Archives
The archives service preserves and provides access to all kinds of useful archive information and materials about Peterborough. It’s not only a great resource, it’s also a great way to learn about the city’s history.
In our archive collections we have:
- original, rare, and often unique source material dating from the 1200s onwards
- the best local studies collection in the City
- free access to lending and reference books
- free access to “Ancestry” with staff support
- all the back copies of historic local newspapers
- the largest collection of maps and plans of the area
- evocative photographs of Peterborough including the popular Kitchin Collection
New collections now available for researchers
Staff have been hard at work over the past twelve months to catalogue Peterborough’s historic archive collections. Here are just some of the highlights:
- records of the Corn Exchange Company – most people would now prefer to forget the Corn Exchange building in Cathedral Square, but previous buildings on the site were far more attractive. The Corn Exchange collection is a fantastic resource for learning about Peterborough’s economy in the nineteenth century. Even after the coming of the railways were we really an industrial city, or was agriculture more important?
- papers from Old Fletton Primary School – did your relative attend this school? We have admissions registers and log books dating back from the nineteenth century. They’re a wonderfully evocative resource for anyone researching their family tree or just wanting to know more about Fletton in times past.
‘Forty Years On’ wins an award!
The Forty Years On project, run in conjunction with Eastern Angles Theatre Company, has been awarded ‘Pace Setters’ status by The National Archives and Archives and Records Association. This recognises the innovative cataloguing of the Peterborough Development Corporation archive by over 34 local volunteers.
Can you help?
If you have anything you’d like to donate or deposit with the archive, please contact the archives service team.
Can’t make it to the library? Let us do your research for you!
We often do checks of parish registers, census returns and local newspapers, as well as more extensive research using our collections. Contact us by telephone on 01733 864160 or email archives.services@vivacity-peterborough.com.