Herefordshire Archives

01/09/2026

Focus on Accessions (New acquisitions) - Back to school!

This school logbook extract describes some cheeky behaviour at Lord Scudamore’s school on Friar Street, Hereford in June 1893: ‘Tom Evans threw Albert Meredith’s cap over the wall into the foundry garden. Kate Shelton sent a boy without my permission to fetch it, two other boys accompanied him, and played truant’.
Logbooks were kept by the headteacher and documented the ins and outs of the school day with descriptions that could include what was taught, behaviour, illness, weather and local events. This collection (DG92) includes admissions registers from 1880-2002 and logbooks dating from 1863-2003. They were found by school staff in a rarely opened cupboard and offered to HARC.
We are always pleased to receive local school records to care for and share with the public so if you know of other schools who may have old books and documents lurking in cupboards, please ask them to get in touch with us!
As for research plenty of other Herefordshire schools are represented in the archives if you want to add an extra dimension to your local or family history research. N.B. Records less than 100 years old naming individuals are sometimes restricted but archivists can look for information on your behalf.

28/08/2026

Monday 7th Sept 1am - 1pm
Interested in getting more from your family research? Want to find out more about your local area or your house? The internet can be a great resource but it pays to know where to look and how to search.

This practical session introduces you to some of the internet resources you can use to enhance your family or local history research including

HARC online catalogue
National Library of Wales wills
National Archives catalogue
Herefordshire History

Herefordshire Archive and Records Centre,
Fir Tree Lane, Hereford HR2 6LA
Cost £12.00
Booking via https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/internet-skills-for-family-and-local-history-tickets-1992756808257

20/08/2026

31/07/2026

Having problems with the amount of tax you pay is not a new phenomenon.

In 1661 Oswald Hosking, gentleman, raised the issue of the way the tax for the poor of the parish of St. John the Baptist is being raised, since his alone had been doubled while that of many others had been decreased, sometimes considerably; he also complains of suspicious erasures and alterations in the assessment which he would like to be examined.

This petition is to be found in Hereford Borough records at HARC: BG11/17/5/40.

29/07/2026

In 1655 Margaret Drury of Hereford was a handful.

Margaret, wife of James Drury was accused of abusing neighbours, tippling, drinking, cursing and swearing, particularly abusing the Minister and other honest people, calling them Roundheads, wh**es and thieves; assaulting one by striking him in the face, and accusing another of killing her pig and robbing the church by night.

Rightly or unjustly accused? Unfortunately the verdict is unknown but the changes are part of a bound volume of Hereford City Borough papers held at HARC. BG11/17/5.

28/07/2026

Tracing the history of a house in Ledbury? Interested in what life was like in Ledbury past?

Herefordshire History has a collection of Ledbury almanacs from 1897 to 2002 that are free to view. These almanacs contain street listings, adverts, information about clubs and societies, businesses and a calendar of events.

https://herefordshirehistory.org.uk/archive/herefordshire-directories/ledbury-almanack

27/07/2026

Rowdy behaviour in Hereford City is not new. This account from 1686 is from Hereford City Borough records BG11/17/5/72

Edmund Hawley, barber, was reported not only for shaving and trimming his customers on the Lord's Day, in time of divine Service - and on Easter Day, during the Administration of the Blessed sacrament - but for sending out for ale, and entertaining them in his cellar, where brawling, swearing and cursing then ensue; and also at other times, at midnight as well as by day, when his customers should have been at work, causing them to arrive at work late, and drunk; and where fiddle-playing, music, dancing, singing and roaring cause great disturbance to the neighbours.

Further, the cellar is not only frequented by workmen and labourers, but by wandering tinkers, ragmen and beggars; and, lately, there are "cubs or pens" in it for the improvement of drinking; and all the workmen and young fellows are enticed there by a bold young woman who had recently gone to London bare of clothes and returned shortly afterwards with her silks; and who sits in the men's laps, and causes formerly exemplary husbands to be unkind to their wives;

and her mother, who draws the ale, is a person of as ill repute as her daughter, having two husbands now living - unless the former husband had been lately hanged; he having been branded and transported, but had been seen recently in Presteigne, Hereford, and in Bristol gaol for picking pockets and other felonies - causing the neighbours to provide double fastenings to their doors - and was suspected of providing his family with some of the spoils.

Also, when the constable came, at the request of the employer of one of the men, to persuade the man to go to his work, Edmund Hawley's wife, and Johan and Elizabeth Jackson (the daughter and her mother) threatened and made game of him, and Johan bragged of it at a neighbour's house.

21/07/2026

08/07/2026

I am always coming across interesting documents when looking for something else.

This preachers book from St Martins (AH55/28) lists preachers, the text they preached from, the number of communicants and the amount collected. A great source on the religious life of St Martins in Hereford.

03/07/2026

Did you know that we have an online index of war graves and the names of those on war memorials in the county? It can be searched by parish, name, rank or regiment. Jennifer Harrison who used data from the Commonwealth War Graves Commission and other sources carried out the research.

https://www.herefordshire.gov.uk/community/ww1-herefordshire-war-graves-and-war-memorials/