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Wiltshire
and Swindon History Centre Chippenham
The newly built Wiltshire and Swindon History
Centre is located in Cocklebury Road Chippenham, SN15
3QN, located just past the railway station and Wiltshire
College. It is considered your passport to the past it has
a rich and diverse heritage. The new History Centre, opened
31 October 2007, brings together the archaeology, archive,
buildings record, conservation, and museum advisory services
together with the county local studies library to create
a centre whose sum is much more than that of its parts.
If you are researching your ancestors or trying to find
out more about a town or parish in Wiltshire or Swindon,
or if you want professional advice and guidance on other
heritage issues, this is the ideal place to contact or
visit. A large proportion of the Lyneham
history research, which is now published on this website,
was sourced from this History Centre and its previous location
in Trowbridge.
Local Studies Library – Wiltshire
Studies
The Wiltshire County Council County Local Studies Library was formerly
part of the Wiltshire County Council Library Service and was based in
Chapman’s Building, Trowbridge. In 2007 the Local Studies Library
was transferred to Heritage Services. It is a major resource for the
study of Wiltshire’s heritage. The Wiltshire and Swindon Archives
Service and County Local Studies Library provide to the user two highly
complementary resources, and the new Centre offers the chance to have
a more integrated service. The Service provides specialist advice to
local history societies, research groups and individuals on both research
and publication. The Service also acquires and gives access to the County
Historic Photograph Collection, in liaison with the Wiltshire Museum
Service. The aim of the Service is to acquire, preserve and give access
to publications related to Wiltshire. The collection of published Wiltshire
material includes 18,000 monographs, 2,600 reels of microfilm including
newspapers dating from 1736, 35,000 microfiches, over 40,000 photographs
and 11,000 journals. The Library actively collects, preserves and makes
available for research all Wiltshire publications, including videos,
CDs, tapes and CD-ROMS. Material on adjacent counties and extensive collections
on archaeology, museology, family history, architecture and history are
intensively used by heritage officers as well as being widely used by
the public.
Access to services
The Wiltshire and Swindon History Centre is open to the public 9.30 am – 5.30
pm, Tuesday to Saturday, excluding public holidays. These opening times
primarily relate to the archives service and local studies library. Appointments
are not compulsory but it is a good idea to let staff know in advance
of any planned visits to make the most of the time available for research.
The Centre operates a computerised user registration system, so a form
of identification including name and address, is required.
The Wiltshire Buildings Record is open to the public 9.30
am – 5 pm, Tuesdays, but may be open at other times
by appointment.
The Archaeology Service is open to the public 11 am -12
pm and 2-3 pm Tuesday to Friday, but may be open at other
times by appointment.
It is also possible to access archaeology’s Sites
and Monuments Record; the archive and probate records catalogues;
the Wiltshire Studies library collection and the catalogues
of some museum collections on-line.
To save you some time, if you visit the Access
to Archives website you will be able to
search the online database to get the document reference
numbers for the information you require prior to the
visit. See www.a2a.org.uk for
archive catalogues including those not yet available
on the Wiltshire
County Council site.
Wiltshire and Swindon History
Centre
Cocklebury Road
Chippenham
SN15
3QN
Tel: +44(0)1249 705500
Opening times Tuesday to Saturday, 9.30 am - 5.30 pm
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