Wiltshire and Swindon Record Office closes this summer

The Wiltshire and Swindon Record Office will be closed from May till October 2007 while the transfer takes place. but it will not be closing to the public for 2 weeks in January 2007 as usual.

If all goes to plan the new history centre will be opened to the public in October 2007.

Wiltshire Genealogy on GENUKI

Wiltshire and Swindon Record Office,

County Hall East,

Bythesea Road, Trowbridge, Wiltshire BA14 8JG.

Telephone: (+44) 1225 713709. E-mail: wsro@wiltshire.gov.uk
Stocktaking closure last two weeks each January.
The record office is moving to Chippenham in 2007, and there will be a very limited service from spring to autumn 2007.

Records are safe and dry

THE new centre's archives will be stored in one of five special rooms, each accessed via an air-lock and with temperature and humidity controls to protect precious archives, some nearly seven centuries old.

They have eight inch concrete walls, four-hour fireproof doors and a fire sprinkler system using inert gas instead of water.

A fridge for the storage of photographs will preserve colour pictures at three degrees centigrade. There are 55,000 local history photographs in one collection, and many more spread throughout the archive.

On the first floor, staff will have top level facilities and equipment to conserve and investigate finds, including a dark room, X-ray room, wet room, cameras and scanners and an archives conservation laboratory. The new history centre will bring together all these services in one building for the first time, employing a total of 40 people.

Future Looks Good For Ancient Archive (from This Is Wiltshire): "The Wiltshire and Swindon History Centre, a prestigious £11.6 million project to protect the area's precious historical archives, has reached a major milestone.

Standing next to Cocklebury Road in Chippenham, on the former cattle market site, the impressive white and glass building has been finished on time and on budget.

Building work on the state-of-the-art centre has been completed by contractors Cowlin Construction Ltd - and now the countdown begins to make sure the centre will be ready to open to the public in one year's time.

Jane Scott, leader of Wiltshire County Council, said: 'I am so pleased that this project, so important for the county, has been completed on time and within budget.

'This excellent building will not only preserve all the invaluable documents that tell the story and history of our wonderful county, but the many visitors to the centre will find information more easily accessible than in the past and in a more pleasant environment.'

The centre was funded by the county council and Swindon Borough Council and it will provide a safe home for some seven miles of shelving, containing the documents that chart the history of the county.
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The archive, currently held in sub standard conditions at the Record Office in Trowbridge, is "