Alston Moor Historical Society’s Archives are the memory bank of Alston Moor, and the Town Hall is the perfect location for them. Here, the Society has display space, storage space, work space and, of course, space for visitors. A team of volunteer archivists is working towards a state-of the-art archive, with standards as near as possible to those of the County Records Office.
It’s important not only to conserve the local records for their own sake, but to make them work, so the Society aims not only to bring people into the Town Hall to look at documents and photographs, etc., but also to get information out into the community. This involves mobile displays based on archive material, together with regular updating and modification to the website and spreading news of developments via Facebook.
Volunteers can offer help with genealogical research as well. Through the link with St. Augustine’s Church, family histories from around the world can be traced. When the lead industry here collapsed, people left the district and travelled far afield, including to Canada, Australia and New Zealand.
Also in the Archives there are temporary displays on themes of local interest. So far we have presented ‘Epiacum Roman fort’, ‘Local Agriculture’, and ‘Alston Moor on Stage!’.