Durham County Record Office: the official archive service for County Durham and Darlington

Projects

Information about Durham County Record Office archive projects and partnership working.

Current projects

Durham at War 2013 - 2018

In 2014 Durham County Council received stage 2 support of £475,100 from the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF) for a Durham at War centenary commemorative project.

This created a new interactive website entitled Durham at War - Mapping the story of County Durham in the First World War.

The website launched on 10 September 2014.

The aim of this project is to link the people, places, events and heritage collections of County Durham in the Great War through an interactive mapping website. It also publicises commemorative events and research projects throughout the First World War (WW1) centenary period.

Led by Durham County Record Office, museum, archive and archaeology services are working 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 will give online public access to new archive collections and identify key WW1 sites in the historic county of Durham.

Previous Projects

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 are 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 have 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.

Consett Iron Company records 2012 - 2013

In August 2012 the Business Archives Council awarded the annual BAC cataloguing grant for business archives to Durham County Record Office 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 almost 200,000 names and continues to grow.

The National Council on Archives awarded Durham County 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.

The Record Office search room now offers 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 access the popular Durham Light Infantry regimental archive and the complementary sound archive in a single location.

Image of the Soldier 2003 - 2005

With the generous support of the Heritage Lottery Fund, the Record Office 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.