Princess opens history centre

2:34pm Friday 9th May 2008

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THE Wiltshire & Swindon History Centre was officially opened by HRH The Princess Royal today.

Princess Anne was the guest of honour at the ceremony this afternoon.

Based in Cocklebury Road in Chippenham, the Wiltshire & Swindon History Centre has been designed to make researching a family tree and investigating local history both fun and approachable.

It was built on time and under budget by Wiltshire County Council and Swindon Borough Council who are committed to helping people to discover, participate and contribute to local history.

Princess Anne was given a tour of the building by Jane Scott, leader of Wiltshire County Council, Rod Bluh, leader of Swindon Borough Council, and Tom Craig, heritage services manager at the county council.

She saw some of the conservation work being undertaken at the centre including the restoration of maps, conserving ancient remains, recording of important documents and its vast collections of records.

At the end of the visit the Princess cut a cake to celebrate the formal opening and unveiled a commemorative plaque.

She was presented with a posy by ten-year-old Monkton Park Primary School pupil Eleanor Thomas.

Representatives from the groups involved in the design and construction of the centre were at also the ceremony.

The visit comes as The National Archives announced this week that the centre has been formally approved and appointed as a place for public records. This follows a full inspection of the centre by the national body earlier this year.

Earlier this month it was revealed the state-of-the-art building was also in the running for a design award.

The state-of-the-art building is one of nine to be short listed for the SCALA (The Society of Chief Architects of Local Authorities) Civic Building of the Year Competition 2008.

The awards will be made at the SCALA Conference in Nottingham on November 7.

More than 10,000 people have visited the centre since it opened to the public at the end of October in 2007.