Local History
Local history is one of those subjects where you can define it to mean exactly what you want. However like all history one can divide it into three phases:-
Each of which will have its own structure and interpretation.
The data gathering phase seeks to discover ‘information’ and then classify it in the dimensions of WHERE, WHEN, WHO and WHAT. Unfortunately too many local historians confuse ‘information’ with ‘documentation’ and go to great lengths to capture and store documents on the basis of their information content, building up huge files which become unmanageable and unusable by anyone else. If one looks at professionally produced source books one usually finds their editors are content to present the several documents with a serial number attached to them and then produce an Index which enables anyone to find the information they are looking for. It all sounds terribly obvious but few local historians adopt this discipline.
Everyone has their own interests and set their own scope for their work. Most local historians set a WHERE-scope based upon their county, town/parish, street or even a single house. Most local historians do not set a WHEN-scope but few have the skills or the opportunity to delve before the 16th century. It is mainly for the historians to set a WHEN-scope and study a particular period in history. Family historians tend to set WHO-scopes and will pursue anyone with particular surnames, but many local historians will define their WHO-scope in terms of occupation or position held. Most local historians will collect lists of names of people whom they come across as this is often a good way of searching indexes for that odd piece of information which is missing. The WHAT-scope defines sets of themes which can range from football to geology and many local historians bring considerable theme expertise which enable them to interpret information from documentation which seems almost meaningless to those who lack the expertise.
Gathering data and indexing it is an area of activity particularly suited to a local history society where a number of different people can scour libraries and record offices to gather copies of documents which they share between each other. There are regrettably people who seem unable to share and almost go so far as to claim copyright on material they have discovered.
The analysis phase seeks to answer the questions WHY, HOW and WHETHER. This usually requires considerable analytical skills and some training in historical technique. It also requires a lot of data. Too many local historians jump to very quick conclusions based upon a single event or occurrence and fail to recognise that another piece of information is actually a negative.
The presentation phase seeks to make either the data or the analysis available in the public domain to a wider audience. Nowadays there are many different ways of presenting material. Here are a few:-
When one looks at so many local history publications the conflicts become obvious. Far too many of them are little more than quotes strung together in a vague chronological sequence with little understanding and no attempt at interpretation. Usually this is because people are scared of making ‘mistakes’ when in fact their mistake might actually throw a whole new light on the topic covered. Usually they have been cowed by leading lights in the local history world who have been on a course or attended a day school and misinterpreted academic disciplines and rules of thumb turning them into immutable rules which reduce the output to pedanticism.
Local history is very much like trying to do a jigsaw puzzle
when you have only a few pieces and no outside edges. When people were obliged
to rely on scraps of paper, index cards and laborious transcription of material
it is little wonder that it was difficult to share information and gather
sufficient information to enable decent conclusions to be drawn. Now however
computers are freely available and have such enormous storage and processing
power that tasks which a few years ago seemed Herculean can now be accomplished
with a click of a button. We are starting into an information revolution which
will have a much deeper impact than the invention of the printing press and it
is the vast army of local historians who can make it happen. So, GO TO IT LADS
AND LASSIES.
So much for the
theory. Now for the practice.
This website is concerned mainly with the local history of
Purley on
Our local history society is called Project Purley – you can click on it to see
some basic information about the society. There is also an entry for the Berkshire Local History Association which provides an
umbrella organisation for all local history societies in
G6002