Please note, due to an ongoing building maintenance issue we may need to limit the number of documents we are able to produce each day. We will also need to limit new deposits of documents during this time.

Introduction

Somerset Heritage Centre provides state-of-the-art storage for the historic records and printed material of Somerset and access to them. 

The Heritage Centre is also home to the museum stored collections.

In this section you’ll find information about visiting the searchroom at the Somerset Heritage Centre and accessing the archives. 

Opening Times

The Somerset Heritage Centre is open for research visits and visitors are strongly encouraged to book in advance.

• The opening days are Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, and quarterly Saturday mornings.
• There are two bookable sessions each day. These are from 10.00 am to 2.00 pm and 2.00 pm to 5.00 pm. Visitors can book both sessions and stay all day.
• Documents will be produced between 10.00 am to 1.00 pm and 2.00 pm to 4.00 pm. Documents should be returned 10 minutes prior to the end of the afternoon session. 

Readers’ Tickets

We issue South West Heritage Trust tickets which are valid for four years. If you have not visited us before, please bring some form of identification containing your name, current address and signature (for example a driving licence, utility bill and other ID with signature) so we can issue you with one of our readers’ tickets.

South West Heritage Trust tickets are valid at Devon Heritage Centre, Somerset Heritage Centre, North Devon Record Office and the North Somerset archive service.

Please be aware that we do not accept tickets from The National Archives or library cards. We are not part of the CARN ticket scheme and The Archives Card system and do not accept these cards.

If your card has expired please bring some identification with you when you visit, so we can issue you with a new ticket.