Trade Directories – A Window on Pembridge Past
These days the internet is the first port of call for anyone seeking to find a plumber, electrician or other tradesman. Printed directories such as Yellow Pages and Thomson’s have ceased to exist.
Trade Directories may be associated in our minds with the era of the telephone, but they were published long before its invention, from the 1760s onwards. They provided a guide for the traveller, detailing the major landowners, clergy, and tradespeople in each town and village in England and Wales. They listed the places of religious worship, the times that carriages arrived and departed, hostelries and public houses, schools and post offices- a sort of Rough Guide of the 18th and 19th centuries.
Tony Norman has a collection of these directories between 1835 and 1941 and shares with us extracts of the entries for Pembridge. You can read this in our History section.
The Directories provide historical insights into Pembridge past. There were many more pubs and cider houses, shops, and churches. The parish was self sufficient with dressmakers, tailors, saddlers, butchers, and blacksmiths all providing a local service.
If reading Tony’s fascinating insights into how trade directories provide a window on the past has whetted your appetite to learn more, there are lots of ways you can access them, not just for Pembridge but for all of England and Wales.
Copies of trade directories are available at the Herefordshire County Archive (HARC). Fir Tree Lane, Hereford HR2 6LA. Anyone can telephone to make an appointment to see the County records:
01432 260750. This is a free service, and the archivists are pleased to help.
www.herefordshire.gov.uk/herefordshire-archive-records-centre
The University of Leicester has placed many directories online with free public access. These
include directories from 1760s to 1910s, and at least one for every English and Welsh county for the
years 1850s, 1890s and 1910s. www.specialcollections.le.ac.uk
Funded by the UK Lottery, the directories are now available online in
https://www.ukdataservice.ac.uk
Search ‘ Digital Library of Historical Directories , 1750-1919 ‘
Subscribers to Ancestry may also search ‘UK City and County Directories , 1766-1946’.
Kay Ingram
