Links to history websites
There are nearly 150 links to history websites on this page, so we have divided them into the sections. Within the sections the links are listed alphabetically by place or subject.
National (UK)
Islands (Channel Islands, Isle of Man)
Please note that links to local history and related societies, which used to be on this page under 'voluntary groups' have now been moved to the relevant county page in the Societies section.
General
The Abandoned communities web site includes local history, paintings and poetry.
Archives Then and Now is John West's website, in which he examines the merits and limitations of using the internet as a source of information for researching local history. This is a must-visit site for local historians.
The BBC's history pages — part of one of the biggest websites in Europe, including People's War.
Channel 4 has
a number of websites for its historical programmes.
Digitising
History — A Guide to Creating Digital Resources from Historical
Documents from the History Data Service at Essex University.
Family and Community History is a bi-annual journal which publishes scholarly research in family and community history.
The Heart of Albion Press — including publications about local history in the East Midlands.
History Today magazine is a visual feast of well-written articles and absorbing analysis. Search a wealth of historical information and in-depth analysis with its online archive, featuring over 11,000 articles spanning all periods, regions and themes of history.
History.uk.com, which describes itself as 'the world's largest free-to-use database of British history'.
Gazetteer of markets and fairs in England to 1516.
The Media Archive for Central England publishes an on-line newsletter in the form of a pdf file.
David J Wood's Collection of Oral History. The site is about people who lived in Leicestershire and comprises transcripts written in dialect with other oral history supporting material from the 1890s and 1844. Copies of the recordings and transcripts are deposited with EMOHA (East Midlands Oral History Archive) and the Leicestershire Record Office.
PastPlaces — 'a new resource for finding or listing information about the history of homes, buildings, roads, streets, towns and cities in the UK and across the globe'.
Past Times Project — a free-to-use website specialising in reminiscences.
The Looking at Buildings website has been launched by the Pevsner Architectural Guides as an introduction to understanding and enjoying buildings of all periods and styles. It includes many reference resources including an illustrated architectural glossary. There is also a website which gives information about the Pevsner Guides.
PianoGen, including a page on the History of the PianoForte — compiled by Bill Kibby — this now has illustrated notes on locating and interpreting datemarks in pianos as well as serial number information.
Primary Documents for the history of the UK — from Brigham Young University, Utah, USA.
The Victorian Census Project at Staffordshire University. The website is no longer updated, but all the data sets created have been deposited with The UK Data Archive and have been incorporated into the Vision of Britain website.
The Wartime Memories Project is collecting recollections of World War II.
World War I Cemeteries contains photographs and descriptions of over 900 cemeteries from the Great War, in France and Belgium.
People
Charles Booth Online Archive — a catalogue of materials relating to Booth's survey into life and labour in London 1886—1903.
Blanche Parry was Head of Queen Elizabeth I's Privy Chamber, the Queen's confidant for 56 years and the subject of a forthcoming biography by Ruth E Richardson.
The Shakespeare Birthplace Trust.
Dr John Snow, 1813—1858, a legendary figure in the history of public health, epidemiology and anaesthesiology.
National
British Castle has hundreds of pages about castles in the UK and Ireland.
Census And Related Materials For Students — including downloadable printed abstracts and maps of registrations districts/poor law unions.
British History from the Spartacus Internet Encyclopaedia.
Church Crawler — 'Phil Draper's ongoing celebration of church architecture'.
Curious Fox, a village by village contact site for anyone researching family history, genealogy and local history in the UK and Ireland.
Disused Tube is a site concentrating on the history of the railways — former trackbeds, stations etc — throughout the UK.
The Great Britain Historical Geographical Information System is a unique digital collection of information about Britain's localities as they have changed over time. Information comes from census reports, historical gazetteers, travellers' tales and historic maps. A separate site, funded by the UK National Lottery, has been created to make this resource available on-line to everyone, this site is called A Vision of Britain Through Time.
The King's England Press — publishers of the reprints of Arthur Mee's famous series.
The construction and history of mediaeval timber-framed houses in England and Wales.
Milestones Online — recording Britain's roadside milestone heritage for the future.
My Old House is something like Friends Reunited for houses. It's free to register.
Pigot's and Slater's Topography of the British Isles.
An index to place names mentioned in the titles of topographical articles published in the Victoria County History, compiled by Chris Phillips.
Established in 1999, Victorian Turkish Baths is a long-established and continually growing site .
For more information on the history of the workhouse, see Peter Higginbotham's web site The Workhouse.
England
Astonbrook through Aston Manor — dedicated to preserving the history of Aston in Birmingham.
Bacup Times is a site about the history of this Lancashire town and its Natural History Museum.
Belmont Local History is the website of local historian Roland Sparkes and contains, among many other things, a short film of a London trolleybus in all its silent glory. Roland has a new book, Belmont: A Century Ago, out soon (December 2009), details here.
Made in Birmingham celebrates the city of 1,000 trades, from milk chocolates to mowers.
Bishop's Stortford and Thorley is based around 15 guides to different parts of Bishop Stortford and Thorley in East Hertfordshire. The sites has 150 pages and 750 photographs.
Burnage Heritage covers the township of Burnage five miles from Manchester.
Bury St Edmunds Go Local — a general information site with some local history and places to visit.
Cambridgeshire History aims to provide quick and easy access to the great variety of information about Cambrideshire on the web.
Cheshire Memories — local history from the pages of 8 local newspapers in Cheshire, North-East Wales and North Shropshire.
Clare — a general site about this town in Suffolk, although it does have an account of the town's history.
The history of Cleator Moor in Cumbria.
Codnor & District Local History & Heritage, Derbyshire.
A Cornish Sourcebook is an index to the historical placenames of Cornwall, including a bibliography and transcripts of historical texts.
The Way It Was: A History of the Oxfordshire Cotswolds in Old Photographic Postcards — based mainly on a book of the same title, but including links to Oxfordshire local and family history.
Cotswold Edge — history and photographs in and across the Cotwolds.
Jane Smith has set up a website for the history of Cottingham in Northamptonshire, including lots of old photographs and information from the 1841 and 1901 Census returns for the village.
Coventry and Warwickshire's history on the BBC's website, including exclusive online films, never heard before audio clips and many photographs.
Crowfield, a settlement of 25 houses in Northamptonshire, has a website with quite a few history pages and some useful links.
Discover Derbyshire and the Peak District contains a section on towns and villages, including local history information and heritage trails for the area in question.
The Derbyshire Portway is an ancient prehistoric trackway which runs through Derbyshire and into Nottinghamshire.
The Community Heritage Partnership website is for societies, community groups and individuals with an interest in the heritage of County Durham.
The East Midlands Oral History Archive which 'has been established to create the first large-scale archive of oral history recordings in the East Midlands.
History House, a dip into the history of Essex.
The Essex Place-name Project now has a searchable, on-line, database containing over 36,000 place-names from historic documents of all kinds. It also includes personal names.
Exeter Memories — including a selection of first-hand stories about the city, together with photographs, adverts and trivia for each decade of the last century.
Historic Farnborough shows how the town has changed over the last hundred years or so through a virtual tour of local landmarks, an interactive gallery and a memories and family history section.
The Internet Guide to the Port of Faversham.
This is Findon Village — with over 650 photographs and scenes of this village in Sussex.
The Battle of Fulford website — dedicated to the battle near York which took place before the battles of Stamford Bridge and Hastings in 1066.
The local history pages of Fulford Parish Council's website have an historical account of life in Fulford and surrounding villages in Staffordshire dating back several hundred years.
Greatstone History traces the history of a Kent village which less than 200 years ago was part of the seabed in Romney Bay.
Harold Hill: A People's History celebrates the history of a post-war council estate to the east of Romford in Essex.
Harold Hill is 'a small town on the north-east edge of Greater London, in the London Borough of Havering'.
Local History of Haverhill, Suffolk — click on 'History & Genealogy'.
The history of Hele Bay, a small village just outisde Ilfracombe in north Devon.
Helmdon, a village in Northamptonshire, has a website with a list of history resources.
Herefordshire Through Time — a site for Herefordshire Archaeology.
HighfieldHistory.co.uk is a site full of information about the former hamlet of Highfield, now part of Southampton.
The local history of Holt and Little Witley in Worcestershire — follow the links to local history on the home page.
The website for The Huddersfield Narrow Canal & Huddersfield Canal Society tells the history of the canal and the communities through which it passes.
Hudson History — publishers of the Yorkshire and Lancashire History Quarterlies.
Historic lettering — a website devoted to historic public lettering in Ipswich, Suffolk, including street signs, mileposts and railway bridges.
Kempsey — a village in Worcestershire which takes its name from a Saxon called Kemys.
Knowsley Local History — its people and heritage.
Leeds-uk.com, a guide to the city of Leeds, has a history page which features a timeline for Leeds from the 7th century to the present day.
The Leverstock Green Chronicle traces the history of this Hertfordshire village from prehistory to the present day.
The Litherland Picture Post — once into the site click on the Archives 1 drop down menu and choose Photos 1.
Mike Royden's Local History Pages — a Liverpool site, highlighting local history courses, links, a bulletin board and the results of Mike's research and that of his students.
St James's Cemetery, St James's Gardens behind the Anglican Cathedral, Liverpool.
An on-line history of Liverpool has been set up to celebrate the 800th anniversary of the signing of Liverpool's charter by King John.
Liverpool's local history on the BBC's website.
London Footprints — a website about exploring London with routes and notes for over 100 self-guided walks.
The history of six London boroughs and their people from the 16th century to the present day is the theme of a new website called Ideal Homes: Suburbia in Focus.
The Old Bailey Online, the proceedings of the Central Criminal Court in London from 1674 to 1834, now scanned, digitised and posted on a fully searchable website.
Old Mersey Times, Liverpool and Merseyside's life and times from old newspaper transcriptions, including deaths, inquests, passenger lists, crimes and history.
Our Manchester — a gateway to 8 local history web sites about various aspects of Manchester.
Revolutionary Players is a website covering Midlands history during the Industrial Revolution in the 18th and 19th centuries across Warwickshire, Worcestershire, Herefordshire, Staffordshire and Derbyshire.
CLUTCH (Computer Literacy Through Community History) — a partnership between the Open University and The Living Archive in Milton Keynes to help children and parents in the area carry out history projects based on collecting people's memories.
New Milton: An Online Record — showing changes from the end of the 19th century to the present day in this Hampshire town.
History of Newton le Willows and Earlestown, with a searchable history timeline and lots of local views.
Tomorrow's History is about the history of the North-East of England.
Well I never provides easy access to some 25 history related websites related to the north east of England. An interesting collection of mainly public and academic websites.
Northamptonshire History is designed for the collection and sharing of historical information about Northamptonshire's towns, villages, people and landmarks. Visitors can comment on and contribute to the site.
Life and Death in Elizabethan Norton is based on research by Jos Kingston in 1990 about this Derbyshire parish now in Sheffield. It includes an analysis of parish registers covering the period 1560—1620, together with evidence from local wills and inventories. Jos passed away in February 2007.
Mike Petty, Cambridgeshire Researcher, Lecturer & Historian
Plymouth Data, an encyclopaedia of history of old Plymouth, Devonport and Stonehouse.
The new PortCities UK website explores the history of five ports, London, Bristol, Southampton, Hartlepool and Liverpool, the events and people who shaped them and the communities that developed around them.
The Museum of Reading website is informative and a delight to the eye. It also has a link to a website for Huntley & Palmers, the world-famous biscuit company. Both sites are excellent.
Rishton — a 'real Lancashire town'.
The Ancient Manor of Sedgley — designed to give genealogists and local historians an insight into this Staffordshire village.
Medieval documentation for Salford Hundred is a blog outlining sources for the early history of Lancashire. It includes some scans of deeds from Chetham Library which are now on-line for the first time.
The Story of Seaham in County Durham.
The Shropshire Routes to Roots website contains lots of local history information, digitised sources from Shropshire Archives, teachers' resources and links to sources of further information.
Simister in the Twenties and Thirties was written by Edith Hamilton about her early years in the village in Lancashire.
Skelton-in-Cleveland, a village 16km east of Middlesbrough, with pages about its history from the Ice Ages to the 1950.
Somerton's heritage project in Oxfordshire also has an online forum.
Southampton Local History Forum.
Southampton Online — over 4,000 photographs of Southampton from the Library's collection.
Picture Spennymoor History is an independent, non-commercial website dedicated to sharing pictures and information relating to the history of Spennymoor.
Staple — a collection of articles about this Kentish village.
Thorpe Mandeville — a brief history of this 'Domesday' village in Northamptonshire.
The history of Wakefield, Yorkshire.
The Wallingford History Gateway is a way of reaching some of the many local history resources available on the web for this Oxfordshire town.
The Friends of Warboys Library's website has a History page, Warboys is a village near Huntingdon in Cambridgeshire.
My Whitehaven including local history. There is also a forum.
Wilshamstead: Homestead of Friends — details of a book recently published about this Bedfordshire village.
Wiltshire Community History provides easy access to a wealth of information about some 261 parishes in Wiltshire (but not Swindon), including images, maps, population statistics, local authors, periodicals and thumbnail histories of local schools, churches and parishes.
The Poor Law and the Workhouse — especially in Worksop, Nottinghamshire.
The Wrenthorpe Community Website — 'A free resource for the people of Wrenthorpe, helping the community to have access to community groups and organisations, local events, sporting and leisure activities as well as local trades people and services', plus its history.
Wymeswold Local History — articles about the village in Leicestershire.
A history of Yalding includes a great deal besides the history of this village in Kent.
The Yorkshire Quaker Heritage Project includes two online databases, a location register of Quaker collections and a name index.
Scotland
Angus, Scotland — a local authority's website which has a considerable historical content.
Scottish Archives Network: The Directory — contact information for Scottish records and local history societies.
Hyndland Local History — a neighbourhood in the West End of Glasgow.
In Search of Scotland — a complementary site to the BBC's new series exploring the history of Scotland.
Andrew Bethune has created a new 'wiki' site about Liddesdale in Scotland, where anyone with an interest in the history of the area can contribute.
David Leask's Maddiston Pages are about the history of a small village near Falkirk in central Scotland.
Scotland History is a guide to Scottish history resources.
Wales
Explore Gower — lots of information about the Gower Peninsula and Swansea, including its history and archaeology.
Ireland
Islands
A Manx Note Book — a wide-ranging site about the Isle of Man.
About Jersey's Heritage — see 'Jersey Heritage' in the left hand navigation menu.
