Visit your local library

• trade directories will note when institutions opened and who ran them
• census records list people resident in the hospitals, prisons and workhouses at the time of the census

Visit the Sites & Monuments Record (SMR)

• files about buildings and sites

Visit the archives

• hospital admission registers, administrators' minutes and reports
• school log books and admission records
• prison inmates' records and governors' journals

Please note all records containing personal details are subject to certain closure periods.

Visit your local museum

• historic printed material
• photographs