Extension to search room opening hours

Search room hours are currently 10am-2pm Wednesday to Friday and every other Saturday.

We’ve had feedback asking for us to open longer in the search room and we appreciate that, for those who travel or who need to make the most of limited time, the short day is restrictive.

Bearing this in mind, from 6 May 2015 we will extend opening in the search room on a Wednesday until 4pm for a trial period. We will review this after 6 months.

In order to make best use of limited resources, this will be by appointment only. Please reserve your space in advance and order all documents by 1pm. If we don't have sufficient staff at this time (or indeed other times during the week) be aware that we may need to close the search room earlier.

Limit on numbers in the search room

If you have visited Shropshire Archives recently you will know that the search room is often very busy. We need to ensure that documents are properly looked after, check that they are returned the correct boxes and handle them with care. We also want to provide a good service to those using the search room and issue items promptly. Therefore we need to limit numbers of people ordering documents in the search room.

We have 12 table spaces plus our map table so will limit numbers accordingly. This will be at the discretion of the duty professional and will depend on the nature of the material being consulted.

In order to prevent a wasted visit, please do book your space in advance. Booking is necessary on a Wednesday afternoon and Saturday.

policeman

Advance Ordering

Post office

It will help us greatly if you can order documents in advance. We will still produce on demand up to 1pm on a Wednesday to Friday but you may need to wait while items are fetched from our stores. If you order documents in advance, we’ll have the first few items ready for you when you arrive.

On a Saturday and Wednesday afternoon you must order all items in advance.

Please note that most staff work during our opening hours only and the staff who check incoming enquiries also provide the face to face service. So do give us as much notice as possible because we are unlikely to be able to pick up your enquiry or document order instantly. Please email if you can - phone calls are taken by staff at Shropshire Council’s customer service centre.

Many lists are on our online catalogue at http://search.shropshirehistory.org.uk so do search this to find references. Please note that it is the DocumentReference that we need to find the items (not the System Reference prefixed with an X). You'll need to click on the item of interest to find the full description and DocumentReference.

Awkward Documents

Occasionally, access to some documents may be restricted due to the fragility of the originals, incomplete cataloguing, the nature of information contained in them or if restrictions have been applied by the owner.

If you would like to view uncatalogued collections or documents less than 100 years old (or more for particularly sensitive records), requests should be made in at least 1 week in advance of your visit and preferably in writing/email. We can then advise further.

Documents in need of conservation

The issue of very large maps or material from uncatalogued collections is at the discretion of the duty professional and will depend on how busy the search room is and how well these items can be supervised. Therefore it may be possible that you can view an uncatalogued box at the counter one week, but not be able to browse through the same box on a return visit.

All records from district authorities 1835 to 1974 (collections: DA1-DA45) are held in our out-store and collected weekly. Please order anything from these collections a week in advance of your visit.