City's archive opens in new museum home

Up to 30,000 books had be moved from the former library to the museum

Stoke-on-Trent City Archives has been officially opened at the Potteries Museum and Art Gallery, its new home.

Up to 30,000 books and 30,000 audio tapes, 8,000 archive boxes and 137 Minton Design Folios (historic artwork from the ceramics firm), have been transferred across.

The museum now holds "344 cubic metres of archives and local studies material creating an integrated world-class research facility for the study of ceramics and local history", the city council said.

A £1.7m investment was made for the archive to move from its former home at the City Central Library.

The archives was opened by the Lord Mayor, councillor Lyn Sharpe, earlier ahead of reopening to the public on Wednesday.

The relocation of collections required special environmental controls such as temperature and lighting to preserve them, the council said.

Council leader Jane Ashworth said protecting the city's culture and heritage was important.

"Moving the City’s Archives to the museum now means people can access the local history archive and museum collections all under one roof," she said.

"As we get nearer to our centenary year in 2025, it is fantastic to have thousands of historical collections people can view and the new reading room will only help improve access to the archive collections.”