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Currently Milton Keynes City Council (MKCC) has its public archives at the nearest legal Place of Deposit registered with The National Archives at the Buckinghamshire Archives in Aylesbury. Find out more about the current archives partners and collections on the New City Archive website. 

In 2024 Buckinghamshire Archives announced that it was closing its current base at Aylesbury in November 2025 and moving to a new venue in High Wycombe opening in Summer 2026.  MKCC and the Buckinghamshire Council are therefore working together to plan the Archive Service delivery for Milton Keynes for the next 5 years with the following priorities:

1. Ensure access to Milton Keynes collections are maintained during the Closure period through virtual sessions and online means;
   1. Continue the partnership with Milton Keynes Museum on its City Museum major development, ensuring archive material is offered and integrated into its Ancient and New City Galleries, so the Story of Milton Keynes is told and accessed from a single location.
2. Develop and implement a plan for Digitising and making publicly accessible online much more of the Milton Keynes archive collections held by Buckinghamshire Archives, but also by MK City Discovery Centre and Living Archive MK, starting with collections which focus on the unique Story of Milton Keynes as a New City.

Of course, the aspiration for a New City Archive located in the City Centre continues to be a long-term objective, and delivering these above priorities will also help inform a plan for this to happen from 2030 - 35.  The Archive Partners above and Milton Keynes Museum all support a single City Archive which will provide a unique global resource both for our residents and for city planners, urban designers, foreign delegations and researchers from across the world.

MKCC and its partners will continue to run a series of resident, community and stakeholder engagement events and activities to introduce people to our amazing collections. It will research, develop and test new audience engagement through the archives, and to explore with them what this New City Archive should collect now, and how an archive about building Milton Keynes can capture the buildings and communities of the past, present and future.

These events will continue to be promoted on our New City Archive webpages, so checking back here regularly and our social media channels.