Local History Month, May 2025

The place and the evidence

The Historical Association started Local History Month over two decades ago to highlight and support the incredible work that is done to research, record and preserve the histories of all places. Just as people are often intentionally or unintentionally put into hierarchies of importance for historical preservation, so are places. Yet knowledge about all places, the people that live and lived there, the customs, traditions, the natural environment and the structures all have importance, and they can help to add to wider local, regional, national and global stories.

Recording and keeping information about a locality is incredibly important. To historians and researchers finding out about a place is a mixture of official records and just as importantly personal records and information that might appear mundane. For instance, a 19th-century shopping list can tell a person a lot about priorities, food eaten, costs and personal budgets. Similarly, an official births and marriages list will provide official information about individuals that family storytelling may have missed.

Official records required to make things happen, such as laws or meeting minutes, can provide a huge amount of information about attitudes and social interactions as well as outcomes. Whether or not a place is in the Turnpike records can reveal the role a place may have played in trade and in wider social connections. School logbooks can reveal information about the character of a village or town and about social movement and migration. Most of these records are kept locally in archives and libraries, but deciding how to approach and interpret some of these records can be difficult or off-putting.

At the HA we have a whole collection of guides to help you unpick, decipher, unravel and interpret official records kept in the public domain. Records such as Hearth Tax Returns, Episcopal Visitation Books, Constable’s Accounts, Tithe Apportionment and Maps, and Fire Insurance Plans. These guides will help you select or determine what are the best records for you if you are embarking on a bit of local history research.

    Today, many archives and libraries also work with local museums and between them they hold personal records such as people’s diaries, letters and personal collections. These sources are a really rich source of evidence for the lives of real people.

    Of course, your interest in local history may be as a receiver of information rather than as a researcher. Many local archives and libraries also keep records and reports of other people’s research into the area, and these can be accessed through their websites or by visiting them in person.

    However, if you are preparing for Local History Month this May and are looking for some stimulation or advice, here are some suitable resources to get you going. By bringing evidence and sources to any research about a place you are creating a full and exciting picture of the past that can really help people to understand life in the present.