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New Carlisle Archives Centre: Latest News

Project Update: July 2010

Handover Ceremony at PBH (large)
David Jones, Managing Director of Quarmby, hands over the keys to Cllr Gary Strong, Cumbria County Council's Cabinet member responsible for culture watched by Cllr Stewart Young, Deputy Leader of Cumbria County Council and local member for Upperby, and Anne Rowe, Archive Service Manager 

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The mammoth task of moving more than a million historical documents (which if piled up would be more than four miles high) from their former home at Carlisle Castle to their new home will begin later this summer.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.

Recent photos of the interior and exterior of the new Archive Centre
Exterior glass walkway and Petteril Bank HouseSearchroom
Wedding room window Green room in old house