About Medway Archives

Medway Archives Office was established in April 1990 to preserve the accumulation of historic Local Government archives inherited by Rochester upon Medway City Council from its predecessor Authorities as named above. Kent County Council, at that time Archives Authority for Kent, entered into an agreement with Rochester upon Medway City Council for the management of the service and accordingly transferred its Medway related collections to Strood. These included parish records, the records of the Dean and Chapter of Rochester, Nonconformist records, business, family and estate collections and various classes of Public Records, thereby forming a fully-rounded and typical Local Government archives service.

With effect from April 1998 Medway Council is an Archives Authority pursuant to the Local Government (Records) Act 1962 and Local Government Act 1992.

Medway Council has subscribed to the Standard of the Royal Commission on Historical Manuscripts.

In keeping with the Standard, Medway Council has adopted a statement of objectives and a collecting policy.

Statement of Objectives

Collecting Policy

"The geographical jurisdiction of the archives service shall, in all respects, conform to the Local Authority area and the Rochester Archdeaconry area (for Parish Records) (Parochial Registers and Records Measure (1978)) the latter area as defined at 1st. September 1993. The collections subject to acquisition policy shall be the historical and modern records of the parent Authority and records of private and local origination or historical value".