This page introduces teachers to a selection of the resources in Devon's local studies collections which could support them when teaching the national curriculum, especially in key stages 2 and 3. It concentrates on those sources which could support the following units:

• Unit 12: How did life change in our locality in Victorian times?
• Unit 18: What was it like to live here in the past?

For a list of which branches hold which packs see the web.

An indication of the type of material held in parish packs is given in the guide to branch library collections.

Sources discussed: census returns, trade directories, maps, illustrations, newspapers, inventories, school records, guidebooks & histories, parish records, eyewitness accounts, buildings.

The costs of providing copies to Devon local authority schools is under discussion. At present, provided that Devon teachers present a letter of authorisation from the school and that more than twenty copies are made, copies will be provided for national curriculum purposes at half the normal cost (i.e. £0.06 for A4 photocopies and £0.15 for printouts. This concession applies to the Westcountry Studies Library only. Please note that payment must be made at the time by cash or cheque. Receipts can be provided if required.

Resource: Census returns

Released to the public after 100 years, these provide the fullest listing available of the population of England and Wales. Arranged by street they give full details of houesholds including relationships ages, occupations and place of birth every ten years from 1841 to 1901.

Where are they? Microfilm or microfiche copies are held in the following libraries:

• Westcountry Studies Library, Exeter: 1841-1901 all Devon registration districts
• Exmouth Library: 1861 Exmouth only. 1881 all Devon (Mormon fiches) 1891-1901 Axminster, Honiton and St. Thomas (part) registration districts
• Newton Abbot Library: 1901 Newton Abbot registration district
• Totnes Library: 1901 Totnes registration district
• Kingsbridge Library: 1901 Kingsbridge registration district
• Tavistock Library: 1901 Tavistock registration district
• Okehampton Library: 1901 Okehampton registration district
• Tiverton Library: 1901 Crediton, Tiverton registration districts
• Barnstaple Library: 1841-1901 Barnstaple, Bideford, South Molton, Torrington & Holsworthy registration districts 1881 all Devon (Mormon fiches)
• Plymouth Library: 1841-1901 Plymouth registration district 1891 Tavistock and Okehampton registration districts, 1901 Plympton St. Mary registration districts, 1881 all Devon (Mormon fiches)
• Torquay Library: 1841-1891 Torbay district, 1881 all Devon (Mormon fiches) 1891-1901 Newton Abbot, Totnes, Kingsbridge registration districts

How can I use them? The enumerators' returns for 1841 and 1891 are a vital source in Unit 12: How did life change in our locality in Victorian times? The 1841 returns are difficult to read and contain less information than the 1891 returns. For guidance on Devon census returns, see the web. The occupations column combined with the column of ages can indicate the age at which children joined the world of work. The fact that households are listed together can reveal the size of family, the number of servants etc. There is potential for numeracy work by tabulating different categories of person by age, occupation and place of origin.

Resource: Trade directories

Larger towns are covered from the late 18th century, all parishes in Devon from 1850 to 1939. Apart from listings of the main traders there is information on the location, history and main institutions of each community.

Where are they? Parish extracts from Devon directories between 1850 and 1939 (for larger communities from 1823) should be found in parish packs. See the web for a list of directories and the libraries which hold them.

How can I get them? It may be possible to borrow the parish pack from the local library, otherwise you can visit the Westcountry Studies Library to take printouts of the relevant sections.

How can I use them? For information on directories as an historical resource see the web. Close examination of the listings can reveal changing types of occupation in the community. Where street listings are available - mainly the larger towns - students can attempt to produce their own present-day directory for shopping streets.

Resource: Maps

There are few detailed maps before the 19th century and the first one inch to a mile map of Devon dates from 1765. From the late 19th century most of the county is covered at a scale of 1:2,500 (25 inches to a mile).

Where are they? For online historical one inch mapping of Devon for 1575, 1765 and 1827 see the web. Early six inch to the mile maps should be found in parish packs. The Westcountry Studies Library has large collections of non-current maps in microfiche or hard copy.

How can I get them? Copies of current large-scale mapping can be obtained through Devon Curriculum Resources or through the GIS on the DCC intranet. Teachers can visit the Westcountry Studies Library to copy under the Ordnance Survey Service Level Agreement, but library staff themselves can only supply copies under the fair dealing clause of copyright legislation. Some maps are too fragile to permit copying.

How can I use them? For information on maps as an historical resource see the web. When using maps to plot data, it must be realised that street numbers are not normally shown before the 1940s.

Resource: Illustrations

As with maps, there are few local illustrations for the period before the 18th century, and few with great social interest before the late 19th century.

Where are they? A few early illustrations are included in the parish packs. Photographs, postcards, paintings are all held in the Westcountry Studies Library. For on-line images of engravings of some 200 communities in Devon see the Etched on Devon's Memory web site. There are many volumes of early photographs, including the community histories published by Halsgrove.

How can I get them? The low resolution web images on the local studies website can be downloaded and printed off for educational use. The Westcountry Studies Library can be visited but as the images are arranged by place, it may be time-consuming to locate material on a thematic basis.

How can I use them? For information on illustrations as an historical resource see the web. There is a major problem over intellectual property rights in the use of images and care should be taken before using copyright images in work which may be made widely available.

Resource: Newspapers

Local newspaper files go back to the 18th century and provide a vivid mirror of everyday life in the commuities they served.

Where are they? A selection of local cutting files should be found in parish packs. For a list of newspapers published in the county and their locations see the Devon newspaper bibliography on the web. Most files will have to be consulted on microfilm.

How can I get them? Cuttings files can be borrowed from the local branch library for copying if there are gaps in the school's set, or the Westcountry Studies Library can be visited. Print-out costs soon mount up and consideration should be given to copying a complete issue rather than searching through long files for material.

How can I use them? A major problem with newspapers is locating specific items of information on a locality. This can be avoided to some extent by the use of indexes, in the few cases where they exist, or of cutting files. There is an index to the Exeter Flying Post from 1763 to 1885 in the westcountry Studies Library. There are also extensive indices to local newspapers in Barnstaple Local Studies Library, Totnes Museum and Bideford Community Archive. However a sample issue of a local newspaper in the past with its advertisements, news items, both local and national, and its editorial can provide a vivid impression of Devon society in the past. For information on newspapers as an historical resource see: the web.

Resource: Inventories

Detailed listings of household goods, normally compiled for probate purposes, provide an extremely detailed view of life in the past.

Where are they? For an example of an early inventory see Michael Harte's inventory of 1615. Most Devon probate inventories were destroyed in 1942. Two publications by the Devon and Cornwall Record Society are useful: Devon inventories of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, edited with an introduction by Margaret Cash, 1966 and Uffculme wills and inventories, edited by Peter Wyatt, with an introduction by Robin Stanes, 1997. Insurance inventories are normally much briefer. Some have been published in: The Devon cloth industry in the eighteenth century : Sun Fire Office inventories of merchants' and manufacturers' property, 1726-1770, edited with an introduction by Stanley D.Chapman, 1978.

How can I get them? The Devon and Cornwall Record Society permit limited copying from their publications for educational use and the Westcountry Studies Library or libraries in Barnstaple, Plymouth or Exeter can be visited to do this.

How can I use them? Students can compile their own inventory to compare daily life in past and present. There are many archaic terms in inventories and a glossary may be required.

Resource: School records

Where are they? Recent records may be held by the school but early records should be deposited at the Devon Record Office.

How can I get them? You will need to visit to examine the original records. Subject to condition of the originals, it might be possible to arrange for extracts to be copied.

How can I use them? Early school logbooks can give a vivid insight into changing social conditions, for example the removal of students during harvest time, notes of epidemics.

Resource: Guidebooks and histories

Where are they? These are held in the Westcountry Studies Library in Exeter with other good collections in Barnstaple, Exmouth, Newton Abbot and other larger libraries.

How can I get them? Some copies may be available for loan, for example the reprint of Murray's handbook for Devon and Cornwall (1859) reprinted in 1971 by David and Charles. Selections can be copied in the Westcountry Studies Library, provided the originals are not too fragile.

How can I use them? As with directories and newspapers, the advertisements are often as informative as the main text. Students can see whether facilities such as hotels and theatres still survive.

Resource: Parish records

Where are they? These are normally deposited in the Devon Record Office. Listings of some categories, for example parish registers, are available on Devon Record Office web site. Some records have been transcribed and published, for example parish registers and churchwardens' accounts. Copies of these are normally available in the Westcountry Studies Library.

How can I get them? You will need to visit to examine the original records. Subject to condition of the originals, it might be possible to arrange for extracts to be copied.

How can I use them? Parish records take a wide variety of formats and interpretation is normally required before students can use them. The persistence of families in the community can be traced by examination of parish registers over time and it may be possible to match funeral monuments with parish register entries.

Resource: Eyewitness accounts

These can take written or recorded form. There is no central point in Devon for oral history work, so the location of spoken material can be difficult.

Where are they? There is a small selection of first person testimony covering more than a millennium one the First Person Devon web page. For World War 2 there is Devon's testimony of war.

How can I get them? Written accounts are often available for loan but the main difficulty is identifying suitable titles. A recent oral history project for Dartmoor was recently completed by Becky Newell. A selection of the results, with extracts arranged by theme on CDs is available under the title "Rabbits, Whortleberries and Railways" from Dartmoor National Park.

How can I use them? Oral history is immediate and vivid but is subjective in nature. It is necessary to compare accounts with each other and with more formal written records. Examples can be used to stimulate the students to obtain reminiscences from older members of their own family.

Resource: Buildings

W.G.Hoskins emphasised the value of the landscape in giving evidence of the past and buildings are an important element in this.

Where are they? Guides to important buildings casn be found in the Buildings of England series started by Pevsner. The registers of listed buildings are also a good guide, as are local histories and guidebooks.

How can I get them? The Westcountry Studies Library and many branch libraries hold registers of listed buildings, and other architectural guides are also available, often for loan.

How can I use them? For sources on the history of buildings see the property and house history web page.