Gateway to the Past : Catalogues Available

Click on the link below to go straight to the section you need :

• Staffordshire and Stoke on Trent Archive Service
• William Salt Library, Stafford
• Staffordshire Arts and Museum Service

Staffordshire and Stoke on Trent Archive Service
Gateway to the Past currently contains over 90% of the Archive Service’s paper-based catalogues. We are working to make the remaining catalogues available online. Catalogues currently available include :

• Diocese of Lichfield : administrative records, and some cause papers of the Consistory Court
• Dean and Chapter of Lichfield
• Anglican parishes
• Nonconformist churches
• Staffordshire Quarter Sessions
• Burton County Borough Council
• Lichfield City Council
• District councils
• Parish councils
• Poor Law Unions
• Hospitals
• Landed families, including : Sutherland (Leveson-Gower); Anglesey (Paget); Stafford (Stafford, Stafford-Howard, Jerningham and Fitzherbert)
• Businesses including : Pottery industry (companies, trade unions and employers' organisations); Evode Ltd.; Leek and Manifold Valley Railway; Staffordshire and Worcestershire Canal; Leek silk manufacturers
• National Coal Board and its pre-vesting colliery companies
• Lichfield city charities, etc.

In addition, catalogues of collections received since January 2001 are included in the catalogue.

William Salt Library, Stafford
Gateway to the Past currently contains the catalogue of William Salt's Original Collection, which forms the core of the Library's holdings. The Original Collection includes :

• Printed works from the 16th to 19th centuries, including books, pamphlets and periodicals
• Illustrative material, including the "Staffordshire Views", a superb series of c.3,000 watercolours and prints
• Original documents, including title deeds, correspondence, pedigrees and transcripts

In addition all new acquisitions to the Library collection from January 2002 onwards also appear in the catalogue. These comprise:

• Printed works including books, pamphlets, newscuttings and journals
• Unpublished works such as theses and research projects
• Sale particulars for properties in Staffordshire

The Gateway to the Past catalogue does contain a substantial part of the William Salt Library's Collection. However, it is still very much a work in progress which we continue to add to over time by retrospectively cataloguing items which are currently not in the database, i.e. material acquired by the Library between the years 1872 and 2002. For items currently not on the database please contact the Library directly.

Staffordshire Arts and Museum Service
Gateway to the Past contains records for all of the County’s Museum and Art collections, held at the County Museum, Shugborough and the Shire Hall Gallery, Stafford. These include:

• Carriages and horse-drawn vehicles
• Shoes and footwear-related items from the costume and textile collection
• Fine and decorative art collection
• Fire Service collection
• Oral history recordings
• Burton Museum costume collection
• Stafford Museum and Art Gallery collection
• Friendly Society collections

In addition, there are collection level records for all of the County Museum Photograph collection, held at the County Museum, Shugborough.