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Archive Service News: February 2012

New Carlisle Archives Centre officially open!

Sir Chris Bonington officially opened the new Cumbria Archive Centre in Carlisle on 11 January 2012 – a really special day for Cumbria Archive Service.  Sir Chris is the UK’s most famous mountaineer and a long-standing resident of Cumbria.

Sir Chris said “I’ve had a passion for history since I was a schoolboy.  Just walking around the building, there is so much that is exciting, and it’s so wonderfully welcoming”.

Year 5/6 pupils from Petteril Bank Junior School, who now regularly visit the archive centre every week, dressed up as Edwardian mountaineers as part of the celebrations.

Virginia Tandy, Trustee of the Heritage Lottery Fund which provided a grant of £4.8m towards the new building said “This is a brilliant combination of all the things Heritage Lottery Fund stands for.  It has restored an important historic building and safeguarded very important collections”.

Councillor Gary Strong, Cabinet Member thanked everyone involved in bringing the project to fruition.

The ceremony was followed by an open afternoon, attended by about 450 people.  Anne Rowe, County Archivist said, “It was wonderful to see so many new faces and so many people from the local community visiting the archive centre for the first time.  People were very positive about what we are doing here, and we look forward to building on that for the future”.