Natasha Houseago, a wood sculptor, in Gloucester

Woodpeckers ands I were picked up by Camilla at 9-30am to drive to the Gloucester Heritage Hub Open Day. This has been planned for several months as we all wanted to see how the Heritage Lottery Funding for the Gloucestershire  Archives had improved the facilities.

We now all agree that it has been money very well spent with not only big improvements to the facilities but also a very positive new atmosphere. We had guided tours around the facilities including the archive stores, which are normally not available to the public's gaze. 

One of the completely new facilities is a community garden and visitor centre where we sat having tea and delicious cake today whilst traditional local folk tunes were sung accompanied by whistles. These were played by members of a local folk music society who had organised  their own exhibition of archive photos and sheet music related to the local music history.

Just beside the newly established community garden Natasha Houseago (see her website here) was giving demonstrations of her sculpting in wood as she prepared to sculpt a specially commissioned green oak tree trunk which will imminently be dug into the lawn as a centrepiece. Camilla and Helena have known her for many years but this was my first meeting. She kindly agreed to let me take some pictures of her working. I look forward to see the resulting artwork once I return to use the facilities of the archives. 

One specific thing I want is to learn how to use the new Local Family History room's research facilities and the expertise of the volunteers there, as well as to look at the many old local maps. I also discussed whether they might like to receive a copy of Stroud Preservation Trust's photo archive, which I have been building up over the years, showing the Brunel Goods Shed both before and after its regeneration. I was also delighted to have time to talk to the local expert on the wonderful Victoria County History project who gave me lots of tips about some local queries i have had and where to research them further.