Work complete on £6.4m West Yorkshire History Centre

Restoration work on a multi-million pound archive building, which will house historical records, has been completed.
Fiona Spiers, Roly Bardsley, Wakefield Council leader Peter Box and Ros LundFiona Spiers, Roly Bardsley, Wakefield Council leader Peter Box and Ros Lund
Fiona Spiers, Roly Bardsley, Wakefield Council leader Peter Box and Ros Lund

The £6.4m West Yorkshire History Centre has been built in Kirkgate and it will store more than 10 million records.

The project was funded by five West Yorkshire councils, West Yorkshire Joint Services and a £3.9m grant from the Heritage Lottery Fund.

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Wakefield Council leader Peter Box laid the last brick to symbolise the completion of the work on Friday.

He said: “It’s good news that we’ve reached this milestone for this landmark building.

“As well as housing the region’s archives, the new history centre is one of the key building projects which is helping to regenerate the Kirkgate area.”

The archives include collections of the old West Yorkshire and West Riding Councils and the current Wakefield district council.

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The collections also include all the court proceedings of the former county of the West Riding.

Former miners are already helping to conserve, catalogue and care for all the coal mining archives.

West Yorkshire Joint Services Committee Coun Ros Lund said: “The new West Yorkshire History Centre will safeguard millions of records from the past.”

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