Local history society directory

Local history society directory

Find a local history organisation near you or to support your research project.

Become an individual member

Become an individual member

Be part of our network of local history researchers and enthusiasts and benefit from our quarterly publications in addition to discounts on books and events.

Become a society member

Become a society member

Receive our support, boost your profile and take advantage of the dedicated insurance scheme for societies.

Quarterly publications

Quarterly publications

The Local Historian, our academic journal, was first produced in 1952 and is considered one of the foremost local history publications. It is published four times a year in conjunction with Local History News.

Our educational work

Our educational work

BALH aims to encourage interest and enthusiasm for local history amongst learners of all ages and to share and promote best practice, knowledge and skills.

Featured member society

Featured member society

BALH member societies may now add details of their work to our website, which will be highlighted here. Contact us for further details

Why BALH?

Nick Barratt Historian and Author

Supporting your academic research

There is an increasing interest in local history as a key element of academic studies – not just the content that has been published by local historians over the decades as a key research resource, but also in co-produced projects. Grant-awarding bodies such as the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) have placed an increasing emphasis on collaborations and partnerships when considering the award of research funding, and BALH provides the perfect platform for academic researchers to locate key groups and ongoing activity.

Nick Barratt, Historian and Author

Meet the team

Iain Taylor Trustee and Treasurer

Iain Taylor

Having recently retired from a career in corporate media and public relations, I was honoured to be asked to be Treasurer of BALH as of 1 January 2019. I graduated in history from Exeter University in 1980 but part of me always regretted not having done any postgraduate work. Becoming self employed in 2002 also gave the time to complete an MRes in Cultural History at Goldsmiths, University of London, which was most enjoyable, and I was able to take a PhD at Royal Holloway a few years later. My thesis was on Early Modern Bible Commentaries (an important source thus far completely overlooked by both historians and theologians) and I was very fortunate to have the outstanding Prof Justin Champion as my supervisor. During that time I wrote several articles and gave a number of academic papers and I was subsequently asked to become the Secretary of the Christianity & History Forum.

After that David Killingray encouraged me to become more active in writing articles on local history in general and the Sevenoaks area (where I lived until very recently) in the long nineteenth century in particular. So far I have had articles published in peer-reviewed journals on the lengthy struggle to put in place the West Kent public drainage system; the personal and social dislocation resulting from the mismanagement and collapse of smaller local friendly societies; the reasons some Sevenoaks farmers in particular were targeted during the earliest stage of the 'Captain Swing' riots of 1830-31; and the idiosyncratic ways in which one local tenant farmer pursued his campaign, against leading members of the West Kent aristocracy, to end the Extraordinary Tithe in the 1880s.

One of the key factors linking this body of work is risk - who assumes it and why, and how and when those people might seek to transfer it onto other groups or individuals better able to bear it, either willingly or unwillingly. Risk is also the meta-theme of a new book on nineteenth century Sevenoaks David and I have just completed and which we hope to have published by the end of 2019. I hope my business background will allow me to bring some additional commercial and marketing expertise to BALH in future.

Iain Taylor, Trustee and Treasurer

From our archives

The Amateur Historian Volume 2 Number 2 October November 1954

Village history: a photographic record

Heymer, Edward

pp 41-43

Discussion of the value of photography in recording aspects of local history: i) photographs of buildings, landmarks and street scenes; ii) indexing and captioning pictures; iii) equipment for picture shows; iv) exhibitions; v) collecting old photographs; and vi) photographs of documents and other historical items. 

The Amateur Historian Volume 2 Number 2 October November 1954

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