About the Archives

The Wigan Archives Service has well over 500,000 documents, photographs, maps and historic books in our collections.

The text in bold are links to lots more information:-

• Wigan Borough's Archives
• Local Studies Collection – catalogued on Wigan Council library system. Not all collections are on the database so contact us or consult the card indexes in Local Studies if you can't find something.
• Greater Manchester Lives – online catalogue for archives and local studies in Greater Manchester.

Some other useful links:

• World War One Records
• Civic Histories - Biography of previous mayors. documents relating to the history of the Borough)
• PastFoward - access and download all back copies of the popular magazine
• Maps Index - All maps held at the Archives

Some of our catalogues are also available online:

• Greater Manchester Past Finder - historical records relating to the Greater Manchester area
• The National Archives - access records held by The National Archives and more than 2,500 other archives

Throughout our collections, document reference codes are given. Please quote these codes if you have an enquiry concerning the collections or would like to view any of the records in the Archives Searchroom.

If you have any questions about any of the material found here, would like to view any records, or cannot find what you are looking for, please contact us.