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About Us

Staffordshire Archives and Heritage

Who we are

The Archive and Heritage Service includes the Archive Service, jointly funded and managed by Staffordshire County Council and Stoke on Trent City Council, and the County Museum Service funded and managed by Staffordshire County Council. The William Salt Library is a charitable library owned and managed by the William Salt Library Trust. The County Council delivers the service and maintains the library building on behalf of the Trust. Together we care for the historic collections of the county and city.

The role of the Staffordshire and Stoke on Trent Archive Service is to locate, collect and preserve archives relating to past and present life in Staffordshire and Stoke on Trent and to make them available to the people of Staffordshire and its visitors.

The Archive Service is administered under a Joint Agreement for Archive Services and is jointly funded by Staffordshire County Council and Stoke on Trent City Council. Since November 2012 the Archive Service and the Staffordshire County Museum Service have been jointly managed as the Archives and Heritage Service, within the Economy, Infrastructure and Skills Directorate. In the City of Stoke-on-Trent, the Archive Service forms part of the Chief Executive’s Directorate: Economy, Culture and Museums.

Staffordshire and Stoke on Trent Archives and Heritage Service Vision

Our vision: Connecting people to the collected stories and heritage of Staffordshire, Stoke on Trent and beyond.

Our mission: To connect people to the memories of Staffordshire and Stoke on Trent, by engaging them with the collections we develop and preserve for current and future generations.

By 2025 the service will be a model archive and heritage service in terms of:

  1. An active partnership approach
  2. Resilience and sustainability
  3. Reaching and engaging with a wide range of people and building new audiences
  4. Sharing knowledge across the UK
  5. Online presence and remote access

The service welcomes visitors at two locations: the Staffordshire History Centre in Stafford and Stoke-on-Trent City Archives.

The Staffordshire History Centre

Over a thousand years of Staffordshire’s history has come together in an exciting new visitor attraction and heritage project thanks to National Lottery funding. The centre is located on Eastgate Street in Stafford and house the archive and Heritage team in Stafford.

Bringing together three incredible collections, from the Staffordshire Record Office, the County Museum and the William Salt Library, the project includes creating the centre in Stafford and a county wide programme of outreach activities for schools, families, community groups and the public.

Staffordshire Archives and Heritage collections are nationally important stretching back over 1000 years and the Staffordshire History Centre will allow us to make these fascinating items accessible to a wide audience. The centre consists of exhibition spaces, a research room for consulting archival material, an activity room for events and two rooms of the historic William Salt Library.

We look forward to welcoming visitors in from the 6 November 2024. For the latest project updates please visit our blog.

Stoke-on-Trent City Archives

Since May 2024, Stoke-on-Trent City Archives has been based in the Potteries Museum and Art Gallery in Hanley, in the heart of The Potteries. The City Archives holds the archive collections of world-famous ceramics manufacturers, including Minton, Royal Doulton and Spode – to name just a few – who were once based in Stoke-on-Trent. Researchers also benefit from the City Archives’ first-class Pottery Library. Pottery is not the whole story of the City, and we also care for a rich variety of collections of local organisations, businesses and people that reflect our industrial, social and religious heritage. In addition the service incorporates a large and comprehensive Local Studies Library, which covers North Staffordshire as well as the City area.

Stoke-on-Trent City Archives offers outreach activities for schools, community groups and the public and provides volunteering opportunities for all ages. We welcome visitors from the City, from Staffordshire and from across the globe.