Press Release - 13th March 2003

City's History Spread around the World

Wolverhampton's History has been launched into cyberspace by the Council's Archive Service, thanks to a grant of £41,400 from the Heritage Lottery Fund.

Wolverhampton's fascinating history has been brought to life by the creation of over 1,000 pages of information on the world wide web covering a whole range of information from Victorian health issues to immigration in the 1960s. The web pages consist of interactive maps, photographs, archive film footage, teachers questions and a whole host of other information.

Peter Evans, City Archivist is delighted with this new development for the Archive Service. He said 'The City Archives is a treasure trove of information and we are thrilled to make some of these treasures available to a worldwide audience via the Internet'. If you are curious about your City's history take a look. The website will give you answers to these questions and whole host of others: why were the town's cinemas ordered to rip out all their carpets in 1918?, which former mayor deserted the army and hitchhiked across the world to see his new born son? Which parts of the town were bombed in World War II?

The City Archivist went to on to comment 'The web site will interest anyone with an interest in where they live and who their ancestors were'. One of the key themes of the web site is that users can tell us their memories of the town in years gone by. We will be delighted to hear from anyone so we can build a community history of our City.