This list is grouped by theme; it is by no means exhaustive, but will hopefully provide you with additional sources of information and help you to take your research further, beyond the collections of the County Record Office. Many of the publications referenced below can either be consulted by prior appointment at the County Record Office, or obtained via the North Yorkshire library service.
Themes include:
- Researching house history
- Websites of neighbouring archives
- National archive catalogues online
- North Yorkshire libraries
- Historic maps and plans
- Historic buildings and specific house types
- Historic property deeds
- Local historic photograph collections online
- Some place-specific NYCRO publications
- Field and place-names
- Wills
- Census, genealogical and parish records
- Aerial photographs
- Historical evidence
- Newspapers
- Historic Environment Records – archaeology and historic buildings
Researching house history
Adolph, A. 2006 Tracing your Home’s History. London: Collins.
Backe-Hanson, M. 2011 House Histories: The secrets behind your front door. Stroud: The History Press.
Barratt, N. 2006 Tracing the History of your House: the building, the people, the past. Kew: National Archives.
Blanchard, G. 2013 Tracing Your House History: A Guide for Family Historians. Pen & Sword Books Ltd.
Olusoga, D. & Backe-Hanson, M. 2021 A House Through Time. London: Picador.
Websites of neighbouring archives
Borthwick Institute for Archives
Explore York, Archives & Local History
West Yorkshire Archive Service
National archive catalogues online
Archives Hub – Search across descriptions of archives, held at over 380 institutions across the UK
Discovery: The National Archives online catalogue – search records held by The National Archives and more than 2,500 archives across the country.
North Yorkshire libraries
North Yorkshire County Council local libraries – list of libraries and contact details
North Yorkshire County Council online library catalogue
Historic maps and plans
Beech, G. & Mitchell, R. 2004 Maps for family and local history: the records of the Tithe, Valuation Office and National Farm Surveys of England and Wales, 1836-1943. Kew: National Archives.
English, B. 1985 Yorkshire Enclosure Awards. Hull: University of Hull.
Fonge, CR. 1994 Tithe Awards and Maps at the Borthwick Institute: A Handlist. York: Borthwick Institute List and Index 11.
Hollowell, S. 2000 Enclosure Records for Historians. Phillimore & Co.
Kain, RJP., Chapman, J. & Oliver, RR. 2004 The Enclosure Maps of England and Wales 1595-1918. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, with online searchable database
Kain, RJP. & Oliver, RR. 2011 The Tithe Maps of England and Wales: A Cartographic Analysis and County-by-County Catalogue. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Kain, RJP. & Prince, HC. 2006 The Tithe Surveys of England and Wales. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Oliver, R. 1993 Ordnance Survey Maps: a concise guide for historians. London: Charles Close Society.
Rawnsley, J.E. 1970 Antique Maps of Yorkshire and their Makers. Guiseley: Rawnsley.
Watton, M. & Usher, D. 2000 Maps in the Borthwick Institute. York: Borthwick Institute.
Whitaker, H. 1933 (reprinted 1971) A Descriptive List of the Printed Maps of Yorkshire and its Ridings, 1577-1900. Yorkshire Archaeological Society Record Series LXXXVI. Leeds: Yorkshire Archaeological Society.
The National Archives Research Guide on Enclosure Maps & Plans
The National Archives Research Guide on Tithes
National Library of Scotland – online historic Ordnance Survey maps
National Library of Scotland Map Regression Case Studies (rural & industrial landscapes)
North Yorkshire County Council Historic Ordnance Survey maps online
Historic buildings and specific house types
Alcock, N.W. et al 1996 Recording Timber-Framed Buildings: An Illustrated Glossary (Practical handbooks in Archaeology: 5). Council for British Archaeology.
Alcock, N.W. & Hall, L. 1994 Fixtures and Fittings in Dated Houses 1567-1763 (Practical handbooks in Archaeology: 11). Council for British Archaeology.
Blanchet, E & Zhuravlyova, S. 2018 Prefabs: A social and architectural history. Historic England.
Hall, L. 2005 Period House Fixtures & Fittings 1300-1900: The Definitive Illustrated Guide to Interior Styles Through the Ages. Newbury: Countryside Books.
Harrison, B. & Hutton, B. 1984 Vernacular Houses in North Yorkshire and Cleveland. Edinburgh: John Donald Publishers Ltd.
Hatcher, C.J. 1990 Richmondshire Architecture. Richmond, N Yorks: C.J. Hatcher.
Jensen, F. 2007 The English Semi-Detached House: How & why the semi became Britain’s most popular house-type. Huntingdon: Ovolo Publishing.
Lake, J. et al. 2006 Historic Farmsteads. Preliminary Character Statement – Yorkshire and the Humber region. University of Gloucestershire in association with English Heritage and the Countryside Agency.
Lawrence, R.R. 2009 The Book of the Edwardian & Inter-War House. Aurum Press Ltd.
Leach, P. & Pevsner, N. 2009 The Buildings of England: Yorkshire West Riding, Leeds, Bradford and the North. New Haven, Connecticut, London: Yale University Press.
Long, H.C. 1993 The Edwardian House: The Middle-Class Home in Britain, 1880-1914. Manchester: Manchester University Press.
Muthesius, S. 1984 The English Terraced House. Yale University Press.
Pevsner, N & Neave, D 2002 The Buildings of England: Yorkshire, York and the East Riding. New Haven, Connecticut, London: Yale University Press.
Pevsner, N. 1985 The Buildings of England: Yorkshire, The North Riding. Harmondsworth: Penguin. (NB: new revised edition in preparation for 2023)
Raistrick, A. 1976 Buildings in the Yorkshire Dales. Clapham, N Yorks: Dalesman.
RCHME 1987 Houses of the North York Moors. Royal Commission on the Historical Monuments of England & HMSO.
RCHME 1986a Workers’ Housing in West Yorkshire 1750-1920. Royal Commission on the Historical Monuments of England & HMSO.
RCHME 1986b Rural Houses of West Yorkshire 1400-1830 (Supplementary Series: 8). West Yorkshire Metropolitan County Council & Royal Commission on the Historical Monuments of England.
Stenning D.F. & Andrews, D.D. (eds) 2012 Regional Variation in Timber-Framed Building in England & Wales to 1550: The Proceedings of the 1994 Cressing Conference. Essex County Council.
Stokesley Society, The. 2000 Buildings of Stokesley: A small Georgian market town.
Walton, J. 1979 Homesteads of the Yorkshire Dales. Clapham, N Yorks: Dalesman.
Wilkinson, P. & Ashley, P. 2009 The English Buildings Book: An Architectural Guide. English Heritage.
Church of England Church Heritage Record – contains over 16,000 entries on church buildings in England
Historic England Listing Selection Guides – provide a useful overview of the history of a range of building types
Listed building descriptions & other statutory designations: National Heritage List for England
The Prefab Museum Archive online
University of the West of England website on the History of Housing
Workhouses – website by Peter Higinbotham, which includes details of Yorkshire workhouses
Yorkshire Vernacular Buildings Study Group – searchable list of historic building reports
Historic property deeds
Alcock, NW. 2017 Tracing History Through Title Deeds: A Guide for Local and Family Historians. Pen & Sword: The National Archives.
Heggie, J. K. F. 2019 ‘Women’s involvement with property in the North Riding of Yorkshire in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries’ in Capern, A., McDonagh, B. & Aston, J. (eds.) Women and the Land, 1500-1900. Woodbridge: The Boydell Press.
Sheppard, F., Belcher, V. & Cottrell, P. 1979 ‘The Middlesex and Yorkshire deeds registries and the study of building fluctuations’ in The London Journal, 5:2, pp.176-217, DOI: 10.1179/ldn.1979.5.2.176
Stuart, D. 1992 Manorial Records: An Introduction to their Transcription and Translation. Chichester: Phillimore & Co.
Tate, W.E. 1944 ‘The five English district statutory registries of deeds’ in Bulletin of the Institute of Historical Research XX, pp.97-105, May 1944
Manorial Documents Register – online via The National Archives
A limited number of NRRD indexes have been transcribed as part of The Register of Deeds Project, an academic research project led by Dr Joan K. F. Heggie looking at women’s involvement in property. Searchable transcriptions of NRRD Index Registers for 1784-1790 and 1885-1889 are available online; as are all the ‘M’ townships for the period 1853-1864, including Middlesbrough.
The University of Nottingham Manuscripts and Special Collections online guide to manorial records and research guide on deeds
Local historic photograph collections online
Ripon Re-viewed – historic photographs of the City of Ripon
The Rowley Ellwood Collection – online gallery of over 500 historic old photographs of Skipton
Some place-specific NYCRO publications
Bainbridge in the Middle of the 19th Century by Fred & Joyce Roberts
Bedale 1772-1841 by M.Y. Ashcroft
Hird’s Annals of Bedale ed. Lesley Lewis
Bilsdale Maps 1781-1857 (companion volume to Bilsdale Surveys below)
Bilsdale Surveys 1637-1851 eds. M.Y. Ashcroft & Audrey M. Hill
Borrowby in 1851
Malton in the Early 19th Century ed. DJ. Salmon
Richmond Burgage Houses: surveys of 1679, 1773 and 1820 ed. Leslie P. Wenham, 1978
Settle in the Middle of the 19th Century by Audrey M. Hill
Field and place-names
Cavill, P. 2018 A New Dictionary of English Field-Names. Nottingham: English Place-Name Society.
Gelling, M. 2000 Signposts to the Past: Place-names and the History of England. Phoenix Press
Gelling, M. 2001 Place-Names in the Landscape: The Geographical Roots of Britain’s Place-names. Phoenix Press.
English Place-Name Society volumes on the North, East and West Ridings (ed. A.H. Smith)
Wills
Camp, AJ. 1963 Wills & Their Whereabouts. Canterbury: Phillimore & Co. Ltd for the Society of Genealogists.
Gibson, J.S. 1974 Wills and Where to Find Them. Phillimore & Co. Ltd for the British Record Society.
Borthwick Institute webpage Are you looking for a will?
Probate Records from 1858 – the Government’s ‘Find a Will’ website
Census, genealogical and parish records
Ancestry – includes England census & 1939 Register: subscription required*
Findmypast – includes England census records, 1939 Register & NYCRO parish registers: subscription required*
Genuki – includes historical information about North Yorkshire towns and parishes.
* These online resources are available without subscription via People’s Network computers in most North Yorkshire libraries, and in our Record Office search room.
Aerial photographs
Brotherton Library Special Collections, University of Leeds, holds the Yorkshire Archaeological and Historical Society’s collection of aerial photographs of Yorkshire.
Cambridge University Collection of Aerial Photography (CUCAP)
Historic England Aerial Photo Explorer
Historical evidence
The National Archives research guide on the Inland Revenue Valuation Office Survey 1910-1915
Victoria County History for Yorkshire – via British History Online (York, East & North Ridings)
Newspapers
British Newspaper Archive – for online historic newspapers: registration & subscription required*
Many libraries across North Yorkshire hold collections of local historic newspapers on microfilm.
Historic Environment Records – archaeology & historic buildings
National Heritage List for England – for listed buildings & other statutory designation records
Heritage Gateway – for historic environment data online
North Yorkshire Historic Environment Record
Yorkshire Dales Historic Environment Record & Out of Oblivion: A Landscape Through Time
North York Moors Historic Environment Record HER map online
City of York Historic Environment Record
North Yorkshire County Record Office 