Archives Hub Contributors
The National Meteorological Archive is the UK’s official archive for meteorological records. It is one of the many services provided by the Met Office. The Archive is home to one of the most comprehensive collections on meteorology anywhere in the world and provides a major resource for scientific and historical research. Our aim is to support the Met Office and the wider meteorological community by providing a targeted, proactive and flexible information service; our primary role is to preserve the public memory of the weather and to conserve the records in our care.
At a meeting of the Meteorological Committee on 29 April 1914, the Met Office first officially accepted responsibility for custodianship of appropriate public weather records. Between the end of the First World War and the 1950s the Met Office experienced considerable expansion. The various records it produced were stored in a haphazard manner at various locations in London, Dunstable and Harrow, with different divisions within the Office having responsibility for different records. However, in 1955 the then Director General, Sir Graham Sutton, stated that Bracknell, with a population of no more than 25,000 people, would be an ideal location for the new centralised headquarters, and it was hoped that the Archive would also be brought under centralised control in one fixed location thereby making it easier for our customers. The 1958 Public Record Act made the Lord Chancellor responsible for the selection and preservation of important records and in a letter dated 3 May 1962 he stated his willingness for the Met Office at Bracknell to be designated as the official national Place of Deposit for meteorological records. In 1989, the decision was taken to relocate the Archive to a new site at the Stirling Centre in Bracknell and accordingly the National Meteorological Archive moved to its new home in October 1991. Further, with the historic relocation of the Met Office to Exeter in 2003, the National Meteorological Archive followed some 18 months later and opened to the public at Great Moor House in March 2005. Meteorological records for Scotland are held in Edinburgh and meteorological records for Northern Ireland are held in the Public Records Office in Belfast.
Our expansive and diverse collections comprise an outstanding historical, scientific and cultural resource of international scope. It is hoped that the Hub description will enable customers to acquire an overview of the main record types in our collection and help customers to identify which of these records types will best suit their particular needs.
Address: National Meteorological Archive, Great Moor House, Bittern Road, Sowton, Exeter, EX2 7NL. England
Records for Scotland are held at: Met Office, Saughton House, Broomhouse Drive, Edinburgh, EH11 3XQ.
Records for Northern Ireland are held at: Public Record Office, Northern Ireland.
Email: metlib@metoffice.gov.uk Web: http://www.metoffice.gov.uk/learning/library/archive
The Archives Hub is a Mimas service, funded by JISC and based at The University of Manchester. Systems development work is undertaken at the University of Liverpool. Notices and disclaimers.