Local Heritage at West Bridgford Library

The Local Heritage section at West Bridgford Library is located on the First Floor, accessible by lift and stairs.

Here you will find a range of material relating to West Bridgford 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
•          Family history

The book collection has approximately 2500 volumes including standard histories of Nottinghamshire and Nottingham City.

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 West Bridgford is the reference for titles concerned with the history of the town in general, but topics such as Education or Housing have specific numbers – indexes are available, and staff will be able to help.

Periodicals ion 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 copies of the following local newspapers on microfilm, and there may also be relevant articles in titles accessible via Inspire’s FREE subscription to the British Newspaper Archive 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.

Bunny Observer     1959-1963

Clifton Standard and West Bridgford Times     1958-1970

West Bridgford Advertiser     1915-1930

West Bridgford Times and Echo     1929-1939

N.B. Copies of the Nottingham Evening Post on microfilm are available via Nottingham City Libraries in addition to the digital records on the British Newspaper Archive.

Trade directories, from around 1850, include listings of local industries, and prominent people. The library has wide coverage of Nottinghamshire directories in microfiche format and a microfiche reader is available.

Ephemera files have been compiled over many years containing news cuttings, leaflets and uncatalogued information on various themes, including local industries, biographies etc. arranged by subject.

The photograph collection includes approx. 1000 mounted images covering the period from the 1850s to the 1990s and including local villages.
These are arranged by theme in filing cabinets and an index to the classification scheme is available.

Over 25,000 Nottinghamshire images have been digitised and are available on the Inspire Picture Archive.

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

Parish Registers on microfiche cover West Bridgford (and surrounding parishes) from c.1559 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