Local Heritage at Stapleford Library

The Local Heritage section at Stapleford Library is located on the First Floor, accessible by stairs or a lift.

Here you will find a range of material relating to Stapleford and the surrounding area, with background material on Nottinghamshire and the East Midlands.

There are resources to help you trace:

•          History of local places
•          Recent local developments
•          Transport
•          Local industries/businesses
•          Social history
•          Family history

The book collection has approximately 1000 volumes including the works of Arthur Mee - originator of the well-known Children’s Encyclopadia and Newspaper.

Some items are only available to be consulted in the library, but wherever possible we offer a loan copy of the title as well. The majority can be searched for on the library catalogue but some are not yet included. 

The Local Studies classification numbers can be used to find books on specific themes e.g. L90.2 Stapleford is the reference for titles concerned with the history of the town in general, but topics such as Pubs or Churches have specific numbers – indexes are available, and staff will be able to help.

Periodicals in the collection include:

• The Nottinghamshire Historian
• Transactions of the Thoroton Society of Nottinghamshire (history and archaeology)
• Parish magazines 
• East Midlands History and Heritage

The library holds the following local newspapers on microfilm.

Stapleford and Sandiacre News                    Oct 1919-2018 (not fully complete)

Stapleford Recorder                                       16 Jan- 18 Oct 1920

A microfilm reader and printer machine is available.                                     

N.B. Not all Nottinghamshire titles are currently included in the British Newspaper Archive, although there may be relevant articles in other titles accessible via this FREE subscription available in Inspire Libraries and at Nottinghamshire Archives.
A list of Nottinghamshire titles in digital format on the British Newspaper Archive can be found here.

The trade directories, some county-wide, covering the period from around 1800, give contemporary information about Stapleford, including listings of local industries, and prominent people. 

Files have been compiled over many years containing news cuttings, leaflets and uncatalogued information on various themes, including local industries, biographies etc. arranged by theme in a filing cabinet.

The photograph collection includes approx. 200 mounted images , covering the period from the 1850s to the 1980s.
These are arranged by theme in filing cabinets and an index to the classification scheme is available.

The free access to Ancestry.co.uk in libraries and at Nottinghamshire Archives is the most convenient way of searching for Census information from 1841-1911.

Parish Registers on microfiche cover Stapleford and surrounding parishes from c.1655 into the Twentieth Century (where they survive). Microfiche copies in the library have been well-used for many years, but from August 2022 the majority of records are available via Inspire's FREE subscription to Ancestry.co.uk. A full list of those available online is here.

A separate family history collection of some key titles to help with the process of researching family history is also available in general library stock..

For help with specific enquiries please contact Ask Inspire.

Archival records such as wills, diaries, original parish registers, business and personal correspondence etc. are held at NottinghamshireArchives:

County House
Castle Meadow Road
Nottingham
NG2 1AG
Email: archives@inspireculture.org.uk
Tel: 0115 9581634