The Hold provides a unique heritage facility which combines state-of-the-art storage and public access facilities for the archive and local studies collections, the archives, reference materials, and sensitive finds and higher education teaching spaces.
The £17.5m HLF funded centre includes conservation, digitisation, ICT, teaching and learning facilities as well as office space, search rooms for visitors to consult material, and a café and exhibition area. The teaching facilities include two seminar rooms and a 200-seat tiered auditorium for higher education teaching. Above all, the building will provide a highly visible and accessible focus for heritage activity in the county. The building opened to the public in late 2019.
