Wessex Film and Sound Archive collection

Our catalogue includes video and sound recordings from a variety of sources, each offering a unique insight into the region’s past.

The Wessex Film and Sound Archive YouTube channel features some of our wonderful archive films and sounds recordings online.

View films on YouTube

Explore the catalogue

Search the whole catalogue of 1 million records

Advanced search

How to use the catalogue

For video and sound recordings, use an advanced search. Under the Format field:

  • select Digital image for all records that include an image of the document
  • select Video recording for all films
  • select Sound recording for all sound recordings

For a simple search, type a keyword or keywords in the search box and press Search button.

Tips to improve your search

  • search is not case sensitive
  • put keywords in speech marks for example "james dean" to find two or more words together, no speech marks will find separate results for each word
  • use an asterisk (*) to find words with common roots, for example brick* will find brick, brickyard, bricklayer
  • use an asterisk (*) as a wildcard in any field, for example *hous* will find warehouse and housing

Advanced search

For an advanced search, press Advanced Search, then Catalogue.

Under the Level field, select Collection for an overview of types of record or subject. For example, select Collection and enter school in the Any Text field; this will produce a list of school collections and also highlight school records held in other collections.

See more information on searching the catalogue