Cheshire’s archives: a story shared

Central to our vision for Cheshire’s archives is providing new premises for the Archives service, its activities and the collections, and bringing collections closer to people.

We are delighted that The National Lottery Heritage Fund has now agreed to provide funding to contribute towards the delivery of the new facilities in Chester and Crewe, which will replace the Cheshire Record Office, in Chester.

This will enable us to:

• better preserve and share Cheshire’s nationally significant archives and local studies collections
• significantly expand our learning and outreach programmes, to engage a much larger and wider range of people with archives
• improve our research facilities and our working environment for the team and our volunteers

Planning applications for the two centres were recently submitted and decisions on the plans are expected to be made spring 2023. If approved, the grant from the Heritage Fund of £4.45m, which has been made possible through money raised by National Lottery players, would allow for construction of the centres to go ahead.

Planning applications for the proposed new centres in Chester and Crewe can now be found at:

This bid would not have been successful without the support of many of the people who use the service and our partners. Subject to approval of the planning applications, we expect the project to begin in Spring 2023.

Find out more

The best way to keep in touch is via our social media channels and via our Newsletter, which you can subscribe to here. You can also get in touch about the project via archivesproject@cheshiresharedservices.gov.uk.