Stories from the Records

Last Tuesday (12th June), I gave a talk for the Wolverhampton Civic and Historical Society at Linden House, Tettenhall Road.

I wanted to make the talk informative, both about the Smith, Son & Wilkie collection and the work of the Archives, and ensure a strong local connection. I split the talk into sections:

• The Project & The Background of the Accountancy Firm
• The Smith Family (see here for more details)
• The Wilkie Family
• The Collection
• Stories From the Collection

I chose a selection of local businesses to focus on for the second half of the talk, giving information on their history and background including:

• Craddock Brothers – Bootmakers (see here for more information)
• Henry Willcock & Co – Builders (see here and here for more information)
• John Barrington & Co (see here for more information)

I wanted to tell the stories of some businesses through their records to illustrate the types of records available within the collection and the information available within them. I chose two businesses that are well documented within this collection:

• The Wolverhampton & District Butchers Hide Skin Fat & Wool Co Ltd (see here, here, here, and here for more details)
• The Queen Square Syndicate (see here and here for more details)

and used their records to tell their stories.

The slideshow below shows the full presentation and a PDF version is available below that can be downloaded.

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Taking Account of Our Past – WCHS

More information on the Wolverhampton Civic and Historical Society is available via their website or their Facebook Page.

The next talk I will be giving about the Smith, Son & Wilkie collection and the Taking Account of Our Past project will be for the Friends of Wolverhampton Archives and Local Studies in September, for further details (when available) please see their website.