For anyone interested in Genealogy it is virtually impossible to avoid some involvement with Local History. This can sometimes become a distraction but it can also produce some useful nuggets of information. There is now, in fact, a burgeoning industry in Local History publications, often aimed at those of us mainly interested in Family History. Over the years there have been many publications produced which recorded local events or history involving the people of the area.

They were essentially ephemeral and often produced in short print runs with thin card or paper covers. Even hardback publications produced in a small print run, which may not have been re-printed, disappear from circulation over the years. They then effectively become lost or simply forgotten. Either way it is a shame since something which was regarded as ‘quite interesting’ at the time it was produced becomes very interesting in later years, by which time it may well have disappeared.

The purpose of this part of the site is to ‘resurrect’ some of those publications which are still in existence - or at least one copy is - and to reproduce them in digital form for reference purposes. Depending on the nature of the publication it may be scanned in using OCR software or simply scanned as JPEGs.

The first two publications to be handled in this way are ‘Tales of Derwentdale’ (365KB) by J.W.Fawcett, published in 1902 and ‘Methodism in Burnopfield’ (3.73MB), author unknown, published in 1906(?). ‘Methodism in Burnopfield’, although only 38 pages including the front and back covers, constitutes a large file because it was scanned in as JPEGs in order to retain the ‘look’ of the original.

These books contain a large amount of information which will be of interest to Family Historians researching connections in the Derwent Valley.

If you find publication in this form useful and/or know of other forgotten publications which could be usefully included here, please let us know via the email link on the Home page.

[Home] [Why Burial Records?] [Database Searches] [Blackhill] [Edmundbyers] [Quaker Burials] [Old Books And Publications] [Useful Reference Sources]