Teesside Archives holds the historic records for the

Teesside Teesside () is an urban area around the River Tees in North East England. Straddling the border between County Durham and North Yorkshire, it spans the boroughs of Borough of Middlesbrough, Middlesbrough, Borough of Stockton-on-Tees, Stockton ...

area. The service is located within the Dorman Museum, Linthorpe Road,

Middlesbrough Middlesbrough ( ), colloquially known as Boro, is a port town in the Borough of Middlesbrough, North Yorkshire, England. Lying to the south of the River Tees, Middlesbrough forms part of the Teesside Built up area, built-up area and the Tees Va ...

, and run by

Middlesbrough Borough Council Middlesbrough Council, formerly Middlesbrough Borough Council, is the unitary authority covering the Borough of Middlesbrough, North Yorkshire, England. Following the 2023 United Kingdom local elections, 2023 local elections, Labour Party (UK), ...

. The service is jointly funded by Hartlepool Borough Council, Stockton Borough Council, Middlesbrough Council and Redcar & Cleveland Borough Council.

History

Created in 1974 under the former

Cleveland County Council Cleveland County Council was the county council of the non-metropolitan county of Cleveland in north east England. It came into its powers on 1 April 1974 and was abolished on 31 March 1996. History The county council came into its powers on 1 A ...

an archivist was appointed and a desk provided on the balcony of Middlesbrough’s Reference Library but there was no space for storage of archive material. 81 Borough Road, a house owned by Middlesbrough Council, was chosen as the base for the service (then known as Cleveland County Archives) but it’s limited space for storage meant that it wasn’t a long term solution. By 1984, there were 5 out-stores attached to branch libraries across the county as well as the Borough Road premises which housed the small searchroom. Visitors were restricted due to the lack of space and an appointments system was in place. Exchange House (formerly the Post Office Headquarters) on Marton Road was acquired by Middlesbrough Council at the time of the construction of the A66 Middlesbrough Bypass. It was approved for use as an archive repository and the conversion took place in the early 1980s. The service moved into the building in 1984 and work began to bring the collections together into one single place. A much improved and enlarged searchroom enabled the service to accommodate more visitors and be able to cope with ad-hoc users as well as those that had pre-booked. Exchange House also provided a fully equipped Conservation Studio with a qualified conservator being appointed in 1985. Previous to this, all conservation work had been carried out by Durham County Record Office. In April 1996, Cleveland County Council was abolished and the four Unitary Authorities of

Hartlepool Hartlepool ( ) is a seaside resort, seaside and port town in County Durham, England. It is governed by a unitary authority borough Borough of Hartlepool, named after the town. The borough is part of the devolved Tees Valley area with an estimat ...

, Redcar & Cleveland and Stockton took over. At this time the service was also renamed to Teesside Archives. The service eventually outgrew Exchange House and is now temporarily operating from the

Dorman Museum Dorman Museum is a local and social history museum on the town centre side of Albert Park, Linthorpe in Middlesbrough, North Yorkshire, England. It is one of two museums operated by the local borough council, along with the Captain Cook bir ...

where a smaller Searchroom and a well equipped Conservation studio have been set up.

References

County record offices in England Teesside History of Yorkshire {{library-struct-stub