Herefordshire Archive Service will take to social media this Christmas, with an Advent calendar revealing daily gems from the archive.

There will also be Christmas shopping with a difference in the HARC shop, with unique festive gifts from jigsaws and document preservation craft materials to books on local and family history.

Before the festivities begin, the Herefordshire Archive Service research room will close for stocktaking at 4.45pm on Friday, November 24th.

The Archive Service holds thousands of maps which are used for historical searches and investigations into planning and current rights of way. Staff will use the downtime to collate and organise this substantial collection, as well as carrying out a refresh of the exhibition area. During this time the research room will be closed to the public, although enquiries will still be answered by email and telephone.

Archives manager Elizabeth Semper said: “The team will be busy behind the scenes during the temporary closure of the research room. We house around 7,800 archive collections, occupying over two miles of shelving.

“Our much needed downtime will allow us to take stock and install new shelving for our ever growing collection of archives.

“Our exhibition room will also receive a makeover and we are excited to announce that we will display the commemorative bunting created in memory of the munitions factory workers at Rotherwas.”

The research room reopens Tuesday, December 12th.

You can visit the countdown to Christmas on HARC’s Facebook page @herefordshirearchives or find out more about Herefordshire Council’s Archive Service on the Herefordshire Council website at www.herefordshire.gov.uk/archives