News Archive
Interactive postcards are a new museum attraction
The Friends of the Long Shop Museum in Leiston, Suffolk, have been given a £4,500 grant from the Museums, Libraries and Archives Council's 'Informal Adult Learning Challenge Fund'
'All aboard' for the latest HLF awards
The Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF) has awarded Glenfinnan Station Museum in Scotland a grant of £195,000 to help restore the main buildings, so that many artefacts and items of station equipment and memorabilia presently in store can be displayed to the public for the first time.
A once in a lifetime event
On the evening of Saturday 13 March 2010, Hadrian's Wall will be illuminated by around 500 individual beacons of light over the course of sixty minutes. There will be individual beacons, placed at 250 metre intervals, along the 84 mile route of Hadrian's Wall.
Civic societies and amenity groups prepare for a new future
A number of heritage organisations and volunteers have responded quickly to the demise of the Civic Trust earlier this year.
Roller coaster success for Margate campaign
Supporters of the six-year campaign to save the Dreamland amusement park in Margate are over the moon at the Government's decision to give £3.7m towards the cost of restoring Dreamland to its former glory.
Twenty five years on
The first issue of Local History Magazine was published in July 1984. We thought it might be interesting to look back at what was making the news at the time and some of the other matters making our pages. The big news story was 'Government Cuts hit Local History'.
A new digitised 18th century map of greater London
William Faden's 1788 map of London and its Environs, which stretches from Tring in the north-west to Tunbridge and Yalding in the south-east, has been recreated digitally and printed onto six separate sheets by Andrew Macnair
News in brief
Briefer news items, including Batley's refurbished museum, a personal take on wartime London and a new national research project on education using school log books.
Webwatch
Websites we have found recently (23 October 2009), including those of the Open University's International Centre for Comparative Criminological Research and the Great Britain Historical GIS (Geographical Information System) Project.
Iron Age treasure goes on show
You can now visit Harborough Museum in Leicestershire and see the Hallaton Treasure, described by a spokesman for the British Museum as a find ‘of national importance’.
Mary Rose appeal for 'crew'
Previously unseen artefacts recovered from Henry VIII’s flagship have been put on show by the Mary Rose Trust as part of a public appeal to help fund an ambitious new £35 million museum project.
Oldham Women Remembered
'Oldham Women' is an exhibition at Gallery Oldham which runs until 10 January 2010 and is a chance to learn more about the many achievements of women from the town.
First World War London from the sky
Aerial survey specialist Bluesky have released what is thought to be one of the very first aerial surveys of London.
A new museum planned for Southampton
Southampton City Council is proposing to develop a new £5.5m museum in the city which will tell the city’s story from pre-history to the present day.
Memories get a second hearing after twenty years
Back in 1989 when Graham Majin was working as a newsreader for Invicta Radio in Canterbury, he had the idea of interviewing people about their World War Two memories and making a documentary, but the radio station wasn't interested…
Local history echoes from Japan
Professor Kaoru Ugawa spoke at an international symposium on local history, held in July, about 'Japanese Local History After the Second World War'.
Planning and local heritage: New guidelines that all local historians should know about
The Government has issued proposed new guidelines for councils and developers about how they can use 'historic assets… for imaginative new developments across the country'. The consultation period ends on 30 October 2009.
A new home for Glamorgan Record Office
Next year will see the opening of a brand new Glamorgan Record Office in Cardiff which will include space for conferences, workshops, lectures, school groups as well as a public searchroom and user facilities.
News in brief
Smaller news items, including London's oldest timber structure, a trackway nearly 6,000 years, a new online databse about Scotland's built heritage and a virtual museum in Bournemouth.
Out and About
Exhibitions, visits and other activities including the first Cambridge History Fair.
Welsh tenacity is rewarded by HLS
It is five years since the Newbridge Institute & Memorial Hall in Gwent, Wales, lost in the UK final of BBC-TV's Restoration programme but they are a tenacious bunch and now all their hard work to date has been rewarded in the form of a Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF) grant.
National Archives savings plan
The National Archives has announced a series of proposed changes to the way it works and to the services and facilities which it provides to users.
The passing of a local history giant
An appreciation of Lionel Munby, one of local history's giants of the 20th century
Cambridge honours a local history hero
The University of Cambridge has just awarded Allan Brigham an honorary MA for his contribution to the city's local history and for his work as a Blue Badge tourist guide.
The international language of local history: Elephants and ducks, feet instead of roots
Eighteen local and regional historians from around the world gathered in London in July 2009 for what was described as 'the first symposium designed to look at the different ways in which local and regional history is practised in different regions of the world'.
A new local history source that wows
For the first time ever, local historians and other users, regardless of their location, are able to explore over two million newspaper pages from forty-nine national and regional UK titles, all at the click of a button.
Turning the pages
Reviews of recent local history books.
Bringing the world to Birmingham in 1886: An exhibition about an exhibition
A new exhibition in Birmingham's Centenary Square will celebrate one of the most important public demonstrations of Birmingham’s commercial and industrial prowess in the 19th century.
Archives then and now: Local history in the digital age
John West, local historian, author of Village Records and Town Records among other titles, and a past contributor to Local History Magazine, has created a wonderful website which examines the merits and limitations of using the internet as a source of information for researching local history.
News in brief
Smaller news items, including the future of Heritage Open Days and the first international symposium for local historians.
What kind of future for our local waterways heritage?
British Waterways, which currently manages some 2,200 miles of canals and rivers in England and Wales, has launched a little publicised public consultation exercise which should be of interest to local historians.
King's Cross Voices
An exhibition which tells the stories of those who have lived and worked in King’s Cross, both past and present, can be seen at Camden Local Studies and Archives Centre from 15 June until 26 September 2009.
Webwatch
Websites we have found recently (10 June 2009), including the Bristol Radical History Group and a community heritage project in Newcastle.
Future Archives Policy: An opportunity not to be missed
A new consultation concerning archive services in England and Wales is underway and we urge local historians to take part.
News in brief
Smaller news items, including the free online magazine of the Society of Archivists and the founding of the Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire Labour History Society.
Night at the Museum — for real!
You can experience a night in a museum for real this coming weekend, 15–17 May, when over 100 museums, plus a few archives and libraries, are holding evening and late-night events across the country.
Local archives warm to self-assessment
The National Archives has recently published the 2008 results of the third local archives voluntary self-assessment exercise in three years, covering England and Wales.
Extended exhibition run for Leeds success
Such has been the success of 'A Lasting Moment: Leeds 1954' by Marc Riboud at Leeds City Museum that it will now run until 28 June 2009.
A history of Coventry cinemas
A book has been published about the history of Coventry's cinemas, of which there were 23 in 1940.
Webwatch
Websites we have found recently (20 April 2009), including mysterious photographs in Devon, Cumbrian war memorials and Picture Sheffield.
News in brief
Smaller news items, including a centenary history of the WEA in Leicester.
Turning the pages
Reviews of recent local history books and periodicals.
Smaller news items
Including the Young Historians' Award for Local History and an appeal from Fortified England.
Hadrian's Wall to come alive
Hadrian’s Wall will take centre stage for a major series of dramatic re-enactment events during the week after the Spring Bank Holiday (26–31 May 2009).
Professor Alan Everitt: An appreciation
Trevor James remembers an exceptional urban historian, scholar and teacher.
The online railway
A new website dedicated to the Rainhill Trials of 1829 which marked the birth of railways in Britain.
Images of a lost landscape
Roger Hampson's paintings of post-war Wigan are the subject of a new exhibition in Oldham.
Webwatch
Sites we have found recently (10 April 2009) including walking in England and milestones.
Bolton's Mass Observation success
Bolton Museum has a permanent display of photographs of Bolton taken by Stephen Spender in the 1930s.
Mission impossible? To find a good online history forum
We take a look at a number of local history online forums and find much less than we had hoped for.
In the midst of gloom comes hope
English Heritage is asking every local authority in England to fill in a questionnaire for each of their Conservation Areas as part of the first nation-wide census of the condition of this important element of our local heritage.
A hiccup and a vision for local history in Kent
Not for the first time in recent years, Kent History Federation had to announce the possibility of its imminent demise in order to ensure that it survived.
Council to close its third museum in eleven years
Nottingham City Council is about to announce its decision to close the popular Nottingham Industrial Museum, which is located in Wollaton Park.
Census money machine rolls out early
Part of the 1911 Census are made available earlier than usual, but you have to pay.
Back to the future Black Country style
Visit the Black Country Living Museum and get the chance to ride on a trolleybus.
Webwatch
Just a couple of sites we have found recently (16 February 2009), one from the National Library of Scotland about the Great Reform Act of 1832 and one about abandoned communities.
Are local history society web rankings a three card trick or lucky dip?
Ten more local history society websites which feature in Google's rankings.
Shared passions: remembering Bill Ainsworth
Our appreciation of an energetic and committed local historian and a lovely man.
Pulling in the visitors at Hebden Bridge using 'chicks' and other ploys
Hebden Bridge Local History Society is sixty this year, but still full of 'get up and go'.
Child refugees get to tell their story
A University of Southampton project to preserve the memories of children who arrived in Southampton over seventy years ago fleeing the Spanish Civil War has been awarded a £47,000 grant by the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF).
Small grant opportunities go begging
Grassroots Grants is an £80m three year programme aimed at local community groups, including those involved in local history and heritage related activities, which is funded by the Office of the Third Sector and overseen by the Community Development Foundation.
'Virtual seminars' and local history
The Interwar Rural History Research Group (IRHRG) has recently posted its first 'virtual seminar' and has plans for more.
Barton's new Wilderspin National School Museum attracts national acclaim
In the exhibition gallery at the newly opened Wilderspin National School Museum in Barton-upon-Humber, a 19th century schoolmaster sits in a very comfortable armchair, his head thrown back and fast asleep…
Richard III's last resting place?
What may be Richard III's coffin has been donated to the Battle of Bosworth Heritage Centre.