Managing and exhibiting the Society's archives.
Offering a wide range of services including a local guide, a DVD, help with Family History and arranging historical talks and visits.
Can we help you?
Search the Archive - this will open a separate resource.
Over 7000 items grouped under nearly 1300 subjects including photographs, estate brochures, maps, memorabilia of local events, Parish Magazines, books by local people and much more.
Gifts of items for consideration as additions to the Archive are welcome. If you have any items such as documents, photographs etc. which you think would enhance our archive but you would rather not part with them, then these can be copied and the originals returned to you.
Copies of archive material are available subject to copyright.
Special viewings can be arranged by appointment.
Please note that the search facility on the main website (where you are now) does not search within the Local History Archive, nor, conversely, does the search facility within the Local History Archive span the main website.
A full subject index may be downloaded (attachment below) but may also be searched by following the Search the Archive link below.
A guide to interpreting the index codes may also be found in the attachments below.
The full current index (as at July 2011) is available to personal callers at the Local History Centre and contains all 7335 artefacts, documents & photographs, utilising 14,607 indexed entries under 1272 subject headings.
A list of the latest acquisitions (June 2011) is also available for download below. These are updated approximately half-yearly.
The Knowle Society also works with the Warwickshire County Record Office whose archive Warwickshire's Past Unlocked is available online.
Search the Archive - this opens a separate resource.
| Attachment | Size |
|---|---|
| Knowle Society Archive Index July 2011.pdf | 27.87 KB |
| The Knowle Society - Archive Index codes.pdf | 14.67 KB |
| New acquisitions June 2011.pdf | 16.67 KB |
Current Exhibition
Our exhibition 600 years of the Guild of St Anne * is now showing in the Local History Centre (upstairs in Knowle Library). The exhibition includes a potted history of Walter Cook, Knowle's greatest benefactor and of the Guild House which celebrates 100 years this year since the Guild House and St Anne's Cottage were purchased, restored and handed back to the church by Knowle's second greatest benefactor Mr George Jackson of Springfield House.
The exhibition can be viewed at any time during library opening hours.
* There is a conflict of opinion about the actual date of the Guild's anniversary. Some think it should be 1413 due to the change from the Julian calendar to the Gregorian some 300+ years after the establishment of the Guild. We have carried out quite extensive research and sought expert advice. The general consensus of opinion seems to be that as the event happened so long before the calendar change, it is in order to use either or both dates ie 1412/1413. We have chosen to use the original date of 1412.
Current Exhibition - key texts
Our exhibitions in the Local History Centre, although heavily centred around pictures, often contain significant bodies of text. Sometimes there is also additional textual material which is less suited for display. This textual material, including some photographs, is available here for the current exhibition on display. For those with the appropriate technology on their smartphone there will be a QR (Quick Response) code on the exhibition display which when scanned will link directly to the relevant webpage.
Forthcoming Exhibitions
Details (where available) of forthcoming exhibitions:
Past Exhibitions
Recent past exhibitions and Local History talks. Records of most exhibitions are kept within the Local History Archive and of course some of the exhibition material is derived from Archive sources.
There is no material available yet for the current exhibition. This is a new resource under development.
Each exhibition will display a Quick Response (QR) code (a two-dimensional barcode) which when scanned by a Smartphone having the appropriate 'app' will provide a link to this page where copies of key texts from the current exhibition may be viewed at leisure.
PUBLICATIONS
From time to time the Society publishes material featuring Knowle; over the years this material has included guides, walks leaflets, videos/DVDs and calendars. It has also collaborated in the publication of some privately published books which have become valuable reference sources and are now mostly out of print.
Current publications and products are:
A Short Guide to Central Knowle - price £2, was £3.
Thoroughly revised. Describes all buildings of interest in Central Knowle, illustrated with many new photographs.
Available from the following outlets (as at December 2011):
For orders outside the Knowle / Solihull area please contact us here:
Celebrations in Knowle from the 1930s to the 1960s - DVD price £8
This new DVD (the Society's first) comprises unique black and white and early colour film of carnivals and national celebrations in Knowle taken over four decades by Mr F G Ratcliff.
This is a newly revised version of the VHS video last available in 1993. It provides a fascinating and amusing insight into life in the growing village of Knowle. This DVD makes a delightful gift and will appeal to anyone with a love of Knowle and particularly to anyone with roots in the village.
Available from the following outlets (as at December 2011)
For orders outside the Knowle / Solihull area please contact us here:
2012 Calendar - price £5 (last few remaining copies only - 5 December 2011)
To celebrate the Society's Jubilee year in 2012, a delightful calendar of watercolours of Knowle by local artist Mike Humphreys has been published with a different picture each month representing Knowle in the present day. The pictures are copies of watercolours painted by a local artist who suffered a stroke in 2009. He had to learn to use his left hand and as part of his therapy he started to paint pictures of the village, with truly amazing results.
The calendar is available for puchase (proceeds to charity) from:
Purchases of the calendar only (at present) may be made by post - please email 'history' followed by '@knowlesociety.org.uk' to discuss delivery details and the address to send a cheque for £5.50 to cover the calendar and postage.
Long-handled cotton Shopper £2
A useful shopping bag with the name of the Society on one side and an image of Chester House on the other side.
The shopper is only available from:
| Attachment | Size |
|---|---|
| A Short Guide to Central Knowle cover.jpg | 45.51 KB |
| DVD cover.jpg | 70.39 KB |
| cal_sample (724x1024).jpg | 502.49 KB |
Exhibitions and Lectures
Aspects of village life illustrated by recollections and items from the collection. Past favourites include 'Village Shops of Yesterday', 'The Inns of Knowle' and more.
Tomorrow’s History
Numerous scrap books from the early 1900s to the present day always attract great interest.
A photographic survey of all buildings of historic or architectural interest was completed in 1979.
All of our archive of photographs (over 3,000) have been copied and placed into albums to make them easier for the public to access and view. Copies of all of our photographs and indeed any other material in our archives can be ordered for a nominal charge, as detailed below.
Knowle Society archives are open to the public every Saturday morning between 10am – 12noon. If this time is not convenient alternative arrangements can be made by contacting Janet Eržen on 01546 779040 or Kathy Jephcott on 01564 779007.
Copies of items in our archives can be obtained for a nominal charge as detailed below, provided they are for personal use only. For any other use permission should be obtained from The Knowle Society by contacting one of the above numbers. Where permission is given for any other use, an acknowledgement to The Knowle Society would be expected.
Names for Roads and Buildings
The Society is pleased to make suggestions, usually based on our delightful old field names, our connections with Westminster Abbey or recalling prominent Knowle families.
Other Services
We can arrange walks round the village
We can supply local organisations and businesses with photographs, small exhibitions, etc.
Assistance is given to people with a local connection in researching their family history as it applies to Knowle.
The Society's Archive is indexed with local names wherever possible to assist this researching.
Good sources of material within the Archive (the index of which may be searched online) are estate brochures and scrapbooks.
Memories of old Knowle both on tape or CD and transcribed from interviews.
A questionnaire is available to make a ‘Write It Yourself’ memoir easy to compile. Some people prefer to write their memories in book form.
Volunteers have occasionally assisted Knowle Primary School with local history projects within the national curriculum.
We also supply information and material, and the collection is an additional resource for students at all levels.
The Society's Local History committee has responsibility for running the Local History Centre in which is held the Archive. Its objective is to provide a service to the village by
Most items are either given by local residents, or copied from originals loaned for the purpose. However, any original material, which properly belongs in a controlled atmosphere under the care of professional archivists, is passed to the County Record Office at Warwick, Solihull Library or Birmingham Reference Library, as appropriate.
The Society fulfils its obligation to display the collection through exhibitions, lectures, etc. Started in 1977, the collection soon grew beyond our expectations, and in 1988 we were pleased to accept the invitation of Solihull M.B.C. to move it to Knowle Library. The Society retains the ownership and responsibility for the care of the collection, and administers the Archive.
The Archive is maintained at Chester House Library and is manned regularly by Society members on Saturday mornings 10.00-12.30. If Saturday morning is inconvenient you can make an appointment - please email archive@knowlesociety.org.uk - when emailing with archive enquiries, please indicate where you live (i.e. local or distant) so we know what options we have when following up your enquiry.
_0.jpg){kind=link}