Books
Freckleton by Peter Shakeshaft (Carnegie Publishing, 2001)
Links
The British Association for Local History: Publishes the journal The Local Historian. BALH is the leading national society for local history and local historians.
Federation of Family History Societies: For further information about family history societies in your area or region.
The Ordnance Survey: This site has very helpful material about maps old and new.
The Family and Local History Handbook: A very valuable gazetteer and directory of organisations, explanatory articles, useful addresses and helpful introductory notes is 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 which 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, 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.
Places to visit
Go and walk around your local village, town, suburb or city centre and look at its landscape or townscape. Think about the patterns of its streets, the architectural styles of different buildings or the names of roads. Then ask yourself questions about them. How old do you think those buildings are? Why is the church away from the rest of the village? What does that strange street-name mean? What was it like here before the railway was built?
Go to the local library and look at some histories of your community, or study a 19th-century map, or see if there are any photographs of your street as it was in the early twentieth century. See what differences you can detect.
[The BBC is not responsible for the content of external websites.]
Published: 04-03-2005
