Volunteering at Worcestershire Archive and Archaeology Service

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Worcester St Nicholas Papers (850 Worcester St Nicholas BA3696/27)

© Reproduced by kind permission of Worcestershire Archive and Archaeology Service

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David Everett, volunteer on the papers of St Nicholas Church in Worcester

© Reproduced by kind permission of Worcestershire Archive and Archaeology Service

Volunteers at Worcestershire Archive and Archaeology Service can get up to all sorts of interesting tasks.  Here, David Everett tells us what he has been working on recently as part of the St. Nicholas Project.

David is sorting through the papers of St Nicholas Church in Worcester.  Many papers are typical of churches generally – bills for repairs, work on clocks and bells, heating and lighting, administration and expenditure connected with the old poor law (election of overseers, relief of paupers housed in a workhouse or elsewhere) and so on.

Surprising discoveries

However, looking more closely he has found many surprises.  For example, payments for materials and work on city streets (in 1797, blue stone for paving in Broad Street and haulage, and in the same year, “raising Broad Street” and “pitching the Broad Street to the parish boundary”, together involving a spend of well over £30).  Another mystery is the payments of land tax on properties lying outside the parish, but presumably owned by the parish.

The fully sorted collection will demonstrate the huge range of commitments faced by the incumbent and the parish vestry, including officers like the overseers of the poor.

Worcestershire Archive and Archaeology Service are very grateful to David for the time spent on this project.