Local history society directory

Local history society directory

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

Local history resource directory

Local history resource directory

Explore our Resource Directory — a curated collection of archives, maps, publications, and specialist websites to support and inspire your local history research.

Become a member

Become a member

Join a national network of local historians and societies — with publications, support, increased visibility, and member benefits including discounts and dedicated insurance.

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

Where did your ancestors live?

It is impossible to trace the history of one’s family without considering where they lived. Local history societies and one-place study groups have researched and published content that will allow you to place the lives of your ancestors in the context of their local communities, villages, towns and cities as well as some of the key socio-economic factors that lay behind their development. They often use the same sources as family historians, and can help provide an alternative interpretation of a document or suggest new resources to help your research.

Nick Barratt, Historian and Author

Meet the team

Joe Saunders Trustee

Joe Saunders

Joe is a freelance historical researcher and writer, specializing in family and house histories as an Associate of AGRA. Based in Westmorland, Cumbria, he engages in local history projects, including a memorial for Settle-Carlisle Railway workers. He is pursuing a PhD at the University of York on the book and print trade in early modern England. His research spans seventeenth-century printing, the Levellers, and English radicals. He contributes to Placecloud and the Viae Regiae project, mapping historical transport routes. A BALH Outreach team member, he is honored to help inspire and support local historians as a Trustee.

Joe Saunders, Trustee

From our archives

The Amateur Historian Volume 3 Number 4 Summer 1957

Old people as sources of history

Dopson, Laurence

pp 150-152

An early venture into the realms of oral history. The article provides an introduction to the process of researching local history through oral evidence and makes various suggestions for evaluating the information collected.

The Amateur Historian Volume 3 Number 4 Summer 1957

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