There were people living in Nottinghamshire as far back as 40,000 BC, as excavations in the limestone caves at Cresswell Crags (near Worksop) have proved. Much later, when the Romans came, they drove two roads through parts of the county – the Fosse Way to the South, with associated developments...

This article was commissioned by the Sheffield Branch of the Historical Association in response to an editorial invitation for items of wide Local History interest to be submitted for publication. It is hoped that John Salt's insight will encourage members to visit Sheffield and also give them ideas on what...

Situated north west of the Lake District, Silloth is a seaside resort, looking across the Solway Firth to Dumfries and Galloway. The origins of this settlement lie in medieval times because the monks of nearby Holme Cultram Abbey had established storage facilities there to receive and store the grain from...

Trevor James introduces the wider context in which Tamworth’s history has developed. Modern-day visitors to Tamworth immediately observe its very extensive out-of-town shopping areas and industrial estates and then, in stark parallel, notice that the signage is welcoming them to the capital of historic Mercia. Investigating this conundrum is the...

This is more than one of our conventional ‘Out and About in Local History' items because Ken Rogers introduces us to a process whereby visual architectural and industrial history of Trowbridge has been saved from destruction; and then he gives us some clear guidance as to where to go and...

East Yorkshire is a somewhat neglected area for touring. Yet, the villages in the chalk Wolds possess much charm and a lot of surprising history to reward those who would explore them. In my youth, I toured these villages many times both on foot and by bicycle. This route is...

In the muddy corner of a field fringing Biddulph Moor in North Staffordshire, a small fenced enclosure surrounds Trent Head, ‘official' source of the River Trent (SJ905 579). In truth, any of a handful of springs that rise nearby might serve. Pilgrims are well advised to equip themselves with Wellington...

At the village of Easton in Suffolk one of its most distinctive features is its crinkle crankle wall. It is said to be the longest example of this form of wall construction and design. When Easton Hall, the seat of the Duke and Duchess of Hamilton was demolished and transported...

The summer of 2007 saw the completion of new visitor facilities on and near the battlefield of Naseby. The two locations are the first to be created since the Cromwell Monument was finished in 1936 and they stand more than 5km (3 miles) apart, one of them 2km south-east of...

Ruined buildings shrouded in trees, masonry crumbling into the undergrowth. It sounds like the backdrop for an Indiana Jones movie, the sort of thing people trek across Central America or the wilds of Cambodia to find. But Britain has its own share of enigmatic relics. Three very different such historical...

Peter Stanley is working on the largely unexplored history of the thousands of British Territorial soldiers who served in India during the First World War using their letters and diaries. He is trying to discover what happened to these men when they returned to Britain. Did their service in India...

Dave Martin investigates why there is a war memorial for German soldiers, ‘buried in a foreign field’, in a Dorset churchyard.

This is a momentous occasion in the history of designation in England and we hope you find the List and the online application form a useful resource. The National Heritage List for England is an online database which brings together information on all nationally designated heritage assets in one place for...

The National Tramway Museum, set on a Derbyshire hill at Crich, is one of the most attractive and fascinating in Britain. Rosemary Thacker introduces some of its technical and archival treasures. From its introduction at Birkenhead from the United States in 1860, the tramcar became the first vehicle in Great...

Sarah Walters explores The River Don Engine - her favourite history place. The River Don Engine, though strictly an object, is almost big enough to be labelled as a place in its own right. It certainly needs its own high-ceilinged museum annex and it is in this room that I...

Twickenham from the 1890s onwards grew as a town with a special sense of history. Nobody in authority on the local council could quite forget the reputation which the district had acquired as a rural arcadia. The aristocrats and gentry who built villas in the parish in the late 17th...

Barton-upon-Humber is a small historic town situated on the south bank of the River Humber, in the old north Lincolnshire area of Lindsey. It is almost opposite the large city and port of Kingston-upon-Hull. The name is derived from ‘Beretun', which meant ‘Barley Town', a tribute to its importance in...

The Isle of Wight Visiting Norwegians must be puzzled why so large and populous an island does not have bridge or tunnel access to the mainland. These have been proposed but wars have intervened and many local people like to preserve their difference from the mainland by resisting better connections...

The West Somerset Mineral Railway Project is run by a consortium of local and national partners under the leadership of the Exmoor National Park Authority.  It received a grant from the Heritage Lottery Fund in December 2007 for a programme scheduled for completion at the end of 2009.    The project set...