Crewe History Centre
Construction has started in Crewe on the second of two new history centres that will co-host the region’s archives.
The new state-of-the art history centre coming to Crewe will be located between Memorial Square and the Lifestyle Centre. It is expected to open in summer 2026. Work started on a history centre in Chester in autumn 2024.
Artist's impression of Crewe History Centre
The history centres will co-host Cheshire’s archives, which record the development of the county and its communities from the Middle Ages to the present day. These two centres will replace the Cheshire Record Office, in Chester.
Cheshire Archives and Local Studies – a shared service of Cheshire East and Cheshire West and Chester Councils – looks after the county’s unique and irreplaceable written and pictorial history and is driving forward a project to rehouse the collections in two new bespoke history centres.
The project, called ‘Cheshire’s archives: a story shared’, will bring the collections closer to people and provide more opportunities for them to interact with them more easily – helping them to celebrate their personal and communities’ histories.
The centres will provide a stable environment for Cheshire’s archives and create improved spaces for staff and volunteers to work with the collections, as well as provide more spaces for events, research and exhibitions. The centres will also act as a base for activities which will take archives to a wider audience across the county.
The centre will be free to visit for research and to explore exhibitions which tell stories about Crewe’s communities, as well as explaining more about the archive collections and the ways in which the Archives Service conserves them and makes them accessible for everyone to enjoy.
The centre in Crewe will help the town, as well as the wider county of Cheshire, to celebrate its heritage, while also supporting the town’s ongoing regeneration and the aims of the Crewe Cultural Strategy.
The centre will include:
- space to host cultural exhibitions of regional and national interest, school groups, workshops and talks
- railway archives for Crewe and the local region and archives relating to the development of the town and surrounding area over the past 900 years
- access to film and sound archives
- local newspapers and photographs
- local history books
- supervised access to archive materials not on display
- a Family History Society of Cheshire helpdesk, providing access to genealogical resources and expertise
- a café - we will be looking for a community-based business to run this
Funding
The scheme is being funded by each local authority, alongside funding from The National Lottery Heritage Fund, made possible through money raised by National Lottery players, and from the Wolfson Foundation and Towns Fund.
Crewe civic and cultural space regeneration
In spring 2023, plans were approved to deliver the first part of a new and attractive pedestrian link through the cultural and civic quarter of the town centre creating a high-quality and attractive setting for Crewe’s new history centre.
Work started on site in January 2024 and has now been completed.
New planting, lighting, and seating has revamped the area and provided a new space for the public to enjoy.
The public space around Memorial Square has been extended and connections to the south of the town centre have been improved – linking up with other proposed schemes to improve pedestrian and cycle routes between the town centre and railway station.
The project included clearing the site of the former library and the structure over the existing Civic Centre car park, which has now provided the clear site needed for the new history centre.
There is also a new car park and two-storey entrance to the Magistrates’ Courts.
The project is part of a package of projects being progressed following Cheshire East Council’s successful £14.1m bid to the government’s Future High Streets Fund and is also supported through Crewe’s allocation of up to £22.9m from the government’s Towns Fund.
Key Information about the Crewe History Centre
The new history centre will co-host Cheshire’s unique and irreplaceable archives, which record the development of the county and its communities from the Middle Ages to the present day.
It will keep the archives safe for future generations, as well as making them – and the stories they tell – accessible in all sorts of different ways. The history centre will give people opportunities to explore their past, through research, talking to expert staff and volunteers, exhibitions and events.
It will be a base for the Cheshire Archives and Local Studies service and home to volunteers from the Family History Centre of Cheshire.
An equivalent centre is being built in Chester. These two centres will replace the Cheshire Record Office, in Chester.
We are on track for the Crewe history centre to open in the summer of 2026. The Chester history centre will open at the same time.
There will be a broad programme of events at the history centre. Over the course of the next year and as the opening date nears, we will be developing these plans and will share this information nearer the time.
Visiting the centre will always be free for anyone who is visiting for research and/or exploring the different exhibitions.
The exhibitions will tell stories about the county’s communities and explain more about the archive’s collections and the ways in which the service conserves them, making them more accessible for everyone to enjoy.
On occasions, some events may be charged for, but this is the exception not the norm.
Online records such as maps, databases, catalogue and genealogy records on subscription websites Find My Past and Ancestry are still available. Subscription websites can be accessed for free in Cheshire Libraries. We can also provide copies of documents and carry out research on your behalf.
Resources relating to local and family history will continue to be provided in our libraries. If you need to access records for an urgent business need, please contact us.
This is the website to visit to read dedicated articles that dive deep into a fascinating range of blogs about the project and the creative ways the team is finding to engage more people with archives.
You can find out about events here as well and we also welcome you to subscribe to the archives newsletter
The design of the Crewe History Centre aims to help set this new building on a pathway to net zero carbon. To accomplish this, a design approach that follows the UK Green Building Council framework has been adopted from the early stages of the project.
With this approach, the carbon dioxide associated with the building’s operation will be minimised by applying the following:
- Incorporate passive measures
- Design energy efficient mechanical and electrical systems
- Use an electric-only heating system.
- Incorporate on or off-site renewable technologies
The energy performance of the Crewe History Centre has been assessed following the National Calculation Methodology (NCM) compliance modelling methodology. The results show the building achieves a high EPC A rating.
A total of 35 parking spaces are proposed across the two planning applications, which is considered sufficient to accommodate peak demands associated with the archives on site, with some extra capacity available.
With the opening of Crewe’s new multi storey car park in July 2024, there will be a total of approximately 1400 vehicle spaces available within a 500 metre walk from the history centre. This level of provision is considered appropriate for the scale, nature, and location of the proposed scheme.
History centre public space project
This project, which is led by the council and supported by Crewe’s allocation of up to £22.9m from the government’s Towns Fund, would see a further phase of works to create new public space around the proposed history centre in Crewe.
High-quality paving and planting areas, activity space, new seating and bike racks and public art are proposed.
There are also plans to deliver a joint project between Cheshire College – South and West and world leading ice cream van manufacturers Whitby Morrison.
It would see the refurbishment of an ice cream van, which would then be run by students as a standalone enterprise. The ice cream van would be in use across the town, while having an allocated area in the public space around the history centre.
The project, alongside the first phase of public realm works, will provide a high quality new focal point for the town centre and enhance the link between the Market Hall, Memorial Square, Lifestyle Centre and the proposed Southern Gateway that together will better connect Mill St with the town centre.
Page last reviewed: 16 May 2025
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