Books
English Local History: An Introduction by Kate Tiller (Alan Sutton, 1992). A good book to read at the beginning, to give you a background in local history themes and topics. It is not about how to do local history, but about the historical patterns, processes and issues that are central to the history of English local and regional communities.
Starting Out in Local History by Simon Fowler (Countryside Books, 2001). Aimed at practical research this book is ideal for the newcomer to the subject. It gives a lot of very clear and accessible information about what sources to use and how to locate them.
Oxford Companion to Local and Family History by David Hey (Oxford University Press, 1992).This is a cross between a dictionary and an encyclopaedia, with hundreds of definitions of terms, concepts and subjects, together with extended articles on particularly important themes and issues in local history, and suggestions for further reading.
The Local History Companion by Stephen Friar (Sutton, 2001). Again something of a cross between a dictionary and an encyclopaedia.
Research and writing
Two of the best practical guides to the actual research and writing-up are:
Researching and Writing History: A Practical Guide for Local Historians by David Dymond (British Association for Local History, 1999)
How to Write and Publish Local History by Bob Trubshaw (Heart of Albion Press, 1999)
The Local Studies Library: A Handbook for Local Historians by Diana Winterbotham and Alan Crosby (British Association for Local History, 1998). If you are not sure where your local record office or archive centre is, the local studies library should be able to tell you where it is, or you can check on http://www.hmc.gov.uk/archon (click on 'browse' for a full list of archive repositories in the British Isles).
Latin for Local and Family Historians by Denis Stuart (Phillimore, 1995). This is the best introduction to Latin. The book deals with the structure, grammar and vocabulary of the language as used in historical sources.
The Local Historian, Local History Magazine. Browsing through local history journals (available in larger libraries or by subscription) will give a very good idea of the range of work local historians are doing in different parts of the British Isles.
Links
The Family and Local History Handbook: A very valuable gazetteer and directory of organisations, explanatory articles, useful addresses and helpful introductory notes is the published each year by The Genealogical Services Directory. It includes a county-by-county directory of organisations and societies; lists record offices and archive repositories; and has directories of museums, libraries and heritage centres.
The Historical Association: The main national organisation for anybody interested in history in general.
The Workers' Educational Association: One of the organisations that holds courses on local history in different towns and villages across Britain.
The British Library: One of the organisations which holds courses on local history in different towns and villages across Britain. It is invaluable because the BL catalogue is now online. As the national library it has just about every book which has been published - excellent for checking details of books and for seeing if there are books on your area.
The British Newspaper Library: This is situated at Colindale,in North London, and holds by far the largest collections of newspapers in Britain, including a huge number of local titles. It is a branch of the British Library. The site is part of The British Library site. Select 'Collections' then 'Newspapers' on the home page.
The Library of the Society of Genealogists: Based in London and holds extensive collections which may be of interest to local historians (non-members are charged for use).
The Public Record Offices: In Kew, London, is the location of the national archives of the United Kingdom, a very large proportion of which is also important for local history research. The PRO, as it is always known, is increasingly putting its catalgoues and other finding aids online.
The National Library of Wales: Based at Aberystwyth and has most books published on Welsh local history and places in Wales.
The National Archives of Scotland: In Edinburgh, is the equivalent to the Public Record Office but holds a large amount of local archive material as well. In other words, it includes material which would in England and Wales be more likely to be found in a county record office.
National Library of Scotland: Also in Edinburgh. A very useful source.
The Local Historian: A useful website from the publisher of The Local Historian magazine.
Local History Magazine: A useful website from the publisher of Local History Magazine.
[The BBC is not responsible for the content of external websites.]
Published: 03-03-2005
