SOUTH WEST HERITAGE TRUST

You can visit the Somerset Heritage Centre free of charge all day Tuesday to Friday, and some Saturday mornings.  For more details, see our Planning a Visit page.

We operate a professional Research & Copying Service to do research on your behalf in the records held at the Somerset Heritage Centre.

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For more information, please visit our Research Service page.  Please note that charges apply to this service.  

We also offer a microfiche copying service. Please note, we do not carry fiche copies in stock – they are sent away as and when requested to be copied, which means that it may take up to four weeks for your order to arrive.

For microfiche enquires please phone 01823 278805 or email somersetreprographics@swheritage.org.uk for more information, ensuring that you include the names of the parishes in which you are interested.  Please see our Charges page for details.  

The Somerset Local Studies Library was created in 1973 from the local history, genealogical, archaeological and topographical holdings of the Somerset Library Service. Until 1996 the collection was held at Taunton Castle and in 2010 it moved to the Somerset Heritage Centre. The collection includes more than 20,000 published works relating to the history, people and places of Somerset, including books, newspapers, pamphlets, photographs and ephemera.

We are always happy to discuss offers of archives and published items relating to Somerset and its history.  We are also grateful to be told about archives that are at risk.  Please see our Depositing Archives and Books page for more details.

We can arrange school sessions (at the Somerset Heritage Centre or your school) and teaching sessions, and provide copies of documents and ready-made resources packs on National Curriculum topics.  For more details about these and other services we can offer please see the Archives Education and Learning page.

Our community reminiscence sessions bring the heritage resources of Somerset and Devon direct to your group.  Guided by trained experts, they are activity rich and allow people to touch, handle, listen and use their senses to stimulate recall.

An archivist visits Weston super Mare Library quarterly to give advice and to allow access to archives from the strongrooms at the Somerset Heritage Centre.  For more details, please see the North Somerset Archives Service leaflet.

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The archivist will be visiting North Somerset on Thursday 15 March, Thursday 7 June, Thursday 6 September and Thursday 6 December 2018.

We provide advice on document care and offer a private document repair service at a cost.  Please see our Charges page for more information.

For more information, please contact our conservator.

We offer talks on a wide range of subjects, at the Somerset Heritage Centre and elsewhere.  You can also book a behind-the-scenes tour of the Somerset Heritage Centre.  For more details, see our Archives and Local Studies Talks and Tours guide.