addition (up to 1948) to older colliery records from private sources. Further strong room accommodation became essential and a small room, 15 feet x 16 feet, was added in the Central Library in 1963 and a larger manuscript store, built onto one of the branch libraries was ready for use in 1969. By the 1960s most counties had established record offices, the West Riding being one of the few exceptions. Working through the local committees of the National Register of Archives, the two city libraries of Leeds and Sheffield aimed at making some provision for records other than official county records in the north and south of the Riding, respectively. 1974 - 1986 In 1974, with the creation of a new (county) tier of local government for South Yorkshire, the South Yorkshire County Council established a county record office service. For 12 years, until the abolition of the metropolitan county councils in 1986, the South Yorkshire County Record Office (SYCRO) based at Ellin Street in Sheffield, acquired material relating to the county. This was in addition to the existing archive services at Sheffield and Doncaster. 1986 - date In 1986, following abolition, the SYCRO collections were transferred to the custody of Sheffield City Council. The ‘county’ service was funded and managed under a joint arrangement between all four local authorities – Barnsley, Doncaster, Sheffield and Rotherham. Sheffield Archives continued to acquire county archives from 1986. In 1989 the archives moved into a former car showroom premises on Shoreham Street. The building was converted to house all the documents from the Central Library. The collections The records preserved by Sheffield Archives date from the 12th century to the present day and relate to Sheffield and the rest of South Yorkshire and parts of North Derbyshire. Local Government records Local government records derive mainly from Sheffield City Council and its departments, including Council and Committee minutes, building plans and school records, and from superseded authorities such as Urban and Rural District Councils, Poor Law Unions, civil townships and the former South Yorkshire County Council. Sheffield was created a corporate borough in 1842 and a city in 1897. The old parish, which was coterminous with the new borough until boundary extensions took place in the 20th century, consisted of six townships. There is a good series of rate books comprising continuous runs of collectors' books from 1755 for Sheffield township and from the