Introduction

This chapter covers the definition of local history and reasons why you might want to study it, and gives an outline of the different types of historical evidence.

LOOKING AT WHAT LOCAL HISTORY IS

Local history is about the people, places, institutions and communities in your area; it is a way of building up a picture of what your town or city looked like in the past, who lived there and what they did. Sometimes local events will have national importance, such as civil war battles; sometimes they might seem unimportant to someone on the other side of the country, but had a big impact in your local area (such as fires or floods).

Local history is all about looking at the facts, analysing what those facts tell us, and comparing it with what was happening nationally at the time. You may find yourself switching between different sources so you can build up the picture of the past – you’re unlikely to find all the information you want in one place. So many of the records mentioned in Chapter 3, for example, would shed light on buildings and institutions as well as people, and the records mentioned in Chapter 4 would shed light on people as well as the places they lived, worked, spent leisure time and prayed.

But do bear in mind it’s not always possible to find out the whole story about what happened, because the source material might be limited or even missing.

LOOKING AT REASONS TO STUDY LOCAL HISTORY

History is becoming more and more popular. People are fascinated with their own family past and enjoy finding out more about their ancestors; and that can often shift into an interest in wanting to know more about where they come from as well as who! You might have moved into an old house and want to know who lived there before you. You might have seen an article about your street or village and want to know more about what happened there in the past. You might have seen an article in the local newspaper about a local famous person and want to know more about them. Or you might be interested in a theme, such as an industry, domestic service, public health, schools, the workhouse or local pubs.

You might want to study local history just for your own interest – but it’s worth bearing in mind that local magazines and newspapers might be interested in your findings. Whether it’s the parish magazine, the local glossy magazine or even the Saturday supplement of your local paper, it’s worth sharing what you find because other people might be asking the same questions – and might have answers you haven’t found yet.

You don’t have to be a trained historian to be interested in and research local history; all you need is an interest, an enquiring mind, an ability to keep your notes in an order where you can retrieve information quickly, and perseverance to follow a trail. Though if you want to take a formal course in local history, you could try your local university. Ask at your local library – they will have details of evening classes and possibly courses run by the Workers’ Educational Association (WEA). Some libraries and associations (such as the Oral History Society) run courses on particular topics, such as using a census, tracing a house’s history and how to record and structure interviews.

LOOKING AT DIFFERENT TYPES OF HISTORICAL EVIDENCE

Historical evidence falls into several categories:

- Primary

- Secondary

- Oral

- Physical

Below is a quick guide to what you can expect to find in each category; they are covered in more detail further on in the book. It’s also worth noting that one source might be useful for different things – for example, title deeds can tell you about a building and about its occupants, as can street directories and maps (particularly those with schedules such as the tithe awards).

Defining primary evidence

Primary evidence tends to be written, and are original manuscripts (though you may need to use microfilmed or microfiche versions for heavily used sources, which protects the original). These include:

- Records (legal documents such as title deeds and wills; parish registers; institution records such as school log books or hospital or prison registers; minutes and court books; industrial records, such as railway timetables and accident books)

- Handbills (advertisements, printed on a page or in a leaflet, which could publicise an event or a film, cinema, or exhibition)

- Diaries

- Letters

- Local collections, for example, theatre programmes or football club programmes.

Looking at availability

Scotland’s administrative and legal systems aren’t the same as those in England and Wales. Since the Middle Ages, English counties have had the same administrative systems; since the time of Henry VIII, Wales has used the same administrative systems as England.

Some counties have more records available than others; the southern English counties tend to have the best-preserved records, whereas the north and west are patchier. It also depends on how often records have been moved about, or if there has been any damage by fire or flood or enemy action during wartime.

Looking at the Domesday Book

The Domesday Book is another good starting point for background of the area you are researching. William the Conqueror ordered a very= detailed survey of landowners’ assets (including the Crown) and their liability to pay tax. It is known as the Domesday Book because it could not be appealed against. It was completed in 1086 and it is the first written record of many towns and villages. It lists the holders of lands within the county, then goes through each ‘hundred’ (the administrative district within the county) and lists details such as churches, fields, and houses.

For example, the entry for Norwich even states which houses are ruined and which are empty. Sometimes the owners and their occupations are listed, which can help you build up a picture of the community: for example, in Norwich Hundred, there are references to Hildebrand the lorimer (spurmaker), Gerard the watchman and Rabel the artificer among many others. ‘Little Domesday’ covers Norfolk, Suffolk and Essex; ‘Great Domesday’ deals with the rest of England (excluding London, Northumberland, Cumberland, Durham, Northern Westmoreland and Winchester).

Defining secondary evidence

Secondary sources are very broad and often a good place to start when you are researching local history, because someone may already have written about the subject you want to know more about – there’s no point in reinventing the wheel! However, perspectives and the way history is interpreted both change over the years, and new evidence can come to light, so you may be able to research a story better than a previous author. The best place to start is in the local studies section of your library. If your local library doesn’t have the information you want, the librarians will be able to tell you if it’s available in a different branch, the local record office or in a specialist archive.

Secondary sources include books, articles (contemporary and retrospective), biographies, and published letters. They may be based on original documents but they may contain errors or the author’s personal bias, so it is often worth going back to the primary sources as well. Be particularly careful about transcriptions because it is very easy to misinterpret handwriting or abbreviations. Published works often have references to the original documents or other secondary sources which you might find helpful.

In 1586, William Camden produced Britannia, which is a description of every county. It was written in Latin, but was translated and enlarged in later years; Edmund Gibson produced a new edition in 1695, and Richard Gough produced two more editions in 1789 and 1806.

Looking at county histories

County histories have been written by gentlemen scholars since around the 1660s, although one of the earliest extant county histories is William Lambarde’s Kent (1576). In Norfolk, for example, there are eleven volumes of Blomefield’s history and topography of the county. Other counties have standard histories, too, and the local studies department in your local library should have copies available or be able to tell you where to find them. It is also possible to buy copies in second-hand and antiquarian bookshops, though these can be prohibitively expensive; the last time I found a copy of Blomefield, the set was priced at over £3,000! You may be able to find some rare texts available as digitised versions on CD-Rom, so it is worth checking suppliers of archive CD material.

County histories tend to include:

- A general description of the county, its geology (rivers, hills, gorges, forests, natural features), its natural history (flora and fauna), and administration system.

- Lists of markets and fairs (usually in calendar order within each town).

- ‘Political history’ from Anglo-Saxon times to the present (this is where you need to be careful; the author’s political sympathy might colour his or her view).

- Descriptions of each parish, arranged by ‘hundred’ (i.e. the county subdivisions). These include information about the manors within the parish, who owned them (often going back to the time of William the Conqueror), and churches and their monuments (some of which might no longer exist, so it is useful to know what was there), as well as important buildings.

County histories may also give information about events such as fires, floods, major trials and executions.

Looking at the Victoria County History

There is also the ‘Victoria History of the Counties of England’ (VCH for short), which covers most counties. The series started in 1899 and was dedicated to Queen Victoria. The volumes are usually found in the ‘outsize volume’ section and have a red cover. They have general sections which include prehistory, economic history and the history of the churches and chapels. They also have topographical sections which deal with the cities, towns and villages within the county, including buildings such as almshouses, manor houses and other important buildings. The VCH usually includes the text of the Domesday Book, as well as accounts of schools, religious houses and charities, and is a good starting point if you are looking at the history of a particular village.

Looking at travellers’ tales

A description of the area can also be found in the notebooks of people who travelled around the country – for example, the Journey of Celia Fiennes 1682–1706 and Defoe’s A Tour through the Whole Island of Great Britain. Texts of both these books are available online at www.visionofbritain.org.uk – a searchable site which includes the complete texts of books describing journeys around Britain written between the 12th and 19th centuries. If you type in ‘Norwich’, for example, there are references to Defoe and Fiennes as above, as well as letters from William Cobbett and Charles Wesley and a tour by Arthur Young.

Looking at works of antiquarians

Many antiquarian societies were founded in the late 1800s; most of them produced journals which contain useful source material. Some antiquarians may also have compiled indexes of material (e.g. of local newspapers) which will save you time in researching.

Some antiquarians also made scrapbooks, collecting information on particular subjects. These are absolute goldmines and can contain anything from contemporary newspaper cuttings through to photographs, postcards, original documents, autographs and the like. You may come across them at antiques and collector’s fairs, but you are more likely to find them in your local studies library.

Looking at Local Record Societies

Local Record Societies exist in most counties, and they tend to produce two sorts of material:

- Edited transcripts – these are transcripts of original documents. Some may be parallel translations of Latin or medieval records (i.e. showing the original and a modern English version), and most have an introductory chapter explaining more about the documents.

- Guide volumes – these are lists of types of documents (such as maps) or sources for subjects (such as enclosure).

Defining oral evidence

The Oral History Society defines oral history as the recording of people’s memories. They see it as filling in the gaps and include everyone’s life stories (‘everyone’ means people whose views weren’t normally included: the poor, women, people who were disabled, and those whose views were ignored because of their race or religion). Oral history can be recorded on audio or video tape; it includes recollections of national events as well as everyday events. Oral history is covered in more depth in Chapter 10.

Defining physical evidence

Physical history takes several forms:

- The place itself – particularly in the case of buildings or street history

- Maps (see Chapter 7 for more details)

- Photographs, postcards and drawings – it’s particularly interesting to compare drawings of buildings or street scenes from the early 20th century and the actual place as it is now

- Aerial photography – different coloured soils can identify features, such as a filled-in ditch which appears darker as the soil is wetter; a former settlement, which appears as a dark patch; or a Roman road, which might appear as a wide pale stripe. Grass tends to look darker on the line of ditches and pale or yellow on the remains of buried walls. However, a lot depends on the light in which the photographs are taken, the angle of photography and the kind of cover on the ground, so you may need an archaeologist’s help to interpret aerial photographs.

The study of local history can be deeply absorbing, so you may find yourself spending rather more time than you had anticipated among record sources. My family know from experience that if they go shopping while I spend a couple of hours in the local studies department, and they agree to meet me at a certain point and a certain time, they’ll have to come and find me because I’ve lost track of the time!