University to bring Bridgewater Estates archive online through AI technology

After securing a competitive grant from the National Archives, the University will use AI-assisted techniques to unlock digital access to one of our most sought-after collections, the Bridgewater Estates Archive.

The Bridgewater Estates, great swathes of land and assets in Salford and West Lancashire, were owned by the Duke of Bridgewater and the Earls of Ellesmere, and in 1923, were sold to a syndicate of Lancashire businessmen. The archive contains correspondence that showcases the history of the places and people who lived and worked in those areas from the 1890s to the 1950s.

This project will bring the full collection online, including material dating from 1923 to the 1950s that has previously never been unveiled to the public.

Funded by £47,526 from the National Archives’ Archives Revealed programme, the project will use state-of-the-art AI assisted technology to lift, transcribe and convert the previously undocumented data, generating a skeleton catalogue before a Project Archivist will then verify, enrich and enhance, to produce a high quality catalogue.

Alexandra Mitchell, Archivist at the University of Salford, said: “The Bridgewater Estates are an area of real local significance and our existing archive of their history is the most requested collection by the public to date.

“We are therefore delighted to have received this funding from the National Archives to not just bring it online to an already captive audience, but to unlock over half of the collection that has previously been inaccessible.”

Dominic Broadhurst, Head of Content and Discovery at the University of Salford, said: “The Bridgewater Estates Archive is a significant record of the changing communities, industries and landscapes of our region.

“By combining archival expertise with AI-assisted approaches, this project will enable more people to discover and use this important, shared heritage.”

The use of AI in the archiving process will be assisted by the project partner, Christian Clausner, a Senior Research Fellow at the University’s GLAM Lab – a specialist team that assists cultural heritage institutions with digital innovation and preservation.

AI-assisted technology processes are of growing interest to the archive sector due to their ability to help tackle backlogs, speed up cataloguing and free up archivists to do quality enhancement on collections.

Christian said: “Working on a project with this level of local impact certainly adds another layer of motivation.

“We’ve delivered large national and international digitisation projects, but recent advances in machine learning and AI now enable us to tackle smaller collections when this previously would have been too costly.”

Alongside the cataloguing, the funding will also help the University’s Archives and Special Collections team deliver a serious of engagement activities about the archive, including artist workshops and student projects.

The project is expected to run from January 2027 to August 2027 with the engagement activity to run from May onwards.

The Archives Revealed programme is funded by The National Lottery Heritage Fund, The Pilgrim Trust, The Wolfson Foundation and The National Archives.