Wear County Public Records

Tyne and Wear County, England Public Records and Archives
Tyne and Wear County Archives contains the public records for the cities and metropolitan districts of Newcastle, Gateshead, Sunderland, North and South Tyneside.Hours of Operation:
Tuesday to Friday: 10am – 4pm
Closed at weekends and Mondays and bank holidays
No admission fees.
It is advised to book in advance for the use of microfilm readers. Bookings can be made by phone, letter, email, or while visiting. If you wish to make a booking less than 5 days in advance, please make it through telephone rather than email or letter.The archives contain:
• local authority records such as school records, building plans, and hospital records
• records of magistrates and other court related documents
• business records of all kinds, but particularly those pertaining to local industries such as engineering and coal mining, and shipbuilding, including photographs, materials and plans used
• chapel and church records including registers of burials, marriages and babtisms
• records of local organizations of all sizes
• private papers of both families and individual, and not exclusively the rich or important.
Film and video collections pertaining to the North East are available through the North East Film Archive (NEFA). Selections of these films are viewable in the BFI Mediatheque adjacent to the archives search room. If you are unsure of what you are looking for or require a specialist enquiry, then please email for information.

Tyne and Wear County is located at the mouths of the Tyne and Wear Rivers, hence its name sake. To the East is the North Sea, and the borders are shared with County Druham to the South and Northumberland to the North.

Tyne and Wear County has been a metropolitan and ceremonial county since 1974, when the Local Government Act of 1972 came into effect. It is divided into 5 metropolitan boroughs – Gateshead, Newcastle upon Tyne, North and South Tyneside, and Sunderland.

The population of 1,104,100 people consists of 96.8% White and 1.8% South Asian. Tynes and Wear County covers 538 km2 of land and contains 2,044 people per km2.