New Carmarthenshire Archives building preparing to open

PREPARATIONS are underway to open the new Carmarthenshire Archives building with the first collection arriving from storage this week.

The historic Vaughan Pedigree returned to Carmarthenshire this week to be permanently stored at the new £2.2 million purpose-built facility located at the rear of Carmarthen Library.

Carmarthenshire’s archive collections have been held outside the county since 2014 whilst building work was underway.

The document, which dates back to the 17th century, shows the ancestry of Sir Richard Vaughan from royal roots including Hywel Dda, Roderick the Great and William the Conqueror.

Over the next few months hundreds of historical records will make their way back to Carmarthenshire into the new state of the art accommodation with the complete collection expected to be in by late spring.

The building boasts one of the highest performing structures in the country.

With its energy-efficient design the building minimises the energy required to maintain storage conditions and ensures that the collection remains protected even in the event of a power outage.

The building is split over three floors and includes a search room with seating to accommodate 10 customers and a map table two strongrooms, a conservation suite, an isolation room, cataloguing rooms and a cleaning room for inspection of newly arrived documents.

Carmarthenshire County Council’s Cabinet Member for Culture, Sport and Tourism, Cllr Peter Hughes Griffiths said: “I am absolutely thrilled that we are able to welcome our historical collection back to where it belongs. Once our complete collection is back in Carmarthenshire we will be working towards achieving accredited archive status which will provide national recognition of excellence within the sector.”

Carmarthenshire Archives Service houses the records of Carmarthenshire County Council and its predecessor bodies and records deposited by organisations and individuals from across the council area dating from the 13th century to the present day.

The new archives facility is due to open in late spring.