Local Study

The importance of local history for developing a sense of place and identity is emphasised by the National Curriculum. The local landscape and buildings can often reveal a great deal about the use of land and the type of people who lived there in the past. Buildings and landscape can reveal how long a heritage the place has had. Monuments and local heritage or parish records can highlight individual local heroes or provide a window into the lives of ordinary local people in times gone by. How similar or different were their lives? Often, the local picture can also help to reveal the national or international picture.

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What your local Archive Service can offer to schools

Article

Imagine a place where your pupils become detectives working on mysteries from the past such as the tale of Thomas Sargeant, a 15-year-old factory worker who died in a chemical works in 1898. Your local archive is bursting with stories about real people like this which can give children an...
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What’s in a road? Local history at Early Years and Key Stage 1

Article

One of the many amazing things about History is that it can be found in everything; even the smallest or most mundane objects can provide an insight into how life has changed or provide a greater understanding of a different period in time. Late October last year as the light...
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Working effectively with your local history societies: the benefits and challenges

Article

Local history provides rich opportunities to engage children in their immediate local area and understand their own history and how history contributes to a greater overall understanding and bigger picture. In this article, Nick Harman shares his school’s experience of participating in an exciting joint project with the local heritage...
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World War II: breathing life into a local history enquiry

Article

Debbie Doolan explores how the locality of her school, Worle School in North Somerset, was impacted by a significant event, World War II. What is particularly pertinent is not just the range of activities in this topic but the way the theme was refined over a number of years. It...
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Year 7 explore the story of a London street

Article

One street, twenty children and the experience of a changing town: Year 7 explore the story of a London street Michael Wood and others have recently drawn attention to the ways in which big stories can be told through local histories. Hughes and De Silva report a teaching unit through...
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Your Local Railway: a local history investigation in Key Stage 2

Article

In this article Tim Lomas discusses one of the best resourced themes you can find: your local railway. Railways make one of the best themes for a historical study. No place has ever been far from a railway station even if Dr Beeching wiped out one-third of the network in...
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‘Not again!’ - an additional viewpoint on using railways

Article

‘Not again!’ I can remember my son muttering as his football thudded against the kitchen wall, ‘I went there in Year 2 and then in Year 4 and now I have to go there again in Year 6.’ He was referring to his school trips to the remains of the gunpowder factories in our village,...
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