# history sources



## sweet pea (Dec 29, 2012)

can anyone suggest any other way of searching for history other than google? im sort of stuck sorry mods if this isn't appropriate just thought people could share good sites etc for history on places


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## krela (Dec 29, 2012)

Hundreds, but they all take leg work.

Local council record offices (sometimes searchable online), local HER databases, local libraries, national records office, old maps, etc etc etc.


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## Bones out (Dec 29, 2012)

krela said:


> Hundreds, but they all take leg work.
> 
> Local council record offices (sometimes searchable online), local HER databases, local libraries, national records office, old maps, etc etc etc.




Buildings at risk register, google earth, local papers, demolition contractors, developers, What Krela said.... Only known places appear on google..... Good old driving around and having a poke about is best......


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## krela (Dec 30, 2012)

He said searching for history, which I assume means trying to find out the background on a known building, not searching for locations...


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## sweet pea (Dec 30, 2012)

im on no shortages of locations just time to visit them and searching on the history I have trouble with


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## birrew (Dec 30, 2012)

*useful websites*

hi guys being new to all this...was wondering if anyone had any useful websites I can use to find buildings and ruins to go explore

cheers


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## Ramsgatonian (Dec 30, 2012)

The buildings at risk register is a start:

http://www.english-heritage.org.uk/caring/heritage-at-risk/buildings/buildings-at-risk/

Get out there and enjoy it!


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## night crawler (Dec 30, 2012)

Do what everyone else does LOOK and use Google don't expect us to do it for you.


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## birrew (Dec 30, 2012)

i have been but not been unsuccessful hence why I've asked on here as everyone is more experienced and full of knowledge


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## sweet pea (Dec 31, 2012)

birrew said:


> i have been but not been unsuccessful hence why I've asked on here as everyone is more experienced and full of knowledge



to be honest a lot of places you can find on google with a bit of leg work


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## ricasso (Dec 31, 2012)

try talking to the locals..if you haven't created a problem with your explore then an innocent enquiry can usually provide a result. it worked for me.


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## BTP Liam (Dec 31, 2012)

Like I've done get in with your local history archivists etc - they will be interested in your work for a start, as long as you 'sell' the local history significance of your work.


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## UrbanX (Jun 1, 2013)

Hi mate, have you tried: 


Just walking / driving / biking around - Number one. Always has been, always will be. 
Bing maps, See Google maps & Para 13.0 “Mapping” 
Books - Books such as “(your town) at war” will often talk about local structures. There are now a wealth of urbex specific books out there too. Beauty in Decay, Derelict London, Invisible Frontier, and of course Access All Areas. There are obviously a wealth of books on WW2, often containing maps and information which has yet to be digitised. Again books on particular Asylums, or sites like Pripyat will give you way more information than is available on the web. 
Buildings at risk register - online, and full of photos, written descriptions, and of course postcodes / grid references. 
Companies house - Which local businesses have ceased trading recently? Where were their former offices? Etc.
Defence Estates website - UK bases are shrinking daily, and it’s all public, you just have to look! 
Ebay - maps, plans, deeds, historical paperwork, post cards, etc.
English Heritage (and it's Scottish/Welsh equivalents)
Estate agents - If you’re like me, you’re eye is instantly drawn to the price which is half of anything else! It’ll usually be a plot with buildings on, or a ‘property in need of renovation” 
Land Agents also specialise in development opportunities. They often produce a nice .PDF brochure too to read at your convenience. 
Face book / Twitter - We’re now connected instantly with a group of contacts around the country, and around the globe, why not use it?
Freedom of Information act requests (FOI) - Anything that is Publicly funded (I.e. Nhs, Government, Police, Council, Army etc.) will have a FOI procedure in place. You can ask them anything, and as long as it’s not going to be too much bother (normally more than 18 hours work) they will answer it for you. 
Burlington was the UK governments biggest secret for a long, long time. When it was decommissioned (still under MoD ownership BTW) I knew they would have had a condition survey done. As a UK tax payer, I part funded that survey, so asked for a copy of _everything_. I didn’t really expect anything, and if I’m honest kind of forgot about it. Three weeks later a large package postmarked ‘Corsham’ dropped through my letterbox. I was amazed to find a plethora of maps, as well as 9 hours of un edited footage from down there! 

Geograph website (Maps the UK down to a 100m grid with photographs - if you can find it within 100m on a screen, you can find it in real life after)
Google Earth / Maps / Streetview (see Para 13.0) 
Graffiti / urban art / parkour forums 
Local authority planning applications - All of these are now online from your local councils website, in the planning section. They’re fantastic as they will often included detailed surveys, as well as proposed drawings. 
Local history societies, also “Friends of…(insert church / asylum name here) 
Local knowledge - They are explorers friends, as well as enemies! Try talking to locals, especially the older ones. 
Local library - So much information! See Books above, they will have maps, and microfilms which have yet to be digitised too. Librarians are always helpful, and quite often sexy…
Local museums
Local papers - look for “Firefighters were called to part of an abandoned factory...” or “Nursing home due to close after 35 years...”
Local Police website (where have they been to catch the local pikeys lately?) Police.uk now includes all this data in map form
Local TV news - As the local paper really. Usually it’s because of something like a fire or a murder, but every cloud eh? 
National Trust
Ordinance survey maps - New ones available on Bing Map - see para 13.0. Looking at new maps! – Look especially for the magical disused symbol (dis.) Old ones available at old maps.co.uk, libraries etc. 
Panoramio - A website retagging photographs to where they were taken. You can see why this would be so helpful to an explorer! 
Photography Websites / Forums - FlickR, TalkPhotography, etc. 
Photo Collections (Stock image websites)
Subbrit - Everything underground & cold war. They have extensive, accurate, uber geeky information on their website. 
Urbex Websites - Duh, you’re on one! www.derelictplaces.co.uk is a good friendly forum, but in this day and age everyone has one. Sometimes sites are just named out right, sometimes they are code named, but more often than not there will be clues in each report. See the anecdote below for an example of this. 
Vimeo - See YouTube. Some videos like ‘Crack The Surface’ are only on Vimeo
Wikipedia - I.e. homes of historical wealthy families, do they still exist? Sites like breweries may have their own page. Wikipedia also has co-ordinates sometimes too… 
Wikimapia - Like Wikipedia, but an editable map of the world. 
YouTube (I’m already into hundreds of locations on the Dereliction Addiction Series!) 

Just look everywhere you need to. Whilst trying to locate a plane I ended up joining an aviation forum, a geeky but helpful lot. These are the methods we use every day. They’re no big secret, there’s probably loads I’ve missed off too. I’ll leave you with an anecdote about locating a site: 

A certain elusive European site was located from a single photograph: It was of a red Renault CV in the overgrown garden of the house. The explorer researched the number plate to find out it was French. From here he researched the format of French number plates. He found the 2 letters which denoted the region it was registered in. It didn’t even necessarily mean that’s where the building was, but it was a start. In the back ground of the photo was a beautiful gate with monogrammed letters above it in beautiful ironwork. It was a longshot, but he started researching wealthy families from that region with those initials. Sure enough after tens of hours of dead ends, and tenuous links, he nailed it.


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## godzilla73 (Jun 2, 2013)

Just to add to UrbanX's comments on FOI, Freedom of Information requests work really well. Go to https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/ and stick in what you're looking for information on. If somebody's made an FOI on a place, it'll come up, and if they haven't it guides you through a few simple steps to make one yourself. It's particularly good for buildings that served a public purpose.

Use it or lose it -it's a facility that the ConDem coalition b'stards are committed to getting rid of at the next election!
Godzy


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