Abstract copyright UK Data Service and data collection copyright owner.The aim of the project was to improve access to local and trade directories for the period 1750-1919 by making a substantial collection of English and Welsh directories available online as a Digital Library of Historical Directories. This digital resource comprises in total some 600 directories, covering every English county together with Wales, and ranging widely over the period 1750-1919 (the latter cut-off point chosen for copyright reasons). There is a particular focus on the 1850s, 1890s and 1910s, with at least one directory provided for each county in each of these decades. The digitisation of the volumes involved a two-stage process, in which (1) the hard-copy source was scanned to produce a graphic image of each page, and then (2) those images were processed using OCR software to generate a machine-readable text file.An online version of this resource can be found on the Website of the University of Leicester.

This data collection includes the following directories:- Pigot's Directory of Cambridgeshire (1830-31)- Pigot's Directory of Norfolk (1839)- Pigot's Directory of Suffolk (1839)- Hunt & Co's Directory of East Norfolk, with part of Suffolk, comprising comprehensive lists of the commercial and private residents in the city of Norwich, the sea ports and watering places of Yarmouth and Lowestoft, Cromer and Mundesley, the inland towns of Attleborough, Aylsham (1850)- History, Gazetteer, and Directory of Cambridgeshire, comprising a general survey of the county, including the Isle of Ely (1851)- History, Gazetteer, and Directory of Norfolk, and the city and county of the city of Norwich, comprising a general survey of the county, with a variety of historical, statistical, topographical, commercial, and agricultural information (1854)- History, Gazetteer and Directory of Suffolk; comprising, under a lucid arrangement of subjects, a general survey of the county, and separate histories & statistical & topographical descriptions of all the hundreds, liberties, unions, boroughs, towns, ports, parishes (1855)- Craven and Co.'s Commercial Directory of the County of Norfolk; containing an alphabetical list of the nobility, gentry, merchants, professions, trades.etc., and separate historical and topographical descriptions of all the towns, parishes (1856)- The Post Office Directory of Cambridge, Norfolk and Suffolk / ed. by E. R. Kelly. [Part 3: Suffolk] (1869)- The Post Office Directory of Cambridge, Norfolk and Suffolk / ed. by E. R. Kelly. [Part 1: Cambridgeshire] (1869)- The Post Office Directory of Cambridge, Norfolk and Suffolk / ed. by E. R. Kelly. [Part 2: Norfolk] (1869)- J. G. Harrod & Co.'s Royal County Directory of Norfolk, with Lowestoft in Suffolk (1877)- The Post Office Directory of Cambridgeshire / ed. by E. R. Kelly (1879)- Kelly's Directory of Cambridgeshire, Norfolk and Suffolk / edited by E. R. Kelly. [Cambridgeshire only] (1883)- History, Gazetteer and Directory of Norfolk, including the city of Norwich, and comprising a general survey of the county and separate historical, statistical, and topographical descriptions of all the hundreds, boroughs, towns ... / by William White (1883)- History, Gazetteer and Directory of Norfolk, including the city of Norwich, and comprising a general survey of the county and separate historical, statistical, and topographical descriptions of all the hundreds, boroughs, towns ... / by William White (Limited) (1890)- History, Gazetteer and Directory of Suffolk, comprising a general survey of the county and separate historical, statistical & topographical descriptions of all the hundreds, boroughs, towns ... / by William White (1891-1892)

Main Topics:The directories included are of many different kinds, commonly embracing trade, commercial, and private resident directories, together with gazetteers, almanacs, official information, etc. For the purposes of deposit in the UK Data Archive, the collection has been divided into 35 studies on a regional and temporal basis.

No sampling (total universe)

Compilation or synthesis of existing material