Gwent Record Office
Serving Blaenau Gwent, Caerphilly, Monmouthshire, Newport and Torfaen
The Gwent Record Office was established in 1938 as the Monmouthshire Record Office, serving the ‘old’ county of that name. In 1974, following local government reorganisation, it became the Gwent County Record Office. Further local government changes in 1996 divided the county of Gwent into five unitary authorities. The Gwent Record Office now serves the areas covered by these authorities: Blaenau Gwent County Borough Council, Caerphilly County Borough Council, Monmouthshire County Council, Newport City Council and Torfaen County Borough Council.
Temporary Office Closure and move to new office
The Gwent Record Office will be closed from 30th July 2011 until October 2011 (exact date of reopening to be announced later) in order to move to its new home at Ebbw Vale. We apologise for any inconvenience this may cause and look forward to welcoming visitors to our new offices.
The renovation of the old Ebbw Vale Steelworks General Offices building for public and administrative use continues, and work is almost completed on the new extension for the strongrooms and work rooms. There will also be a change of name, to Gwent Archives. For further information, visit the Gwent Archives page of the website.
Christine Dowland
It is with great regret that we announce the death of Christine Dowland at the early age of 42, after a brief illness. Christine worked at the Gwent Record Office as an Archivist from 1990 to 1995, when she left to take up a post at the Isle of Wight Record Office. This enabled her to move back close to her family in Havant, although her daily trip to work included a journey by hovercraft across the Solent. For the past five years Christine had been working as Records Manager at Portsmouth University and recently she had also been involved with listing the University’s archives. Christine was a popular member of staff in Gwent and was much missed by our small team when she left. Her legacy is continually evident. Not only did she work hard to decrease our cataloguing backlog ; she was also responsible for developing the finding aids and guides for public use and did this with care and imagination. She also worked behind the scenes to update our Location Guide, providing an invaluable tool for finding documents which has been all the more useful during the preparations for the office to move to its new site at Ebbw Vale. Christine was an archivist who was dedicated to her job but was also a considerate colleague with a keen sense of humour. Our thoughts go out to her family.
Gwent County History
The fourth volume of the Gwent County History series, Industrial Monmouthshire, 1780-1914, was launched on May 20th 2011 at the Winding House, New Tredegar. The volume, edited by Professor Chris Williams and Dr. Sian Rhiannon Williams, is published by the University of Wales Press and is available in hardback, price £65.
Volume 5 in the series is due to be published in 2012.