archives

skip navigation and tools

navigation and tools

in 'local history'

tools

 help with downloads

You are here - home : enjoy : local history : archives

Archives

East Sussex Record Office has been looking after the archival heritage of Brighton & Hove for over fifty years and since 1997 Brighton & Hove has had it’s own designated archivist.  The Record Office holds over a mile of records about the area and you can use these to research the history of your family, your locality and the house you live in. The records include:

  • local government records dating from the Brighton Improvement Commissioners in 1773 to the records of Hove and Brighton Borough Councils
  • maps from the 18th and the 20th century
  • parish records and the records of non-conformist churches
  • census records
  • plans of houses and public buildings
  • deeds
  • wills
  • records of hospitals, schools, businesses, organisations and individuals

Over the past few years the records of a number of important local organisations, businesses and individuals such as Hanningtons department store, Sussex County Cricket Club, the West Pier Trust, Middle Street Synagogue and the Theatre Royal have been taken in.

Work is on-going to find, conserve and make available these unique records as, once destroyed, they can never be recovered.  Their rescue often relies on the vigilance of members of the public or council employees in order to preserve as much of the City’s history as possible. The Brighton & Hove Archivist is available at Brighton History Centre on Thursday afternoons to answer any queries you may have, either about the service we offer or the records we hold.  Alternatively please contact the Records Office throughout the week.

Approximately 80 per cent of our holdings are indexed on the Access to Archives website.  Access to records in our search room is free but we always advise people to contact us in advance of a visit to book a seat as we can get very busy.  Also, due to the constant expansion of our holdings not all of our records are held on-site at the Record Office and consequently some items need to be pre-ordered. 

East Sussex Record Office 
The Maltings
Castle Precincts
Lewes
BN7 1YT
archives@eastsussex.gov.uk
(01273) 482349

Opening Times
Mon, Tues, Thurs 8.45am - 4.45pm
Wed 9.30am - 4.45pm
Fri 8.45am - 4.15pm
Second Sat in the month 9am -1pm
2pm - 4.45pm (booking essential)


Email this page to a friend

To send the details of this page to a friend by email, complete all the details below:

Your details

Please be assured that neither your email address nor that of your friend or colleague will be recorded here, and you will not be placed on any email list simply for visiting this site.

Bookmark this page using:

Find out more about social bookmarking

These sites allow you to store, tag and share links across the internet. You can share these links both with friends and people with similar interests. You can also access your links from any computer you happen to be using.

If you come across a page on our site that you find interesting and want to save for future reference or share it with other people, simply click on one of these links to add to your list.

All of these sites are free to use but do require you to register. Once you have registered you can begin bookmarking.

privacy statement | statements of ownership and liability | freedom of information | external links disclaimer | website statistics