Tyne and Wear Archives
Tyne and Wear Archives (formerly known as Tyne and Wear Archives Service) is the record office for the metropolitan county of Tyne and Wear, in North East England. Tyne and Wear Archives preserve documents relating to the area from the 12th to the 21st century. It is based in the former headquarters of the Co-operative Wholesale Society, which it shares with Discovery Museum in Newcastle upon Tyne. History. The Archives Service was established in 1974 by Tyne and Wear County Council, drawing in the collections of the former Newcastle Archives Office, which closed. On the  abolition of the county council in the local government reorganisation of 1986 Tyne and Wear Archives Service became a joint service of the five metropolitan districts, managed by Gateshead Council. Since 1976 Tyne and Wear Archives Service has been located at Blandford House, Newcastle upon Tyne, the former headquarters of the Co-operative Wholesale Society, which it shares with Discovery Museum. In April 2009 Tyne and Wear Archives Service merged with Tyne and Wear Museums to form Tyne & Wear Archives & Museums (TWAM). In July 2013 it was announced that the Archives' Shipyards collections were included on the UNESCO Memory of  the World Register. UNESCO stated: 'The shipbuilding collections deposited at Tyne & Wear Archives are the major source of information on the many shipyards in the North-East of England that helped to shape the unique identity of the region and made shipbuilding one of the key economic activities on Tyneside and Wearside... The records are strong in both breadth and depth, and no other archive in England and Wales appears to hold such a wide and comprehensive range of material.' In December 2013 The National Archives announced that Tyne and Wear Archives was amongst the first group of UK record  offices to achieve Accredited Archive status. Services. Tyne and Wear Archives have a public searchroom with space for visitors to consult original documents along with a microfilm area and PC cluster. A records management service for business and organisations has also been run by the Archives since the 1980s.