Archives Service

About

 Sandwell Archives Service is based within the historic Smethwick Library. Built in 1867 as the original Smethwick Town Hall, a small building was built in 1880 as an addition to house a new library after the Smethwick Library & Literacy Institute transferred its stock to the Local Authority.  The new Council House was opened in 1907 and the building continued to be used for a variety of purposes until the Library was moved into the main building in 1928.

Sandwell Archives service was created in 1992 after the boroughs archives and local studies collections were moved out of their previous homes in the Town reference libraries and combined under the umbrella of a single service. 

Sandwell Archives holds archive collections created by Sandwell MBC and its predecessor authorities, as well as organisations, families and businesses based in Sandwell. The service is a Diocesan record office, holding Church of England parish records for the Deanery of Warley and All Saint’s Church, West Bromwich, as well as numerous non-conformist churches within Sandwell.  Copies of these are available to view in our search room on microfilm and microfiche via a self-service system.

We also have computers that offer internet access, including to Ancestry and Find My Past, our online catalogue and digital reference sources.

As a Place of Deposit for Public Records Sandwell Archives also holds records of local courts, coroners and hospitals. The service also holds the historical records of the former boroughs of Oldbury, Rowley Regis, Smethwick, Tipton, Warley, Wednesbury and West Bromwich.

Significant business collections held by Sandwell Archives include; Chance Brothers, Accles & Pollock, Patent Shaft, Kenrick and Jefferson, F.H Lloyd and T. W. Camm.