Latest News from Cheshire Archives and Local Studies
Welcome
Welcome to our latest newsletter! Thank you for agreeing to receive regular updates from us. If you think our news would interest anyone else, they can subscribe here (it is just as easy to unsubscribe).
Merry Christmas from Cheshire Archives!
We had a fantastic time at our volunteer Christmas celebration at Chester Cathedral last week. Our volunteers enjoyed exploring the Christmas Tree Festival, had a special behind-the-scenes tour of the Cathedral Library, and rounded off the afternoon with mince pies and mulled wine.
They also had the chance to meet our new Volunteer Officer, Katie Owen, who will be working closely with our team of volunteers over the next two years.
A huge thank you to Emily from Chester Cathedral for making this event so perfect, and an even bigger thank you to all our incredible volunteers for your hard work and dedication throughout the year. We really appreciate everything you do!
On schedule for a very Happy New Year!
Work on the new Cheshire Archives centres in Chester and Crewe is really taking shape! At Chester, the brickwork and cladding are nearly complete, the roof is on, and solar panels are installed. In Crewe, brickwork and cladding are almost finished and the windows are being installed. Inside, work at both centres continues at pace and both sites are on track for completion in late spring 2026.
Discover more about how these spaces will bring Chester and Crewe stories to life in new ways later in 2026 by visiting our project site, using the link below.
A Moving Story - Your New Archives Experience Starts Here!
Gems at Christmas
It’s been a busy year for the team of volunteers, community groups, and archive staff working to identify potential archive Gems for inclusion on our new website. We’ve now made great progress with more than half of the 22 townships included in the search and, in the new year, our attention turns to the remaining Cheshire locations: Audlem, Frodsham & Helsby, Holmes Chapel, Northwich, and Wilmslow.
Throughout the year, newsletter subscribers have also been helping us to make our final selection from the original longlists submitted by the community. Thanks to your support, we’ve now added over 60 new Gems for Ellesmere Port, Nantwich, Sandbach and Winsford. For our final survey of the year, we’d like your help selecting some new Gems for Bollington – featuring options for White Nancy, Clarence Mill, and the floods of 1912. To have your say, please follow the link below.
Bollington gems survey
Archives in Action: Jingling All the Way Back!
Step into Chester’s festive past with our Christmas Talking Tour. Discover enchanting stories from the early 1900s - shop window displays, seasonal treats, magical Father Christmas encounters and treasured gifts - all brought to life through oral histories and music from Foden’s Band. Available now on SoundCloud and YouTube. Pause your holiday prep and enjoy a little Christmas magic with us!
Archives in Action: Jingling All the Way Back!
Our latest stories shared
We have two articles this month about our Visual Collections, and the first relates to our glass negatives and lantern slides. It features images of some slides that are still incredibly clear, despite being up to 150 years old!
The Collections Story – We’re still feeling positive about negatives!
The second is about the work we’re doing to prepare our extensive collection of photographic slides for the move to our new centres – there are around 39,000 of them.
The Collections Story - Next Slide, Please!
We’re organising and boxing our collections ready for our new centres in 2026, but how do we prepare our oversized and odd-shaped items for the move? The Big Wrap explains all, and includes a progress report on our long To Do list!
A Moving Story - The Big Wrap!