We are delighted to have successfully retained our status as a nationally Accredited Archive Service.

This prestigious award from The National Archives recognises the national standards we follow in collecting, preserving and making accessible to the public the written and pictorial heritage of Wiltshire and Swindon.

The purpose-built History Centre is home to the Wiltshire & Swindon Archive which charts more than 800 years of the county’s history plus the Wiltshire Local Studies collection. The combined collections are housed on around 11 miles of shelving.

In awarding Accreditation The National Archives’ panel praised the Archives and Local Studies Service for its positive progress since the arrival of the new lead archivist, adding: “The Panel were particularly impressed by the thoughtful and considered inclusion work undertaken by the archive service to widen their user group.” This was demonstrated in two recent projects – DigiCreative and Rooted in History.

The process of application for Accreditation, which took place over many months, enabled the opportunity to re-evaluate our service and recognise the achievements we have made over the last eight years including improving the collections, access to them, and associated outreach, education and partnership work.