MemorialsA memorial is not only a list of names. Its material, order, setting and dedication record decisions made by a living community after the war.Explore the section
First World War memory and evidence
Names, places and the records behind them
This project follows Tadcaster's war memorials from inscription to archive. It connects service papers, home front records and research notes so each name can be read in context.
40 articles4 editorial routes23 Aug 2026 last revised
Navigate the archive
Four routes through the evidence
Start with a memorial, follow a soldier, look at the town around them, or use the research notes to test a family story.
Soldiers' StoriesService records do not give a complete life. They give fragments: a transfer, a wound, a trade, a pension or a letter that can be tested against other evidence.Explore the section
The Home FrontWar reached kitchens, mills, allotments, schools and committee rooms. Local records show practical compromises more clearly than grand summaries do.Explore the section
Research NotesGood local history is a chain of decisions. These notes show where a record came from, what it can support and where a careful reader should stop.Explore the section
The latest reading
Recently revised
Dates stay visible so the archive can grow without pretending that every account was written at once.
Antique clocks: a collector's first steps
How to start an antique clock collection, how to date a clock from its movement and case, and what restoration involves, with records and archives in mind.
Read the article
Ironwork and the forge: how hot iron is worked
A plain guide to forge technique, tools and historic ironwork, with notes on how to read the iron that survives in buildings and bridges.
Read the article
American film noir: a repertory primer
A plain guide to American film noir for repertory programmers: Double Indemnity, seasonal cycles, and how to present M to a modern audience.
Read the article
How an Evangelical Sunday Gathering Is Ordered
A plain account of the evangelical Sunday gathering: singing, prayer, preaching, the breaking of bread, and how a sermon differs from a Bible study.
Read the article
Learning Spanish in Valladolid: a guide for families
A calm guide to planning a Spanish course in Valladolid, from DELE levels and family stays to the city
Read the article
Searching the tartan register by name and region
How to search the Scottish tartan register by name and by region, and how to read a threadcount, with notes on what the record does and does not settle.
Read the article
The Be On Our Side transit posters
A record of the Be On Our Side poster campaign in American transit systems, the counter-ads of 2011, and how the dispute is documented.
Read the articleA transparent method
Evidence first, certainty second
Each article starts with a question and names the kind of record that can answer it. When a source is incomplete, the gap stays visible. That is how a local archive becomes more useful, not less.
Read the editorial policyFrom the archive
More questions to follow
- What a Church Hall Can Teach a Family
- First stitches: holding a hook and reading a pattern
- High School Sports: Bowling, Track and Golf Seasons
- Shoreline crafts for the home workbench
- Wild buckwheats for a dry garden
- Why the names are not in alphabetical order
- Reading wartime newspapers critically
- What the dedication ceremony reveals
The desk
Read the project notes
The working archive
Keep these routes close
These pages are reviewed and kept visible as working references for readers tracing names, places and records through the archive.
Why the names are not in alphabetical order
A close reading of the memorial sequence shows how enlistment, rank and committee decisions remain visible in the stone.
Read the article
How to read a service record
This practical guide explains abbreviations, gaps, transfers and medical boards without turning an incomplete file into a complete life.
Read the article
Dossier: reading local records
A reference route links memorial wording, service papers and home front records so each source answers the question it can support.
Read the article
Using maps to locate home front sites
Ordnance Survey sheets, plans and photographs help place hospitals, drill halls, supply depots and changed streets in context.
Read the article
Food queues and price complaints
Complaint books and Food Committee minutes reveal how shortages, queues and suspicion of profiteering shaped wartime civic decisions.
Read the articleMethod comparisons
Two records to compare
These guides offer useful comparisons of source-led research in a naval corpus and a municipal history atlas.
- Navy muster roll method explains how an administrative role can confirm presence at a date without exceeding the document's limits.
- North Renfrew Record Atlas shows how municipal records, newspapers and place guides can support a sourced local chronology.
Beyond Tadcaster
Independent publications on related subjects
- For readers who want the Baptist understanding of baptism set out plainly, the baptist baptism by immersion explained page covers immersion, its scriptural basis and how Baptist congregations in western Colorado have practised it since the nineteenth century.
- Readers who want to know how the Día celebration of children, books and cultures on 30 April began, and how librarians and families choose bilingual and multicultural books, will find plain guidance at the Bookjoy Journal.
- For readers who want to see how a congregation's own records are kept, church life in Macon gathers notes on Lutheran worship, family ministries and food and clothing pantries in central Georgia.
- For readers curious about how a manuscript for children is prepared, the Carolina Kidlit Review covers craft and revision, submission and critique, and picture book layout for writers and illustrators in the Carolinas.
- Readers who want the older story behind October customs can turn to The Hollow Lantern at halloweenfiles.com, an independent English magazine on samhain to halloween history, covering Samhain, the origin of the carved pumpkin, vintage postcards and decorations, and safe ways to mark the evening.
- For readers who want to understand how a wash is laid on paper, how to lay a watercolor wash is covered by Pigment and Paper, an independent magazine on watercolour technique, paper, brushes and pigments, written for beginners and intermediate painters.