Since November last year, many of our most popular family history records have been available online through our licence agreement with Find My Past. As we expected, this has had an impact on the number of visitors to the Searchroom. At the same time we must continue to make budget savings to meet our targets in the light of the national financial settlement.
Over the last three years we have reduced the number of Archive Assistants – who take the
lion’s share of work in the public service – from 5.6 to 4, a reduction of nearly 30%. We believe
that it is important to ensure a high quality, properly-staffed, service while the Searchroom is
open, rather than trying to maintain hours by spreading resources too thinly.
With effect from Monday 11 June, the Searchroom will be closed all day on Mondays.
The other opening hours, including Saturdays, will remain:
Tuesday – Friday 9.00am – 5.00pm
3rd Saturday in the month 9.00am – 4.00pm
We naturally regret having to restrict the service to our users, but hope that we have taken the
least painful route. We have chosen Monday afternoon to close because we feel that it is the
least useful to our users; the limited time available makes it unattractive to those readers coming
from any distance, or with substantial research to undertake. As users of other record offices will
know, we are not alone in making this sort of saving.
If you have any questions or would like to make any comments on the changes please contact
Cheshire Archives and Local Studies:
• By email
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• Through our website http://archives.cheshire.gov.uk/
• By phone 01244 972574
• By letter to Cheshire Archives and Local Studies,
Cheshire Record Office
Duke Street
Chester
CH1 1RL
• By using a comments form and box in the cloakroom
Temporary Notice April 2012
