Exterior view of the archive wing at Historic England's site in Swindon, Wiltshire with the car park in the foreground
Exterior view of the archive wing at Historic England's site in Swindon, Wiltshire © Historic England Archive AA041153
Exterior view of the archive wing at Historic England's site in Swindon, Wiltshire © Historic England Archive AA041153

Talks and Tours at the Historic England Archive

Come and find out more about our Archive here at the Engine House in Swindon. Our tours are designed to introduce you to the Archive collections and include: a presentation about the history of the Archive, a chance to see inside our environment-controlled store and a visit to our Library and a look at our Public Search Room.

Talks and Tours 2024

We no longer have any bookable talks and tours for the rest of 2024 but please check back towards the end of the year for a list of new dates.

We are the public archive of England’s historic environment including architectural and archaeological records. We hold over 14 million historic photographs, plans, drawings, reports, records and publications, covering England’s archaeology, architecture, social and local history.

We are located in the Engine House, which was built from the 1840s and was formerly the Great Western Railway’s Chief Mechanical Engineer’s Office and Drawing Office.

Parking and accessibility

The tour will involve some walking, including up and down some staircases, so please take that into consideration when booking. The Archive is also quite cold, so you will need to bring warm clothing with you.

Unfortunately, we do not have parking facilities for the general public, so we would encourage you to get to the site via other means or use the Swindon Outlet car park (however there is a charge for this).

We do have limited access to blue badge parking if needed. If you would like this, please contact Aseye (Engagement and Volunteering Officer) at [email protected]

If you have accessibility requirements and would like to participate on the tour please do contact the above e-mail address in advance so that we can put the necessary measures in place.

Archive Customer Services

  • Address

    The Engine House,
    Fire Fly Avenue,
    Swindon,
    SN2 2EH