Shropshire Archives is located in Shrewsbury, England, and is the archives and local studies service for the historic county of

Shropshire Shropshire (; alternatively Salop; abbreviated in print only as Shrops; demonym Salopian ) is a landlocked historic county in the West Midlands region of England. It is bordered by Wales to the west and the English counties of Cheshire to ...

, which includes the borough of

Telford and Wrekin Telford and Wrekin is a borough and unitary authority in Shropshire, England. In 1974, a non-metropolitan district of Shropshire was created called The Wrekin. In 1998, the district became a unitary authority and was renamed "Telford and Wrekin" ...

. It preserves and makes accessible documents, books, maps, photographs, plans and drawings relating to Shropshire and its people dating from the early 12th to the 21st century. Shropshire Archives is funded by

Shropshire Council Shropshire Council is the local authority of Shropshire, in England, comprising the ceremonial county of Shropshire except Telford and Wrekin. It is a unitary authority, having the powers of a non-metropolitan county and district council combi ...

and

Borough Council and is supported by an active friends organisation - the Friends of Shropshire Archives. The service has attracted external funding from bodies such as the

Heritage Lottery Fund The National Lottery Heritage Fund, formerly the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF), distributes a share of National Lottery funding, supporting a wide range of heritage projects across the United Kingdom. History The fund's predecessor bodies were ...

and the Arts Council.

History

In 1995 the County Record Office and Local Studies Library were brought together in a purpose built building just off Castle Gates in Shrewsbury town centre. From 1995 to 2003, the building was known as the Shropshire Records and Research Centre. After consultation, in 2003 the name was changed to "Shropshire Archives - gateway to the history of Shropshire and Telford". Outside the building, in the courtyard, is a

mosaic A mosaic is a pattern or image made of small regular or irregular pieces of colored stone, glass or ceramic, held in place by plaster/mortar, and covering a surface. Mosaics are often used as floor and wall decoration, and were particularly pop ...

showing the historic extent of Shropshire with a leopard and the county motto "" / "May Shropshire Flourish". The area where the building now stands was formerly "Blower's Repository" (for furniture) and is located just below the main Shrewsbury Library building. Steps lead down from the courtyard to the town's bus station further down the hill

In 2008 a plaque was unveiled at the archive to commemorate the 725th anniversary of the execution at Shrewsbury of the last native prince of Wales, .

Material held

Records held at Shropshire Archives include

parish registers A parish register in an ecclesiastical parish is a handwritten volume, normally kept in the parish church in which certain details of religious ceremonies marking major events such as baptisms (together with the dates and names of the parents), ma ...

for Shropshire, local government records for the county, school records for the county, records of the boroughs of Shrewsbury,

Bridgnorth Bridgnorth is a town in Shropshire, England. The River Severn splits it into High Town and Low Town, the upper town on the right bank and the lower on the left bank of the River Severn. The population at the 2011 Census was 12,079. Histor ...

Ludlow Ludlow () is a market town in Shropshire, England. The town is significant in the history of the Welsh Marches and in relation to Wales. It is located south of Shrewsbury and north of Hereford, on the A49 road which bypasses the town. The ...

and Much Wenlock, court records including

quarter sessions The courts of quarter sessions or quarter sessions were local courts traditionally held at four set times each year in the Kingdom of England from 1388 (extending also to Wales following the Laws in Wales Act 1535). They were also established in ...

and coroner's records and some records of the

King's Shropshire Light Infantry The King's Shropshire Light Infantry (KSLI) was a light infantry regiment of the British Army, formed in the Childers Reforms of 1881, but with antecedents dating back to 1755. It served in the Second Boer War, World War I and World War II. In 19 ...

. The service also collects maps, newspapers and photographs, as well as the county's largest collection of books, pamphlets and periodicals about Shropshire. Also available for research are

microfiche Microforms are scaled-down reproductions of documents, typically either films or paper, made for the purposes of transmission, storage, reading, and printing. Microform images are commonly reduced to about 4% or of the original document size. F ...

copies of census returns for Shropshire and microfiche copies of the GRO index (an index of the

General Register Office General Register Office or General Registry Office (GRO) is the name given to the civil registry in the United Kingdom, many other Commonwealth nations and Ireland. The GRO is the government agency responsible for the recording of vital recor ...

's birth, marriage and death certificates). The service also holds the archives of many of the great estates in Shropshire including the Hill family of

Attingham Park Attingham Park is an English country house and estate in Shropshire. Located near the village of Atcham, on the B4380 Shrewsbury to Wellington road. It is owned by the National Trust. It is a Grade I listed building. Attingham Park was b ...

and

Hawkstone Park Hawkstone Park is was a destination on the English Grand Tour and is a historic landscape park with pleasure grounds and gardens historically associated with Soulton Hall and Hawkstone Hall. It is located north east of the small village o ...

, and the Duke of Sutherland's

Lilleshall Lilleshall is a village and civil parish in the county of Shropshire, England. It lies between the towns of Telford and Newport, on the A518, in the Telford and Wrekin borough and the Wrekin constituency. There is one school in the centre of ...

estates. The service has an online catalogue containing over 260,000 entries.

References

External links

Shropshire Archives

Volunteering for Shropshire's Heritage
{{Authority control Archives in Shropshire Organizations established in 1995 County record offices in England