Trade Directories 1880

Getting the most from Search...

The Search box is at the top-left (or top-right) corner of all pages.

Use it to find topics of your choice, wherever they occur in the Virtual Museum. You may search for names, places, dates - anything!

In addition to single words, this search now recognises phrases (in quotes), which can refine the matches found. Searching "6 High Street" in quotes finds only entries mentioning that address, whilst 6 High Street without quotes finds around 200 entries!

Entering this and that into the search form will return results containing both "this" and "that".

Entering this not that into the search form will return results containing "this" and not "that".

Entering this or that into the search form will return results containing either "this" or "that".

Entering "this and that" (with quotes) into the search form will return results containing the exact phrase "this and that".

Please note that many family names have a variety of spellings, such as Wodham and Woodham, Pearse and Pearce, Clisdel, Clisdale and Clidsdall.

Consider alternative spellings for everything! If you are looking for trades, note that you may find "plumber" often spelt "plummer", or "maltster" spelt "malster" in 18th century documents.

The search is very powerful, but because the Virtual Museum is so large, it can take a few seconds to display results.