Local History Centre archives
Ever wondered:
- Why your town developed as it did?
- Who lived there in times gone by?
- What their lives were like?
- What concerned them? Entertained them?
- How they lived? Thought? and died?
The past is present in every part of our daily lives, be it the streets we walk down, the houses we inhabit or the names of places we travel through, the past has moulded and shaped the present.
Archives help us reveal the secrets of the past.
Our mission
The Archive aims to acquire, preserve and make available the documentary evidence of the activities in Walsall Metropolitan Borough and to make this available to the community at large for educational, personal or historical needs.
Our records
The archive holds records from the middle ages to the present day. The information comes on all sorts of formats, parchment, vellum, paper, tape, film and electronic records. The records themselves come from all sorts of sources, be they:
- Public records such as the Quarter Sessions, Coroners records, and hospital records.
- Business records of the leather trade, lock companies, lorinery manufacturers, metal founders and mining to name but a few.
- Local Authority records for Walsall, Walsall RDC, the UDCs for Aldridge/Brownhills, Darlaston, Willenhall and Short Heath. These include such diverse records as the Cattle Plague Committee minutes, Mayors accounts that date back to 1594, and the general run of council minutes.
- Nonconformist records for the whole Borough as well as filmed copies of Parish records.
- Personal Papers including letters of Sister Dora and Jerome K Jerome.
- Deeds dating back to the Middle Ages.
- Documentation relating to Societies and Organisations such as Walsall Football Club, Willenhall Literary Institute and the Walsall Lying-in-Charity for Poor Married Women.
- Papers of Local Historians and Antiquarians such as E J Homeshaw and "Billy" Meikle
- Films of local events dating back to the 1920's.
- Maps and plans of the Borough dating back to the 18th century with printed maps from 1577 onwards.
- Photographic negatives, slides, prints and lantern slides from the 19th century to the present day.
- School records for much of the Borough.
Accession 852/3 Deed to The White Hart, Caldmore 1882
In short the archive holds the collective memory of Walsall Metropolitan Borough, and whether you want to tap into this memory for research, educational or legal purposes, whether you want to trace your family tree or whether you are merely curious then the archive might hold the answers – remember, we are here to help!