“A TREASURE house for people interested in family and local history” was how county local studies librarian Michael Marshman described Wiltshire and Swindon History Centre in a talk to Salisbury branch of Wiltshire Family History Society.
Mr Marshman said the eight miles of shelving in the centre at Chippenham hold records dating back to 1148, amounting to the largest freelyaccessible public collection of documents about the county anywhere.
As well as more than 29,000 books, 50,000 photographs, 100,000 wills, 1,100 folk songs and records from almost every parish are microfilm records of the Journal since 1736, copied from the most complete collection of the newspaper, which is held by Yale University in America.
Journal Scrapbook columnist Peter Daniels will speak at the branch’s next meeting at Wilton Community Centre on April 16 at 7.30pm.
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