Our collections

Hampshire Archives cares for vast numbers of unique historic documents dating from the Middle Ages to the present day. Together these help tell the fascinating story of Hampshire and its diverse communities.

Our collections:

• include popular records such as parish registers, wills, maps and photographs, but there’s so much more that you might not expect – weather records, music manuscripts, early recipe books…
• come from a wide variety of sources including local government, courts, schools, hospitals, faith groups, community organisations, businesses, families, and individuals both notable and ordinary.
• cover all areas of Hampshire unless they consist largely of records that relate to Southampton or Portsmouth (these cities have their own archive services).
• include vast collections from bodies such as Winchester Diocese and Hampshire County Council, but also single items donated by individuals
• range from parchment and paper to cinefilm and born-digital records.

We also look after Wessex Film and Sound Archive (WFSA) which collects audio-visual archives for central southern England.