Thousands of historic records from Northumberland now available to view online

Its catalogue contains details of over 400,000 written records held by Northumberland Archives at their Woodhorn and Berwick centres.

A further 60,000 records have now had images added to them, which can now also be viewed.

The records include some of the oldest documents held by the service such as manuscripts, maps and plans, photographs and printed collections.

Staff at Northumberland Archives are now working on stage two of the project – to allow users to request downloadable digital copies of images in the catalogue for a fee.

This part of the project has been made possible thanks to £48,100 funding through the National Lottery Heritage Fund’s Culture Recovery Fund.

Although the archive centres are closed, the catalogue will also allow people to research and view records before visiting a centre once Covid restrictions allow.

The work is part of a plan to make the archives more accessible to a wider audience, as well as looking at new ways of generating income for the service.

Other initiatives include developing an online shop.

Cllr Jeff Watson, cabinet member for the archives service at Northumberland County Council said: “The Coronavirus pandemic has led to digital access to our archives and service becoming a key priority.

“Through this funding staff have been working extremely hard behind the scenes whilst our centres are closed to ensure that people now have access to hundreds of thousands of records. This will make our archives and service more easily available to a wider audience.”

To access the online catalogue, go to https://www.northumberlandarchives.com/catalogue/

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