Our local studies collections

Our Local Studies collections

Basset's Grant is the most important document in our collection.

1956 mural depicting a famous Uxbridge dispute.

One of the most interesting stories in our Local Studies collection.

The medical reports are a jump into a recent past, showing how things have changed and improved.

Includes photos of family members and friends, and at least one servant (from about 1854 to 1900).

A small pocket edition of Hamlet, signed by the whole cast.

A spectacular equestrian statue of Catherine the Great's predecessor.

Needlework embroideries sent to factories for cutting and mounting on postcards.

'One of the prisoners... used to make us wooden toys and at Christmas he made this Nativity scene out of odd bits he found on site'.

A 60-page essay by Thomas Strutt in 1873.

There are more to directories than lists of names - you'll find advertisements for shops, factories, even motor traders.

A large wooden box containing forty small saddlers' tools, made of iron.

In the 1800s, young girls were taught plain sewing to equip them for life as a domestic servant.

Flint tools from the Mesolithic and Neolithic periods, and unidentified bone fragments, deer antlers and mammoth teeth.

On 1 December 1816, William Howard, a respectable local farmer, was found brutally murdered.

Do you have an item of local historic importance that you wish to share with the community?