Resources I’ve used in my research including primary and secondary source material
I went to the Weston Library in Oxford for a meeting. About maps, obviously. In the Blackwell Hall there is an enormous tapestry map, one of four, each of which covers one of four counties: Oxfordshire, Worcestershire, Gloucestershire and Warwickshire. The part…
I attended a talk on the Victoria County History (VCH) recently, and was reminded of what a great source they are of local historical information. I realised I’d somehow neglected to look at the entry for Amersham, so took a look as soon as I got home.
An interesting entry in the 1911 census gives the address as ‘Travelling gipsy – sleep-shed at Bottom House Farm’. The details of the names of the people in this entry are hard to make out as the page is badly water damaged on the left side, but the end page shows his name is Sam Smith
Looking through the 1871 census, I found a resident who gave his profession as professional cricketer. It struck me as unusual that there was a professional sportsman in Amersham at such an early date so I’ve tried to find out a little bit more about him.
I’d been idly wondering whether any of William Cobbett’s rural rides passed through Amersham. An initial scan through didn’t bring up the name at all, but when I looked for Chesham, I realised he had actually passed through Amersham in June of 1822 on his way between Chesham and High Wycombe
The helpful house names of many of the buildings in Amersham are a boon to the local historian trying to investigate the past uses of some of the buildings. As I’ve been researching the town, I’ve been trying to find out more…
I’m a modern historian, so the 11th century is not really my area, but I decided to take a look at the entry in the Domesday Book for Amersham. As it turns out, this was a lack of knowledge on my part:…
Occupations given in the census returns can sometime be aspirational or euphemistic, where people want to give a better impression of their status, not so in this case
The village of Coleshill, part of the parish of Amersham, Buckinghamshire was also once in Hertfordshire