Without a recorded heritage knowledge of our communities, families and individuals – as well as our cities, towns and buildings and the land they are built upon – would be much poorer. Our archival heritage is unrivalled in quality and depth anywhere in the world and reflects in detail the lives of countless of our ancestors from every walk of life. Similarly, without the structured archiving of business and administrative records, access to vital information would be lost and the efficiency of businesses and organisations would be undermined. As such, our archives are widely valued and used by people both from within the United Kingdom and from overseas.

North West Archives cover a wide range of collections, most of which are owned by public bodies and are made available to all members of the public, free of charge. Most archive services exist to allow anyone to see, touch, study or simply view the archives in their care. Archive collections include the records of our great institutions, people, businesses and record important events. The documents cover not only important events in the region, but also across the world, recording how people from the region worked and travelled the globe. Archive Services have worked to ensure that the knowledge held in these unrivalled resources are available for all and will continue to manage these collections to ensure their survival for future generations.

Where are archives in the North West ?

Archive services in the North West are amongst the most diverse and accessible in the UK. Local authorities are the largest group of archive services, comprising services in museums, libraries and the larger stand alone services such as Cumbria, Lancashire and Cheshire Record Offices. National museum services also manage archive collections, for example Museum of Science and Industry in Manchester and Maritime Archives at the National Museums, Liverpool.

The region is the home to a number of nationally and internationally important business archive services, for example Barclays Bank, Unilever, National Gas Archive and the Alliance and Leicester. North West Archives are also held in academic institutions, for example Archives and Special Collections at Liverpool University, John Rylands University Manchester. Archives on specialist media are managed by the North West Film Archive and the North West Sound Archive. An increasing number of communities are now establishing their own archives to celebrate and record their past.