Modern Records Centre, University of Warwick Library

The Modern Records Centre holds nationally important archives for the study of social, economic and political history, mainly from the mid 19th century onwards. These archives have been designated as an Outstanding Collection by the Museums, Libraries and Archives Council.

The Centre was founded in October 1973 with the principal objectives of locating and preserving primary sources for modern British social, political and economic history, with special concentration on the national history of industrial relations, industrial politics and labour history.

The main strengths of our archive holdings lie in the following:
Records of trade unions and related organisations;
Records of trade associations, employers’ organisations and related bodies;
Motor and related industry records (especially through formal agreement with Rover/British Motor Industry Heritage Trust);
Records relating to cycling (the National Cycle Archive);
Records of radical British political movements;
Records of pressure groups and other organisations concerned with social and penal reform, human rights, disarmament, education and health;
Papers of individuals containing significant information on any of these fields.

The organisations whose archives are held here include the Trades Union Congress, the Confederation of British Industry and its predecessors and the archives of the Transport & General Workers Union. The papers of individuals include those of Richard Crossman, the Labour cabinet minister and Coventry Member of Parliament, and Sir Victor Gollancz, the left-wing publisher and campaigner.

We also hold the Gurharpal Singh Archive, which is a substantial source for the history of the Communist movement in the Punjab from the 1920s to the 1970s, and the archive of the Minority Arts Advisory Service, dating from the 1970s to the 1990s. These collections are held on behalf of the University of Warwick’s Centre for Research in Ethnic Relations.

The entire collection of the Modern Records Centre is a Designated Collection of national importance.