Woodhorn

Plan Your First Visit and Use The Study Centre

We have prepared a short video to help you to plan your first visit to the Study Centre at Woodhorn. Click on the image below to play the video. There is further information to assist your planning on this page. 

Contact us:
Northumberland Archives
Woodhorn
QE2 Country Park
Ashington
Northumberland
NE63 9FL

collections@woodhorn.org.uk
01670 528080

How to find us:

Click here for directions to Woodhorn .

Opening Hours

We are open Wednesday to Sunday 10am-4pm year round (excluding Bank Holidays)

On Arrival
At the Welcome Desk you will need to register as a Study Centre user, click here for more information. To register you must provide proof of identity and complete a short registration form. To save you time, you can download and print the registration form here. Bring this with you together with one of the following:

• Driving licence
• Passport
• Utility bill (within the last 3 months)
• Council Tax bill

By signing the registration form you agree to abide by the Study Centre regulations which are designed to protect the unique and irreplaceable documents in our care. The regulations include:

• Only pencils to be used in the Study Centre
• No bags (including handbags), can be taken into our Study Centre. Secure lockers are provided for your use (these cost £1 and this is returned at the end of your visit)
• To read the complete rules please follow this link

Once you have registered you can enter the Study Centre to consult the indexes, catalogues, books, original documents and microforms.  Duty staff will help you familiarise yourself with our systems.  If at any time you need further advice and guidance please ask for assistance.  All staff are identifiable via their Woodhorn uniform.

Using the Study Centre
There is a variety of catalogues and indexes which you may need to consult in order to access original archive material and microforms.  These may seem bewildering at first - please ask a member of staff for help at any time.

In order to access original archive material you need to provide a document reference number.  These can be obtained from the card indexes and/or the catalogues.  There are catalogues and card indexes available for many of our collections and the staff are pleased to show you how to use them. 

We do not operate a booking system and users do not need to request items or book a microfilm reader ahead of their visit. You can request to see up to 3 items at a time. We aim to produce documents from the strong rooms within 15 minutes of a user requesting the document. If there is likely to be a delay, we will inform you of this. Last requests for documents should be made by 3.30pm. All documents should be returned to the staff at the Study Centre desk by 4pm.

Using Documents
When using the Study Centre we expect that you use pencils in order to protect the items in our care.  The use of laptops is permitted but please inform the Study Centre staff on your arrival. If you would like a copy of an item please ask a member of staff who can advise on copying options. We do allow use of digital cameras on some classes of record - staff will be pleased to advise further.  Follow this link to find out more .

No smoking, eating or drinking is permitted in the Study Centre.

Facilities Onsite
The Study Centre is based in the Cutter Building at Woodhorn where you can also visit permanent and temporary exhibitions, some of which relate to the collections held at Woodhorn. These include the permanent Ashington Group exhibition. Temporary exhibitions have included "The Tudors", BBC’s "Walking With Dinosaurs" and Wallace and Gromit. Some temporary exhibitions have an entrance fee. Further information about our exhibition programme can be found. Woodhorn has an onsite café to provide refreshments during your research breaks.