Crewe History Centre

Plans have been approved for Crewe to be the location of one of two new state-of-the art history centres that will co-host Cheshire’s archives, which record the development of the county and its communities from the Middle Ages to the present day. The centre is currently expected to be open in early 2026.

Cheshire Archives and Local Studies – a shared service of Cheshire East and Cheshire West and Chester Councils – looks after the county’s unique and irreplaceable written and pictorial history and is driving forward a project to rehouse the collections in two new bespoke history centres.

On 15 March 2023, plans were approved for a completely new history centre on the site of Crewe’s former library, next to Memorial Square. On 7 March 2023, plans for a new history centre in Hoole, Chester were approved.

These two centres will replace the Cheshire Record Office, in Chester.

The project, called ‘Cheshire’s archives: a story shared’, will bring the collections closer to people and provide more opportunities for them to interact with them more easily – helping them to celebrate their personal and communities’ histories. 

The centres will provide a stable environment for Cheshire’s archives and create improved spaces for staff and volunteers to work with the collections, as well as provide more spaces for research, performances, and exhibitions. The centres will also act as a base for activities which will take archives to a wider audience across the county.

The centre will be free to visit for research and to explore exhibitions which tell stories about Crewe’s communities, as well as explaining more about the archive collections and the ways in which the Archives Service conserves them and makes them accessible for everyone to enjoy.

The centre in Crewe will help the town, as well as the wider county of Cheshire, to celebrate its heritage, while also supporting the town’s ongoing regeneration and the aims of the Crewe Cultural Strategy.

The centre will include:

• space to host cultural exhibitions of regional and national interest, school groups, workshops and talks
• railway archives for Crewe and the local region and archives relating to the development of the town and surrounding area over the past 900 years
• access to film and sound archives
• local newspapers and photographs
• supervised access to archive materials not on display
• a base for the Family History Society of Cheshire, with access to its genealogical resources and expertise
• a café - we will be looking for a community-based business to run this

Funding

The scheme is being funded by each local authority, alongside funding from The National Lottery Heritage Fund, made possible through money raised by National Lottery players, and from the Wolfson Foundation.

  

Crewe civic and cultural space regeneration

On March 15 2023, plans were approved to deliver the first part of a new and attractive pedestrian link through the cultural and civic quarter of the town centre and create a high-quality and attractive setting for Crewe’s new history centre.

Work started on site in January 2024.

New planting, lighting, and seating will revamp the area and provide a new space for the public to enjoy.

It will extend the current public space around Memorial Square and improve links to the south of the town centre – linking up with other proposed schemes to improve pedestrian and cycle routes between the town centre and railway station. 

The project includes clearing the site of the former library and the structure over the existing Civic Centre car park, which would then give the clear site needed for the new history centre.

There will also be a new car park and a new two-storey entrance to the Magistrates’ Courts.

The project is part of a package of projects being progressed following Cheshire East Council’s successful £14.1m bid to the government’s Future High Streets Fund and is also supported through Crewe’s allocation of up to £22.9m from the government’s Towns Fund.

History centre public space project

This project, which is led by the council and supported by Crewe’s allocation of up to £22.9m from the government’s Towns Fund, would see a further phase of works to create new public space around the proposed history centre in Crewe.

High-quality paving and planting areas, activity space, new seating and bike racks and public art are proposed.

There are also plans to deliver a joint project between Cheshire College – South and West and world leading ice cream van manufacturers Whitby Morrison.

It would see the refurbishment of an ice cream van, which would then be run by students as a standalone enterprise. The ice cream van would be in use across the town, while having an allocated area in the public space around the history centre.

The project, alongside the first phase of public realm works, will provide a high quality new focal point for the town centre and enhance the link between the Market Hall, Memorial Square, Lifestyle Centre and the proposed Southern Gateway that together will better connect Mill St with the town centre.

  

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Energy efficiency of the building 

The design of the Crewe History Centre aims to help set this new building on a pathway to net zero carbon. To accomplish this, a design approach that follows the UK Green Building Council framework has been adopted from the early stages of the project.

With this approach, the carbon dioxide associated with the building’s operation will be minimised by applying the following:

• Incorporate passive measures
• Design energy efficient mechanical and electrical systems
• Use an electric-only heating system.
• Incorporate on or off-site renewable technologies

The energy performance of the Crewe History Centre has been assessed following the National Calculation Methodology (NCM) compliance modelling methodology. The results show the building achieves a high EPC A rating.

Enhancements to Memorial Square 

The history centre proposals seek to enhance the setting of Memorial Square and include contemporary seating and hardwood benches.

Further landscaping and public realm improvements are also proposed in the Crewe Civic and Cultural Space regeneration project. This project seeks to create a high-quality and attractive wider setting for the proposed history centre and would also deliver new pedestrianised public space, a replacement new two-storey main entrance to the Law Courts and a new car park.  

Community events at the centre 

There are plans to deliver a programme of community events from the history centre. Further information about these will be developed over the course of the next two years.

Car parking 

A total of 35 parking spaces are proposed across the two planning applications, which is considered sufficient to accommodate peak demands associated with the archives on site, with some extra capacity available.

With the opening of Crewe’s new multi storey car park in July 2024, there will be a total of approximately 1400 vehicle spaces available within a 500 metre walk from the history centre. This level of provision is considered appropriate for the scale, nature, and location of the proposed scheme.