Sites covering features within our area.

Codnor Castle Heritage Trust has loads of photographs, and you can even watch the Time Team episode filmed there.

Stuart Saint’s Codnor & District Local History and Heritage website contains a phenomenal amount of information about Codnor – strongly recommended.

The Friends of Cromford Canal have site containing a wealth of history, along with current activities and and future plans.

The Erewash Canal Preservation and Development Association‘s site also contains lots of excellent photographs, and documents the work they have done over the last 50 years.

Garth Newton’s Ilkeston Cam has a vast archive of photos taken by Garth around the area. In particular, see the pages on the Miller Mundys of Shipley Hall.

Fionn Taylor’s Mines Rescue site is devoted to mines rescue and coal mines in general – across the whole country, but with a Notts/Derbys emphasis.

A single page site on the Midland General Omnibus Company History is worth viewing.

Another interesting page looks at the uniforms of the staff on the Notts and Derbys Tramway.

The Turton Family and Smalley Village has a page on the history of the village, and many other interesting sections.

The Taghill site has been going longer than our own site, and has some useful photographs and information, including some church-record transcripts.

General Resources for local history

Amber Valley Borough Council offer a number of useful leaflets describing walks in the area – there’s no better way to see the history around us!

Britain from Above has a great range of aerial photographs, taken from 1919 to 1953.

The British Association for Local History publishes various periodicals, notably the Local Historian and Local History News.

British History Online contains texts of many primary and secondary sources. It is a subscription site, but many of its pages are free to access.

The British Newspaper Archive is a subscription site, but you can carry out searches for free (which at least tells you which newspaper you need to look at).

The Centre for English Local History at Leicester University is the “birthplace” of local history as an academic subject.

The Derbyshire Record Office Blog has all sorts of stories, including the odd one close to home.

The Derbyshire Victoria County History Trust is an active branch of the national  scheme of work started in 1899.

Infotrac Newspapers – if you have a Derbyshire Library card, you can use this page to search and read a number of 19th century newspapers, including the Derby Mercury. If you don’t have a card but live in the county, then pop into your nearest library and get one free of charge.

Open Domesday gives free images of all the 1086 Domesday Book, and is searchable by place-name.

Historical Directories of England and Wales lets you search and view a collection of old directories of businesses and notables  – lots of valuable things to be found.

Nottinghamshire History has many useful resources, even if many are a bit further afield.

Old maps gives you free access to old Ordance Survey maps at a fairly large scale (you have to subscribe if  you want greater detail).

Picture The Past is a joint Derbyshire/Nottinghamshire project – you can search for low-resolution photographs (and their collection is excellent); if you want a high resolution copy, you can buy one from them.

Vision of Britain contains a wide collection of resources – you could spend hours browsing!

Other local history sites in the area (10 miles or so)

Arnold Local History Group in the suburbs of Nottingham – a good site.

Awsworth and Cossall History Society – a very near neighbour of ours.

The Belper Research website has much on the town, to help historians and family historians.

The Chaddesden Historical Group’s site is extremely comprehensive – have a look!

The site of the Derby and Sandiacre Canal Trust has much on the history of this canal, which, of course, linked into the Erewash.

The Derbyshire Archaeological Society was founded in 1878, and continues to thrive, and holds regular meetings open to all.

Heage Windmill, just a few miles from Heanor, is well worth a visit, and their site gives a full history of this mill, now restored to full working order.

The Ilkeston and District Local History Society website contains a wealth of information about our next neighbour along the Erewash Valley

The Jacksdale and Westwood Community & Heritage site has some items related to our area (e.g. Codnor Park), and is well worth a browse.

The Long Eaton and Sawley Archive has a large collection of photos of the area.

Elaine Sarson’s Mapperley village site is another which is right on our border, covering at times the links with Shipley.

The Lenton Times contains information on the lower end of the Nottingham Canal -a very professional site.

The Nottinghamshire Local History Association is an umbrella group for all Nottinghamshire groups. (Pity there isn’t one for Derbyshire!)

The Sandiacre History and Heritage website is home to their local history group.

The South Wingfield Local History Group also has a site telling us of its work and meetings.

There are several detailed pages on the History of Stapleford on the town’s community website.

The Thoroton Society, established in 1897, is Nottinghamshire’s oldest historical and archaeological society.

Family History sites

Although we are not a family history group, we do receive many family history queries, with which we cannot normally help (unless your ancestor was a somewhat significant person in the area).

We will normally advise you to contact either:

The Derbyshire Family History Society, or

The Derbyshire Ancestral Research Group.

Obviously, there are also subscription services available, the two most used being:

Ancestry, and

Find my Past.

If you don’t want to pay to subscribe to these, Derbyshire libraries (and many other counties too) allow free access to one of these at their premises – check with your local branch.