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About local and community history

The Archive Service can help you with professional advice on investigating the history of your house, locality or community, and the resources to get started.

The majority of the records that we hold are unique and irreplaceable, and most of them are available for you to consult in our reading rooms.  See the pages linked below for an overview of what is held at each of our offices.

Onsite Resources

Sources for Local and General History at Staffordshire Record Office

Sources for Local and General History at Stoke on Trent City Archives

Sources for Local and General History at Burton Family and Local History Centre

Please note that the William Salt Library, Stafford, also has an excellent collection of printed and illustrative material for local history.

In addition, we sell a number of publications providing useful information for local history research in Staffordshire. These include our popular guide "Dwelling in the Past - House History Pack" and "The Sutton Companion to Local History".

Online Resources

Guides to Sources : We publish free to download guides in PDF format covering various types of records. The guides give an overview of the records relating to a particular subject held by each of our offices, together with reference numbers, so that you can investigate further.  Subjects covered are : enclosure maps and awards; tithe maps and awards; manorial records; business records; colliery records; transport records; and electoral registers. 

For your free downloads please go to the Guides to Sources page.

Staffordshire Place Guide : many of the records that you may need to look at in the course of research into your local community were created by bodies such as parishes, parish councils, poor law unions and district councils.  This guide tells you which parish/poor law union/district council your locality was in, gives details of nonconformist churches, businesses, charities, clubs and societies, and then provides direct links in to the catalogues of their records in our online catalogue.

Enquiries

If you have any questions that our website does not answer please contact one of our offices, where our knowledgeable staff will be pleased to advise you how to find the information you are seeking.

Staffordshire Record Office 

Stoke on Trent City Archives

If you decide that you would like to visit one of our record offices you will need to make an appointment. Please go to Planning a Visit for all the information you will need in advance of your visit.

Use other services

Copying services - to obtain paper copies or digital images of records. Fees are charged for these services.

Research services - to request a member of staff to carry out research on your behalf. Fees are charged for this service.

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