Historians to benefit from new microfilm readers at centre

The £40,000 investment by the Heritage Lottery Fund will make documents and newspapers easier to read, with simple loading, touch-screen technology for viewing and the capacity to zoom-in on hard-to-read sections.

The quality of copies will improve significantly for readers, Hull Council said.

The centre will be closed on July 4 and 5 while the equipment is fitted.

Coun David Gemmell, chairman of the History Centre Board of Governance, said: “This is a great opportunity to modernise our provision of access to microfilms.

“The installation is quite a big undertaking so we felt it would be less disruptive to customers if we closed the centre for a couple of days.

“We apologise for the inconvenience but think that the public will appreciate this major improvement to our service.”

The £10.7m facility in Worship Street, which opened in June 2010, is believed to be the first in the UK to house the archives of a city and its university under one roof.

Its oldest document is an 11th-century deed confirming an exchange of land in Bayeux, France.

Other significant records and documents include Hull’s Royal Charter, which granted the town its autonomy in 1299.

Written in Latin by a chancery clerk in Westminster, the single parchment carries the Royal Seal of Edward I and marks Hull’s emergence as a nationally important port. It grants certain rights and privileges of self-government, including the right to hold court cases, raise revenue, set by-laws and hold markets.

Altogether, there are 9,000 metres of archives – including the UK’s most extensive range of World War Two records – and the personal letters of city-born aviator Amy Johnson.

Despite the massive bombing of the city, the Hull war records survived in a vault at the Guildhall, which was relatively unscathed apart from a hit on the ballroom.