Record Office events go online

Those of you who had visited the record office or began following our blog before the pandemic hit will know that we always liked to keep the record office a busy place.  Throughout the year our events programme would be packed with talks, workshops, and special events.  Like with so much, the pandemic put a …

Building control plans

A guide to the history of building control and to the surviving plans at Derbyshire Record Office. In the early Victorian period, outbreaks of disease - especially the cholera epidemics of 1848 - aroused public concern over poor housing and defective drains and sewers. The Public Health Acts of 1848 and 1872, as well as the …

Building History – Next Steps

A guide to other detailed records and tips for specific types of building. If you are new to researching the history of a building try our getting started guide first.  There are also more complex records available for discovering the history of property and land, including: Estate records: including rentals and terriers which can be …

Building History – Getting Started

An introductory guide to the sources available for researching property in Derbyshire There are a large number of different sources available for researching the history of Derbyshire buildings, but the survival and availability of sources varies significantly between different places. Most records do not relate to specific properties and it is very rare to be …

Picturing the Past in Photos, Postcards and Illustrations

We're often asked for images, illustrations and photographs for a variety of reasons: house or building history, planning and model making are just a few. So we thought it might be useful to list a few sources of useful information about how to access images, both online and in our collections. Firstly, with a title including …

Discovering Ilkeston

Yesterday morning I visited Ilkeston Library to deliver a new workshop  introducing people to the various sources available for researching the history a Derbyshire building. It was a quiet session, with only two in attendance - though one had travelled all the way from Aston on Trent which took me quite by surprise! With the …