Welcome to CityArk

CityArk is the web presence of the Medway Council Archives Service which is based at the Medway Archives and Local Studies Centre, Civic Centre, Strood, Kent, England. We preserve and make available for research the archives of the Medway area of Kent and also the parish records of north-west Kent. Our oldest records date from 604.

CityArk comprises a searchable database of piece-level descriptions of the original historical archival documents in our custody, an imagebase of scanned images of our most popular records, interactive query tools and branch pages containing guidance.

Using the new explorer query tool, alternative java query (previously the advanced query tool), text only query tool or map graphical tool, you can specify search criteria to produce descriptions of archives relevant to your research. To view the documents identified by your database search, you may move across to the imagebase or book a place in our public searchroom.

CityArk is intended for family historians, local historians, students, teachers, businesses, colleagues in local government and casual browsers, wherever they may live or work. Disabled or remote users will particularly benefit from the imagebase as it enables online access to many documents, thereby obviating the need to visit our searchroom. Accessibility has been further improved thanks to a grant from the Heritage Lottery Fund towards Medway Ancestors, our parish registers imagebase.

Branch pages, see screen left, give explanatory information about Medway Archives, instructions for using the query tools, useful links, news updates and guidance for carrying out research either in person at Medway Archives and Local Studies Centre or online.

If the document you require is not in our imagebase, you are welcome to visit our searchroom, by appointment. For our opening times and contact details, please click here.

CityArk does not contain a catalogue of the Local Studies Unit's stock. To consult the Medway Library Service online catalogue, which includes local studies stock, please click here.

We hope you enjoy using CityArk and look forward to your future visit.

Medway Archives and Local Studies Centre
Civic Centre
Strood
Rochester
Kent ME2 4AU
Telephone: 01634 332714
Fax: 01634 297060
E-mail: malsc@medway.gov.uk