A newspaper archive dating back to Victorian times has been given to a local council by a regional daily.

The Hartlepool Mail has transferred its 30,000-strong collection of pictures and negatives to Hartlepool Council’s Museum Service.

The transfer comes after the Mail moved to new offices, on Scarborough Street, Hartlepool, earlier this year.

Much of the archive dates from the 1950s to the 1990s, but it also features material from as far back as 1887.

Mail image editor Frank Reid, left, and Councillor Stephen Akers-Belcher examine the archive

Editorial director Joy Yates said: “The collection is not only a unique part of the Mail’s long and proud history, but a unique record of the Hartlepool area too.

“We were determined to secure the archive’s future and keep it in Hartlepool. We were therefore delighted to present it to the Museum Service for safe-keeping.”

The donation includes 34 filing cabinets full of Mail prints, 28 boxes of 1950s glass plate negatives and 68 drawers of black and white negatives.

It also includes 10 ledgers documenting advertising records for the Mail from 1887 to the mid-1940s – which the Mail describes as “rare survivors of early North East newspaper history”.

Joy added: “The images chart decades of important events and daily life in Hartlepool and, thanks to the support of the council, they will be preserved for posterity.”

Museum staff will now conserve, research and electronically copy the collection in a project which is expected to take several years.

Councillor Stephen Akers-Belcher, vice-chair of the council’s regeneration services policy committee, said: “The Hartlepool Mail photographic collection is one of the most important sources for the recent history of the borough that the council’s Museums Service could ever hope to acquire.

“For many decades the Hartlepool Mail has been at the forefront of recording Hartlepool’s news, milestones and achievements, both large and small.

“In donating this impressive collection, the Mail has done a very great service to the people of Hartlepool, ensuring that this fascinating record will remain in the town.

“The council will in turn play its part, preserving the archive to museum standards and making the items accessible electronically for future generations of Hartlepool people to enjoy.”