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

Nigel Tringham Publishing Committee

Nigel Tringham

My involvement with BALH dates to 1999 when I was asked to represent the Victoria County History for which I had been working (in Staffordshire) since 1979, with a move to the history department at Keele University in the mid 1990s. I was assigned to the Publications Committee, and became its chair in 2005 and ex officio a member of the Management Committee. I continue to research and write the Staffordshire VCH volumes, besides teaching mainly medieval history but also local history at Keele, as well as running the university’s long-established Latin and Palaeography Summer School.

For too many years now I have edited the transactions of the Staffordshire Archaeological and Historical Society, and more recently also the volumes of the Staffordshire Record Society, as well as being closely involved with the work of the county Archive Service helping with study days and the recently-established annual Staffordshire History Day. It was a pleasure to ensure that some members of the North Staffordshire Guild of Historians were included in the BALH-supported Living the Poor Life Project cataloguing the poor-law correspondence in the National Archives.

Before all this activity began to overwhelm me, my original research was on editing the medieval records of the lesser clergy of York Minster, of which two volumes have appeared and others are planned for in retirement!

Nigel Tringham, Publishing Committee

From our archives

The Amateur Historian Volume 2 Number 1 August September 1954

Glossary of an old church

Maidbury, Lawrence

pp 15-18

Short glossary of terms relating to the architectural features, furnishings, monuments and decorations which may be found in a medieval or early modern church.

The Amateur Historian Volume 2 Number 1 August September 1954

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