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Local history societies online |
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Local history societies online |
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Welcome to a new feature, aimed at keeping you in touch with the fast changing world of local history online. We’re going to begin by looking at the top ten online societies according to the Google Internet search engine. The great thing about the Internet (or ‘the web’ as it is more popularly known) is that it appears to be quite random at times and this is as much a hook as its ability to reach specific items of information in a few clicks. Our visit to Google’s top ten begins with Quinton Local History Society in the West Midlands, whose home page is headed ‘Let us take a journey into Quinton's past…’ followed by a sepia photograph of the old turnpike road from Birmingham to Kidderminster c1900. It’s a nicely laid out website with easy to read type against a white background. It doesn’t have a picture gallery, but it is written in a chatty style with an easily accessible diary of events section with information about all the society’s meetings until the end of 2008. Contact details are clearly shown at the bottom of the home page, including a name, a postal address and a telephone number. In many ways local history websites don’t get much better than this, so it is a worthy no.1 in the Google list. Next comes Broseley LHS in nearby Shropshire, whose home page has a poster advertising ‘a pageant of music and drama celebrating the bi-centenary of “Iron-mad’ Wilkinson” 10–13 July 2008 at The Lawn Gardens, Broseley. Like Quinton, the left-hand column of the home page contains a series of bars which guide you through the rest of the website, including a ‘Town Trail’ and a ‘Location’ map. The ‘What’s New’ section only lists events up until May 2008, so is in need of updating, but as anyone who manages a website knows, keeping on top of things is easier said than done. Then there is an interloper of sorts in the form of Bristol & Avon Family History Society and whilst there are no direct references to local history, there are plenty of pages and links which may be of interest to local historians who want to know more about particular burial locations or records about such topics as ‘Bristol Home Children’. What this website demonstrates so clearly is the willingness of family historians to share information and to help one another, as well any local historians who take an interest in their activities. Bitterne LHS in Southampton, Hampshire, gets us back to where we should be with a website arranged a little differently to Quinton and Broseley. The home page has a map showing Southampton in 1791, with six boxes above. When you click on ‘Meetings’ you get a surprise. As well as listing the society’s meetings until December 2008, there is information about their charity shop at 231 Peartree Avenue, Bitterne (open 10am–4pm Mon–Fri and 10am–1pm Sat). A few doors down at No.225 Peartree Avenue they have a ‘Heritage & Research Centre’ (open 10am–4pm Wed, 1–4pm Thu, 1–4pm & 7–9pm Fri and 10am–1pm Sat). Something I must find out more about, but for now it is a good example of why it is worth spending some time digging about the web. It also led me to a website about an open space called Peartree Green on the east side of Southampton which will get a link to my own park website, Parkviews. A website I know well came next: Lenton LHS in Nottinghamshire. There are few local history sites to rival it in terms of content and organisation, but few will have had the same editor in place for nearly thirty years. I know the Internet as we know it has not been going that long, but Steve Zaleski first began producing a newsletter for Lenton Community Association, and local history was an important element in the publication. After 50 issues he started the Lenton Times under the auspices of Lenton LHS and is now up to Issue 26. He has been ably assisted by a local photographer and has amassed a large photographic archive which attracts donations from all manner of sources. Nearly all these sources can found on the website and can be searched in a number of ways. We return to Bristol with the website of Fishponds LHS called ‘Bristol Past’. Unlike the other sites so far listed it does not include information about events and on the page devoted to the society, it ends ‘For further information email the’. It will take some detective work, but I will try to contact them and let the society know about this problem. A note at bottom of each page says it was lasted updated on 17 March 2007. Abbots Langley LHS in Hertfordshire told me on its home page that I was the 21,151st visitor to their website since 26 February 2000. I rather liked the page with photographs showing visitors to the society’s stall at the 2008 Abbots Langley Carnival. Unfortunately it was undated, but I guess from the trees and the weather it was quite recently. I have to admit to liking my local to come with a dose of topicality, so I enjoyed my visit. Takeley LHS in Essex came next and their site is full of information, but it is somewhat difficult to read, as it is all in SMALL CAPS! You can look at historic maps and photographs and learn about their projects, as well as meetings, and, in the form of a news flash (literally), how you can buy two new postcards of 'Historic Takeley' which the society has just produced. They can be bought for £1 from TLHS, c/o Phyllis Altham, 2 Station Road, Takeley, Bishop’s Stortford, Herts CM22 6SG. Cambridgeshire Association for Local History is the only county association which makes it to Google’s top ten. It contains lots of information and links likely to be of interest to local historians. The web pages are laid out in three columns with the centre column double the width of the side columns — which because they use white text on a light blue background are very difficult to read. Using blocks of colour may look pretty on the web, but printing off such pages is much more expensive because of the amount of ink they use. One way around this is to copy the white text, then paste it to a text edit / word processing program. You should then be able to print it in black. In the ‘News’ section there is a report from 20 May 2008, saying that plans to build a new county ‘Historical Resource and Cultural Centre’ (to house the county’s archives) as part of a 24 acre development around Cambridge’s Station Road area using PFI money have had to be abandoned ‘because of difficulties with the long-term financial and lease arrangements’. The county council is now looking at other options. Our ‘top ten’ list of local history websites according to Google on 24 June 2008 comes to an end with Smethwick LHS and it’s a great site — mesmerising in fact — full of buzz and enthusiasm for this West Midlands town which has moved counties on a good few occasions. So why do I say it's mesmerising? Simply type in the web address and see for yourself. For ordinary mortals like me it brings the response ‘How do they do that?’ It’s a picture of Old Chapel Farm, Smethwick and it will make you want to take your socks off if you're wearing them when you first visit the website! In fact this is actually a list of the 2nd–11th local history society entries on the Google list. For many years now the 1st entry has always been The Local History Directory on this site. It is still the most substantial list of its kind on the web and we have plans to update it and to add more entries. Local history lists from Google and other search engines do not generate a county based list by locality. Web ‘rankings’ are quite complex and if a search engine provider like Google finds you ‘cheating’ they can decide to keep you out of the listings for a while as a punishment. If you want to tell us about your website and get a special mention, then email us. |
Robert Howard 25 June 2008 |
