Plans to move Lichfield’s archives to a new £4million centre in Stafford have been backed by a committee looking into the proposals.
Staffordshire County Council hopes to create a new history centre and the project moved a step closer to reality when it was given the green light by the Joint Archives Committee.
The latest move is another nail in the coffin of Lichfield Record Office which would be replaced by a ‘community history centre’ in the city’s library under the plans, with visitors only able to access digital versions of documents.
Cllr Ben Adams, Staffordshire County Council’s Cabinet member responsible for the archive service, said modernisation was needed.
“The new centre, with more accessible facilities, better storage space, more room for exhibitions, along with plans to take more activities out into local communities will give us a much more modern sustainable service for the future,” he said.
“At the same time, we will continue our work to get more people interested in their family history, including our project with findmypast to digitise over six million records including parish registers, wills and marriage bonds.
“Over four million of these are already online and free from our records offices and libraries and we hope to have the rest available very soon.”
More details about the new archives service plans can be found on the Staffordshire County Council website.
