At an event marking a key point in the project the keys to this landmark new archives centre in Carlisle were recently handed over by the building contractor Quarmby Construction Company Ltd to the county council.

The mammoth task of moving more than a million historical documents (which if piled up would be more than four miles high) from their former home at Carlisle Castle to their new home will begin later this summer. The move will take between four to five months and a specially-built conveyor belt will transfer the documents from their vaults in the Castle into the vehicles of a specialist removal company, which will then transport them to the Cumbria Archive Centre (Carlisle). 

Before the documents can be moved in, the environmental conditions within the specially built archive vault need to settle and stabilise, maintaining a constant temperature and relative humidity. The thermal mass of the solid concrete walls will provide a naturally cool environment to protect the precious papers. Photographs and films will be stored in an even cooler vault which, like all the archive storage rooms, has moving electronic shelves.

These photos show how a dilapidated Grade II* listed building has been renovated and transformed by the addition of the new innovative glass-fronted building.