Cheshire’s archives: a story shared
Chester will be the location of one of two new state-of-the art history centres that will co-host Cheshire’s archives.
Cheshire Archives and Local Studies
A shared service of Cheshire West and Chester and Cheshire East Councils - looks after the county’s unique and irreplaceable written and pictorial history and is leading a project to rehouse the collections in two new bespoke history centres.
These two centres will replace the Cheshire Record Office, in Chester.
The project, called ‘Cheshire’s archives: a story shared’, will bring the collections closer to people and provide more opportunities for them to interact with them more easily – helping them to celebrate their personal and communities’ histories.
The centres will provide a stable environment for Cheshire’s archives and create improved spaces for staff and volunteers to work with the collections, as well as provide more spaces for research, performances, and exhibitions. The centres will also act as a base for activities which will take archives to a wider audience across the county.
Chester History Centre
Work has now started on the new Chester History Centre on the site of the former Enterprise Centre, on Lightfoot Street in Hoole, Chester.
Kier Construction will aim to reduce disruption by accessing the site via the former Enterprise Centre entrance on Hoole Bridge so that contractor parking and site deliveries can avoid Lightfoot Street wherever possible.
Working hours on the site will be carefully controlled to reduce any inconvenience and will be from 8am to 6pm during the week and from 8am to 1pm on Saturdays with no work permitted on Sundays or Bank Holidays. Should work be required outside these times for exceptional reasons, local residents and businesses will be informed in advance. Similarly, should parking restrictions or highways works be necessary, details will be shared in advance.
The centre will include:
- space to host cultural exhibitions of regional and national interest, school groups, workshops and talks
- archives relating to the development of the county over the past 900 years
- access to film and sound archives
- local newspapers and photographs
- supervised access to archive materials not on display
Funding
The scheme is being funded by each local authority, alongside funding from The National Lottery Heritage Fund, made possible through money raised by National Lottery players, and from the Wolfson Foundation.
FAQs
The new history centre will co-host Cheshire’s unique and irreplaceable archives, which record the development of the county and its communities from the Middle Ages to the present day.
It will keep the archives safe for future generations, as well as making them – and the stories they tell – accessible in all sorts of different ways. The history centre will give people opportunities to explore their past, through research, talking to expert staff and volunteers, exhibitions and events.
It will be a base for the Cheshire Archives and Local Studies service and its staff team.
An equivalent centre will be built in Crewe in Memorial Square on the site of the old library which closed in 2016. These two centres will replace the Cheshire Record Office, in Chester.
We are currently expecting the centre to be open in 2026.
Yes, there will be a programme of community events from the history centre. Further information about these will be developed over the course of the next two years.
Some events may be charged for, but the centre will be free to visit for research and to explore the different exhibitions which tell stories about Chester’s communities, as well as explaining more about the archive collections and the ways in which the Archives Service conserves them and makes them accessible for everyone to enjoy.
