A best-selling book about a 17th century scandal and a Cold War map of the West Midlands are among the treasures being boxed up and transferred to Wolverhampton’s Molineux Hotel over the coming weeks.

The city’s Archives and Local Studies Service has been preparing for a move from its old base in Snow Hill to state-of-the-art premises at the renovated hotel building. The 3,800 metres of shelving contains material gathered over 30 years to tell the story of Wolverhampton’s history.

City archivist David Bishop said: “The largest collection relates to Wolverhampton City Council and its predecessors.

“But we also hold a lot of records relating to local industry including an account book for an early steam-powered pumping engine set up in Wolverhampton in the early 18th century.

“It is significant for including the signature of Thomas Newcomen, the man who first developed such an engine and who could be said to be the father of the Industrial Revolution.”

One of its oldest history books dates from the early 1600s and tells the story of the so-called Boy of Bilston, a young man who claimed to be possessed by the devil.

He only confessed to being a fraud when a woman said to have bewitched him was put under sentence of death but it caused a national scandal.

Mr Bishop said: “More recently, our collections include a map of the area in Russian. 

“It dates from the 1960s when, at the height of the Cold War, the West Midlands would have been a prime target for a Soviet nuclear strike.”