For the past few months, our monthly evening socials have been a great way to catch up and talk local history. However, we know a late-night pub environment doesn’t suit everyone, and it’s easy to get stuck when you’re trying to look up details on your own.
We spend most Saturdays researching at the Newport Reference Library. This weekend, I’m changing things up to offer something more practical.
On Saturday 25th July, between 10am and 2pm, we’ll be running an informal local history drop-in session right there in the reference library.
If you have a specific project you are working on, want to know more about the history of your own street, or are just curious about how to get started, please pop by.
What we can look at together:
- Local Street Directories: The library holds fantastic physical volumes (like Kelly's Directories) that allow you to track who lived in a specific house or ran a shop on the High Street decade by decade.
- Premium Digital Archives: If you don't have personal subscriptions, you can use my access to paid resources like Ancestry and Newspapers.com to search for old family names, local news reports, or business announcements.
- Historic Side-by-Side Maps: I can show you how to use free, accurate digital mapping tools to overlay 19th-century Ordnance Survey maps directly on top of modern Newport streets to see exactly how your neighbourhood changed.
Sometimes the biggest hurdle isn't a lack of information, but knowing how to search the archives effectively to find the facts. Whether you have a single burning question or just want to see what materials are available, look out for the Newport Cornucopia table.
No booking is needed—just turn up between 10am and 2pm.
Hope to see you there!
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