Cheshire Historic Environment Record
Additional sources of information
Sources of information that researchers may find useful in addition to the Historic Environment Record. Please note that charges may apply for the commercial re-use of some of these resources. Many of these books, maps, and documents are available to view at Cheshire Archives and Local Studies or Lancashire Archives. Some books and journals may be available from your local library.
Historic maps
- The tithe maps and awards for the historic County of Cheshire
- Copies of seventeenth, eighteenth and nineteenth century county maps for the historic counties of Cheshire and Lancashire
- Ordnance Survey maps and plans dating from the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Many of these maps are published online from the National Library of Scotland
Ariel photographs and surveys
A wide range of aerial photographs are available for Cheshire including post war surveys dating from the late 1940s, small-scale vertical surveys taken ahead of major infrastructure projects, and vertical surveys flown approximately every ten years since 1970. The original aerial photographs, often stereo pairs, are held by Cheshire Archives and Local Studies. The HER can provide access to geo-referenced mosaic for most of the major surveys and the later digital surveys. The HER also holds an archive of oblique photographs taken for specific archaeological purposes. A catalogue is available on request.
Historic England’s Aerial Archaeology Mapping Explorer is an online map depicting archaeology that has been identified, by their projects utilising aerial photographs and other aerial survey techniques in England.
Historic England’s Aerial Photo Explorer is an online map which enables you to explore digitised aerial photographs dating from the early twentieth century to the modern day held in the Historic England Archive.
Cheshire’s Historic Towns Survey
A number of towns in Cheshire were subject to detailed study as part of this project. Copies of the Assessment and Strategy reports are available on the Archaeology Data Service - Extensive Urban Survey webpage.
The Historic Landscape Characterisation project aimed to improve our understanding and appreciation of the contributions of past communities to the landscape’s form and appearance.
Books and journals
- The Victoria County History of Cheshire. Volume I: Harris, BE & Thacker, AT (eds) 1987. Oxford University Press.
- The Victoria County History of Cheshire. Volume II: Harris BE (ed) 1979. Oxford University Press.
- The Victoria County History of Cheshire. Volume III: Elrington CR (ed) 1980. Oxford University Press.
- The Victoria County History of Cheshire. Volume V parts 1-2: Lewis CP & Thacker, AT (eds) 2003, 2005. University of London Institute of Historical Research. Boydell and Brewer.
- The Victoria County History of Lancashire. Volume III: Farrer B & Brownbill J (eds) 1907. London.
Some of these volumes are published on the British History Online website.
- Dodgson J McN 1970, 1971, 1972 and 1981, The Place-Names of Cheshire. Parts I to V. The English Place-Name Society volumes XLIV to XLVIII. Published by Cambridge University Press.
See also the survey of English Place-names website.
George Ormerod’s 1819 (revised 1882). The unrevised 1819 edition is available on the Internet Archive’s Open Library.
Back issues of this journal, together with other publications, are accessible free of charge via the Journal of the Chester Archaeology Society.
Some early issues of this are available online. For further information see the Landcas website.
Volume 1 (1849) to volume 157 (2008) of the these have been digitised and made available free of charge on the Hslc website.
The Cheshire Local History Association, have made issues of their journal, Cheshire History, published between 1951 and 2018 available free of charge on the Cheshirelocalhistory website.
The Archaeology Data Service (ADS) Library which publishes bibliographic records and Open Access copies of published and unpublished sources relating to archaeology and heritage.
Other sources
Some trade directories dating from the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries are published online by the University of Leicester.
