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

Lisbet Sherlock Trustee

Lisbet Sherlock

Lisbet, after a successful corporate communications career in the high-tech sector, now focuses on environmental, cultural, and history projects. A history graduate with a passion for the Victorian and Edwardian eras, she is particularly interested in women’s history. Her current projects include researching two forgotten militant suffragettes in Manchester and documenting the century-long history of Woodoaks Farm for the Soil Association Land Trust. She also serves as a trustee for Dorset Wildlife Trust, chairing its marketing committee. As a BALH trustee, she brings expertise in research, storytelling, and public engagement to promote local history.

Lisbet Sherlock, Trustee

From our archives

The Amateur Historian Volume 2 Number 2 October November 1954

The English Place-Name Society

Hicks, F.W. Potto

pp 44-47

The EPNS was established in 1923 and the article discusses its progress in the following thirty years, covering its aims (notably, ensuring the highest possible standards of scholarship in place-name interpretation, and rejecting the amateurish and 'guesswork' approaches which previously were well-nigh universal); the publications' series of the Society, including the county volumes; the relationship between place-name studies and the history of counties and localities; and the importance of charters. 

The Amateur Historian Volume 2 Number 2 October November 1954

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