The Churchill Archives Centre has exposed 30 000 revealing pages about the Thatcher government to pubic scrutiny as well as publishing them online.

Since the Margaret Thatcher Archive Trust transferred and sponsored the Churchill Archives Centre to catalogue and maintain the papers, Trustees have now enthusiastically decided to make the 1980 portion of the documents accessible for the public.

Analysts are already speculating as to what these newly-released papers reveal about Thatcher’s early years in office, citing the large volume of morale-boosting material that the Tory prime minister retained.

Despite her ­­­Iron Lady image, the private papers suggest that she took criticism regarding the deep recession, mass unemployment and soaring inflation, closer to heart than she may have wanted to let on.

The papers reveal how Thatcher avoided “walkabouts” for fear of a hostile public reception and that in spite of her hard-working reputation, several parliamentary whips were advising her that she needed a holiday.

The archive collection is rich with personal notes from MPs, businessmen and even her husband. Many of the documents are marked: ‘Prime Minister, you wanted to keep this’, including letters from the field of commerce praising Thatcher’s ‘great courage and superlative leadership.’

Particular interest has also focused on Baroness Thatcher’s fraught, handwritten amendments to the plans that created her famous “The lady’s not for turning” speech.

Also amongst the 30 000 pages is a private letter from Mrs Thatcher’s press secretary admitting that the PM agreed that the Conservatives had wasted their first year in government ‘but for the sake of the Government and confidence in it [she] does not say so.’

However, Chris Collins, historian of the Thatcher Archive maintains that he perceives this as the result of ‘oppressive influences from outside rather than inward cracking. She is not somebody who doubts herself or thinks the policy is completely wrong.’

Collins also warns against the inevitable comparisons of 1980 – which he deems a ‘uniquely grim’ year – and the current efforts of Cameron’s ministry to improve the state of the British economy.

Yet the language of ‘Big Society’ echoes through Thatcher’s correspondence: a passage from her 1980 conference speech urges that: ‘It isn’t the state that creates a healthy society. When the state grows too powerful people feel that they count for less and less.’

These public insights into the Thatcher administration represent only a portion of the historical treasure trove, which the Churchill Archives Centre is in possession of. The Thatcher collection contains over one million documents, which require roughly 300 metres of shelving.

The internal letters and notes complement official government files already maintained by the Public Record Office.