhampton Archives. If you can spare an occasional day helping us we would be very grateful. We are currently able to offer a hybrid model of volunteering - you have the option of remote/virtual volunteering (which you can obviously do in your own time from home, whenever is convenient) or on-site volunteering, or a combination of the two. Volunteers are welcome to help out as much or as little as you like once you are familiar with how we operate, we would preferably initially start volunteers off with an initial one day a week or once a fortnight if volunteering on site.

The sorts of tasks we have available for volunteers include box-lists of uncatalogued records, transcriptions of oral history interviews, name indexes of existing records or research using the records and online sources. If there is anything else more specific you would like to work on then please ask and we can see what we can do.

If you are interested then please email [email protected] with the subject line 'Volunteer' and we can provide further information.
Volunteering is open to all those over the age of 18. If younger, we do offer work experience placements.

There is now only two weeks until our Family History Course begins, running for six weeks, covering different record sets each week. £30 per person with guidance and help sheets provided.
Please ring us on 01902 552480 to book a place.

The Archive car park (off Whitmore Hill) will be CLOSED on Saturday 3rd June due to line repainting. The archives will remain OPEN this day, so if you are planning on visiting us on this day by car we would recommend parking in an alternative car park. Some suggestions close by include, St Peters Car Park, WV1 1LY, open to the public on Saturdays (RingGo car park). Or the underground Civic Centre car park, WV1 1RQ (cash and card payments accepted).

We hope you all had a wonderful bank holiday weekend celebrating our new monarch, King Charles III. Just as a reminder if you have any photos, leaflets or other material we ask you to please share them with us so we can preserve this momentous occasion for future generations! Any digital material can be sent to us via our search room email address, [email protected]. Alternatively any physical material can be dropped into us during our opening hours or sent via post.
Thankyou!

One month to go...

Remember there is only one month to go until our next Family sleuthing course, running for six consecutive weeks from the 9th June. If you are interested in joining us please contact us on 01902 552480, our receptionists will be more then happy to give you further information and book you a space on the course.

Key things to remember:
The course is £30 - all help and guidance sheets are included
Each session begins at 10:30 and lasts for approximately 2.5 hours
The course covers all UK records not just local (Wolverhampton)
Aims to enable you to take your new found knowledge home and give you the confidence to search through record sets on your own

The Coronation of His Majesty King Charles III - 6th May 2023

All staff and volunteers at Wolverhampton Archives and Local Studies wish you all a joyful day in the celebration of the coronation of King Charles III.

Attached are some newspaper articles and photographs from previous coronation celebrations in Wolverhampton for previous monarchs.

1) Article from the Wolverhampton Chronicle- 18th July 1821- Celebration plans for the coronation of King George IV. Including a dinner at the theatre on the 19th July and a ball and supper at the theatre on the 20th July.
2) Article from the Wolverhampton Chronicle- 27th June 1838- Celebration plans for a Public dinner at the Bradford Arms on coronation day Thursday 28th June for the coronation of Queen Victoria
3) Lichfield Street decorations for the celebration of the coronation of Edward VIII - coronation on the 9th August 1902 (D-EXP/P/W31/2) From the Express and Star photo catalogue, found at https://photo-archive.expressandstar.co.uk/
4) Postcard of flower beds commemorating the coronation of George V at West Park- coronation on the 22nd June 1911 (P/2000)
5)The Coronation Memorial Clock Tower at Upper Green, Tettenhall, taken in the early part of the 20th century for the coronation of George V. Which still stands today overlooking Tettenhall pool (P/4028)
6)Coronation decorations at Bankfield Works on Albert Street, celebrating the coronation of George VI's on the 12th May 1937 (P/3874)
7)Celebrations aboard horse-pulled float in Tettenhall for the coronation of Elizabeth II, who's coronation was on 2nd June 1953 (P/3192)

If you're celebrating the Coronation this weekend, please share any photos, leaflets or other material with us so we can preserve this momentous occasion for future generations! Any digital material can be sent via the Archives email, [email protected]. Anything physical can be posted to us or dropped in to the Archives during our opening hours.

Enjoy this celebratory day!

Don't forget...

Our next Family history sleuthing course will be starting on Friday 9th June 2023 at 10:30am.

These courses are great if you want to gain a heads start in researching your family history, aid in interpreting record sets and help with where to find them.

This course runs for SIX consecutive weeks with each session approximately 2.5 hours long. Each Friday at 10:30am.

Cost of course is £30.00 per person

All handouts,guidance, charts and tips are provided to get you started. And remember the course covers UK records not just local area.

You never know what heroes or rogues you may find in the family!

To book a place on the course, please call us on: 01902 552480 or ask reception

Happy Easter from all of the staff and volunteers at Wolverhampton Archives and Local Studies!

The only difference in our opening hours over the Bank holiday is that we will be closed tomorrow (Good Friday).

Our opening times will be:
Friday- Closed
Saturday- 10am-1pm
Sunday- Closed
Monday - Closed
We will be back open as normal from Wednesday

We hope you have a lovely weekend, whatever your plans, whether that includes eating a whopping 3 foot Easter Egg like the one in the photo attached!

This Easter Egg was raffled off in aid of the outpatient's department at Birmingham Children's Hospital, created by Cadbury, Bournville, Birmingham.
D-EXP/P/I40/37

This week we celebrated World Poetry Day on Tuesday 21st March. Honouring poets and paying tribute to the linguistic variety of poetry, and the ability to share traditions through poetic forms. Poetry is known for its ability to allow the writer to be openly expressive and creative.

Below is an example of local poetry, written by Lieutenant Colonel Thomas Thorneycroft, 'The Battles of Tettenhall and Wednesfield', in 1892 (DX-377/3/8).

We hope you spent some time reading some of your favourite poems, or even getting creative and writing your own.

Unfortunately The Family History Helping Hands session scheduled for this coming Saturday (11th March) has now been cancelled. Sorry for any inconvenience caused.
The next session is scheduled for Saturday 8th April.
Useful for any assistance and 1-1 aid with your family history search- drop in service run by our wonderful Friends of the Archives

Snow Day at the Archives!
Wolverhampton Archives looking beautiful in this snowy weather ❄️
If you are visiting us today please be careful, we would advise arriving to our car park via Molineux Street (the back entrance) as Whitmore Hill is not advisable in these weather conditions
Keep safe!

"Before they were Famous". Does anyone recognise these dancers?

A very young-looking Take That performed in the Mander Centre in 1991, before they became huge. This photo comes from the collection of Express & Star The Express & Star digital photo archive Does anyone have any memories of seeing them there? We would love to hear your stories!