15 May 2014
Historical maps. Statistical atlases. Travel Accounts. Census reports. Historical descriptions. All searchable by place.
Take the city of Birmingham, for example. "Vision of Britain" offers us insight into social structure, agriculture and land usage, industry, work and poverty, education & language, roots & religion, learning & language, life & death, and housing.
All students of British history will value the maps. Historians adept at transforming numbers into meaningful verbal narratives will appreciate the statistics. All researchers will be awed by the breadth of the "travel accounts" available—"the largest collection of historical British travel writing on the web." There are the memoirs of Celia Finnes who rode sidesaddle through English villages in the 1690s, the diary of the Methodist John Wesley (1729-92), Arthur Young's tales of his tour of England and Wales, 1776–91, Samuel Johnson's journeys through the western islands of Scotland, and much more.
Do check out this wonderful website from the University of Portsmouth.