Borough residents took part in shaping the extended archives service that will be provided from the planned new archives building.
Construction of a new state of the art £6 million building begins in April 2012. After almost 20 years at the existing site in Coseley, the service has outgrown the current building, which is no longer suitable for a modern archives service. The new building will be located next to the Black Country Living Museum – with which it has a natural association - and will form part of an exciting redevelopment project on Castle Hill.
An eco-friendly, two storey energy efficient building is planned which will enable further development and updating of the service’s facilities. The following facilities will be provided:
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education and conference facilities
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solar panels that will generate electricity
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improved conditions for records and much needed additional space, to store records for Dudley, Sandwell and the Black Country Living Museum
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a new high-tech conservation facility to care for damaged documents and make them available to the public for research
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Changing Places toilets that will provide fully accessible toilets to people with disabilities and their carers, with adequate space and facilities suitable to individual needs
Other key features of the new centre include IT and public wi-fi facilities, a rare books library and research area, well equipped search room, additional storage and car-parking.
The new building will house a much extended and developed borough archives and local history service. Whilst local history will be at the core of this, there will be an emphasis on developing educational links with local schools and colleges; furthering links with local history groups; local businesses and with local people themselves who may be interested in family history, buildings history or geographic history.
:: View archives YouTube video
:: View archives Flickr page
