New West Yorkshire Archive building to store millions of historical records

Work is due to start on the £6.4m West Yorkshire Archive Building on Kirkgate, which will store more than 10 million records on three floors.

The project is being jointly funded by five local authorities and a £3.9m grant from the West Yorkshire Joint Services and Heritage Lottery Fund.

Wakefield Council said historical material of regional, national and international significance would be stored at the building.

Council leader Peter Box said: “I am very proud that work is due to begin thanks to the funding that has been secured through the Heritage Lottery Fund, for this nationally-important collection of information.

“The records are part of our heritage and history.”

Records of court proceedings and coal mining archives will be kept at the building.

It will also house files from the city’s former Stanley Royd Mental Hospital, where thousands of people were treated between 1841 and 1991.

The centre was designed by architects Broadway Malyan and building work will be carried out by Bardsley Construction Yorkshire from next month.

The building is expected to be finished next spring.