Coventry Archives

Another opportunity to see the Archive's vast bunker of goodies, plus a trip down into the Medieval Undercroft....

Pity it's not on the 6th when I hope to join one and all for brekkie. I am back in France for the week before Christmas.

Details are also in the Event diary for this talk by Peter Walters.

The latest workshop at the Archives, inspired by the exhibition Stories That Made Us....

Talking of archives in general, there's a word that keeps tripping me up - indenture. I've always thought of it as a term to mean employment, particularly enforced employment. So when documents turned up about all sorts of other things like marriage or business I was always surprised by what was in the document. So I finally looked the word up and really it's a word that just means it's a written contract between two or more parties. In medieval times it was copies of the text duplicated on one piece of parchment and then divided in such a way that the pieces were clearly part of the same original record so couldn't be changed for a new sheet of parchment because it wouldn't fit back into one whole. Indents in the divide being the source of the name. You learn something new every day.

I don't like the new search on the newspaper archive ! Have you looked at it yet Helen ?

I tried it the other day and gave up. To me it is obscure and lacking in search requirements. I sent a letter of complaint and cancelled my subscription. No answer of course.

It's been changed to reflect Find My Past and like you guys I preferred the old format. I liked that the date search was a separate selection up the left. Once you've added a few search criteria, like news paper, subsequent refinements vanish off the page. I don't hate it. I think that all the previous search options are there, you just have to find them. The exception is that of containing a photo or image, that didn't work anyway.

Something interesting to consider during this year's Heritage Open Days....

Now here's an interesting one - how did music in ancient Coventry actually sound? Much effort appears to have been put in to ascertain this, and for those who are unable to pop in to The Herbert to see their display and hear it in person, using the QR code at the foot of the poster below will take you to an option to download an app, which gives a visual and audible experience. The app is large, though - 1GB - so make sure you have enough data allowance or can download it via wifi.