Durham County Council has appointed Kier to create a new £14m History Centre & Archives. The task of Kier is to refurbish the 19th century Grade II listed Mount Oswald Manor House, to create a new facility for local archives, heritage and registration services.
Kier will start on site in late spring and is due to complete in the autumn of 2022. Durham Register Office will relocate to the site. The Durham History Centre will house more than five miles of archives that are currently stored at County Hall.
The refurbishment will allow storage for the historic environment record, historic registration records, local studies collections and the Durham Light Infantry collection.
The project has been designed by Ryder Architecture which has worked with Kier on a number of schemes in the Durham area; including New College Durham’s STEM building and Durham County Council headquarters.