Welcome to Staffordshire Past Track

Over 45,000 resources
Map search & historical maps
Explore over 120 themes
Mobile Friendly design
On Staffordshire Past Track you can explore Staffordshire's history through photographs, images, maps and documents, using a range of easy to use search tools.

Past Track is managed by Staffordshire County Council's Archives & Heritage Service.

About us

Past Track has been online since 1999, with the aim of making heritage image collections, spread around the county and owned by multiple organizations and individuals accessible to a wider audience. The online database and main digitisation project were funded by a Lottery grant from the New Opportunities Fund – NOF Digitise programme, which distributed 50m of Lottery funding to a wide range of web based digitisation projects throughout the UK between 2002 and 2004.

Since the completion of the lottery funded project Past Track has been managed by Staffordshire County Council’s Archives & Heritage Service, based at Shugborough. New material has been added continually over the last decade and the database now houses over 45,000 resource records. Each year the web site receives in excess of 1 million page views and we also now have an active Facebook page where site visitors can discuss images and find out what’s new.

In 2015 the web site was updated, delivering a fully responsive interface designed for use on multiple devices and many enhancements to the sites core functionality. Historical mapping is available from 2 time periods covering the 1900s and 1940s and is delivered courtesy of the online mapping facility provided by the National Library of Scotland.

Purchase information

Most of the images on Staffordshire Past Track can be purchased either as photographic prints or digital image files. You can also seek permission to re-use images for commercial purposes, for which a fee is usually charged.

Please contact us (details below) we can advise you on price and payment methods. Please remember to include details of the image(s) you are interested in.

Get involved

Do you own an image collection that you would be prepared to make available for our content selection process?

Are you are a local historian or member of a local historical society who could provide us with additional information or help us with research?

Contact us via Facebook or our contact details below