Groups attending this year include:

Search Room - Black Country Society, Albrighton & District Historical Society, West Midlands Police Museum, Friends of Wolverhampton Archives, City of Wolverhampton Regenerating Buildings Preservation Trust and Midland Ancestors.

Upper Microfilm room - Black Country Archives.

Map Room - Western Front Association, Archeology in Mind and Willenhall History Society.

Oak Room - Wolverhampton Society and Wolverhampton City Fair Trade Partnership.

Rococo Room - Museum of Wolverhampton & South Staffs., Wednesfield Burial Ground Project, Wednesfield History Society and Moseley Old Hall.

Bottom of Stairs - Wolves Museum.

Molineux Room - Richard Twentyman Research Project and Wolverhampton Archaeology Group. 

The Friends will be serving refreshments with their delicious home made cakes. Please visit us on the top floor and help us to raise funds for the Archives. Saturday 23rd November for your diary. 

PROGRAMME FOR 2024

From September 2024 our monthly meetings moved to  the first Friday of each month in the Rococo Room at the Molineux House Hotel, home of the Archives (unless  stated otherwise). Meetings start at 11.00am with refreshments available beforehand, and close by 12.45 pm

Visitors are most welcome to attend the meetings (capacity permitting), and admission is £3.  It is advisable to email first.  There is no charge to members.

Friday 6^th December 2024

Guidance from The Wise Woman!

A talk on the naughtier side of Tudor and medieval life, looking at sexual attitudes and beliefs, by the Wise Woman in full costume. Funny but graphic – not suitable for those of a sensitive disposition! Join us for coffee, tea and mince pies and an entertaining presentation.

Presenter:  Pam Manning

NO meeting in January.

Friday 7th February

History of Wolverhampton Horticultural Society 1832-2025

The Wolverhampton Horticultural Society celebrated 70 years of continuous existence in 2022. Research during its Jubilee year revealed that there have been many previous forms of the Society dating back as far as 1832. This talk considers the origins of the Society, its founder members and the reasons it was formed. This is, potentially, the oldest society in the town by a significant number of years.

Presenter:  Paul Bassett

Friday 7th March 2025

Early years of the Staffs and Worcester canal company

The story of how and why this most beguiling waterway was built and of the people who drove, financed and met the challenges of its construction.

Presenter Julian Souter

Friday 4th April 2025

The best apology Wolverhampton could offer for Hyde Park: a case study of Molineux Pleasure Grounds.

This study traces the evolution of the gardens from a pleasure ground to a football stadium, looking at the accessibility of the grounds to the working class people of Wolverhampton, to it's changing use as a symbol of civic pride.

Presenter:  Olivia Beards

Friday 2nd May 2025

Japanning:  'an Art of Great Importance to Commerce' ... the story of an almost forgotten Midlands industry

For over two hundred years, japanning, or the decorating of tin-ware and papier mache, was a  staple trade in Bilston, Wolverhampton and Birmingham.  From tiny buttons to large pieces of  highly decorative furniture, its products, at their peak, were highly regarded by fashionable society across Europe and beyond.  By looking at its origins, leading factories and the skills of the men and women employed in the various workshops, it will be seen why japanning was, indeed, an important player in the industrial history of the Midlands in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.

Presenter Yvonne Jones

Friday 6th June

Tales from the Coroners Casebook- Life and Death in Georgian Black Country . Part one 1880-1826.

This presentation examines jury cases of unexplained deaths, presided over by Henry Smith esq.- Coroner of the Black Country 1802 - 1842. These include accidents, manslaughter, murders, suicides and visitations of God. join Coroner Smith's jury and reconsider some of the cases he dealt with during the first part of his long career.

Presenter:  Quintin Watt

Friday 4th July

Bilston when it was a country town. Talk by Jennifer Davies

We are familiar with the Bilston of today. A product of exploitation of the rich mineral reserves

a consequence of the Industrial Revolution. This talk based on research from original documents will describe a different Bilston, that of 300 years ago. It will focus on ordinary inhabitants and their day to day concerns.

Presenter:  Jennifer Davies

Note this extra talk

Friday 1st August

The Men (and Women) of the Little's Lane Memorial

The talk will provide biographies of all the men listed, their lives before the war, fates during the war, and where possible, mentioning family members and using them to describe living conditions in the infamous Irish quarter pre and post war.

Presenter:  Claire Jones

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