Information about our archive projects and partnership working.
Newton Aycliffe and Peterlee: New Towns cataloguing project, 2022 to 2024
We are a founding partner in an important new project to promote and improve access to the records of post-war New Towns across the UK and Ireland.
We care for the records of two New Towns: Newton Aycliffe and Peterlee.
Co-ordinated by the Association of New Towns Archives and Museums (ANTAM), this multi-partner project’s eventual aim is to increase understanding of post-war New Towns and the impact they had on life in Britain and Ireland.
We are grateful to the Wellcome Trust for awarding a substantial grant to the ANTAM partnership to make this possible. Read more about the project here:
The New Jerusalems: post-war New Town archives in Britain and Ireland
The DLI – A Whole New Story, ongoing from 2019
In 2019, we received an Archives Revealed grant totalling almost £39,000 for an ambitious project to bring to light uncatalogued material from the Durham Light Infantry (DLI) archive. It will reveal more of our most popular archive collection.
Archives Revealed is administered by a team at The National Archives and the funding programme supports the cataloguing of archive collections. This grant was awarded on 25 June 2019.
Archives Revealed grant awards announced.
Durham at War 2013 – 2018
In 2014 we received stage 2 support of £475,100 from the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF) for a Durham at War centenary commemorative project.
This created an interactive website entitled Durham at War – Mapping the story of County Durham in the First World War.
The website launched on 10 September 2014.
Led by us, museum, archive and archaeology services worked with volunteers to map heritage collections and make it easier for people to discover, and visualise, the impact of the war on their area in 1914-1918. The project gave online public access to new archive collections and identify key WW1 sites in the historic county of Durham.
Heart of Teesdale Landscape Partnership 2011 – 2016
In 2011 the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF) approved funding of £1.9 million for the Heart of Teesdale Landscape Partnership. The area has remarkable natural features and associations with historic, cultural and wildlife sites of enduring appeal to scientists, artists and authors, and visitors from far and wide.
The activities of the Landscape Partnership over the period 2011-2016 were guided by a Landscape Conservation Action Plan, with a range of programmes and projects supported by the HLF, Durham County Council and other organisations.
Archivists worked with the Mid Teesdale Project Partnership to provide a series of ‘Ask an Archivist’ road shows and group visits to the Record Office, funded by the Partnerships Community Initiatives Fund.
In August 2012 the Business Archives Council awarded the annual BAC cataloguing grant for business archives to us for the cataloguing of archives of Consett Iron Company and its subsidiary companies. Launched in April 2010, the grant is in support of the National Strategy for Business Archives.
Read more about the Business Archives Council 2012 cataloguing grant winner on the Business Archives Council website. This project was completed in March 2013.
Mining Durham’s Hidden Depths 2009 – 2010
This Learning Revolution Transformation Fund project brought together over 100 enthusiastic volunteers to index records in the Durham Miners’ Association trade union archive at the Record Office. It resulted in an online Mining Durham’s Hidden Depths database which now contains over 229,000 names and continues to grow.
The National Council on Archives awarded Durham Record Office Archive Pace Setter status for this project in April 2010.
Listen to the Soldier 2008 – 2009
Listen to the Soldier was a partnership project between the former Durham Light Infantry Museum, the Imperial War Museum and Durham County Record Office, generously supported by the Heritage Lottery Fund.
Our search room was able to offer free public access to the largest, most comprehensive and wide-ranging oral history collection in the world relating to a British infantry regiment during the Second World War. Family and military historians can now access the popular Durham Light Infantry regimental archive and the complementary Imperial War Museum sound archive online.
Image of the Soldier 2003 – 2005
With the generous support of the Heritage Lottery Fund, we ran a two year project, Image of the Soldier, to digitise all the photographs in the Durham Light Infantry collection and make them available online.
Community Heritage Project 2003 – 2008
As part of this project archivists from the Record Office provided training and advice to local history groups on the documentation and care of community collections.
