Coventry Archives

The key resource for information about Coventry, the City and its people.

The Archives hold a unique richness of original material charting the history of Coventry;

of the three thousand archives held, highlights include:

Medieval Borough Archive

• Including the Charter of Incorporation of the City of Coventry (1182-1555);
• Coventry City Council records surrounding building development, education, and leisure within Coventry (1890s-current);

Audio Visual archive

• Reflecting a wealth of photographs and film (1920s-1990s);
• Private accessions of archives of individuals and organisations (1920s-current) and Building plans archive (1900s-2000).

We also have special book collections as part of our local studies material which includes many prominent individuals associated with Coventry. Notable personages include:

• The Bartleet collection (1886-1940), Horace Bartleet was a bicycling enthusiast and involved in the development of cycling in Britain. He collected books, magazines and catalogues, as well as a wealth of bicycles.
• The Eliot collection (1812-2013), Mary Ann Evans, writing under the pen name George Eliot, was an English novelist, poet and journalist, translator and one of the leading writers of the Victorian era.