What is Local History and why is it important?

Published on 14 January 2023 at 14:42

Local history focuses on the geographic of a region, district, town, or community and it embodies the cultural and social aspects of its history.

 

Understanding Local History helps highlight the everyday hardships, victories and occasions of ordinary people.

Locations, stories and articles within the community help us reflect the long and rich heritage of past generations.

Whilst researching this topic I stumbled on a quote from Carol Kammen's book:

Plain as a Pipestem (1989) Essays about Local History 

Which I feel explains Local History perfectly

"No community has a singular historical past. Every community has versions of the past that reflect varying opinions and many different perceptions of what happened and why."

Local History is important to us because it reflects how it plays a significant role in who we are and how we perceive the world.

It gives us a strong sense of identity, and learning our Local History teaches us to view things from a different perspective. 

Preserving and restoring our Local History is essential, it helps us explain the architectural, and cultural heritage of a community, as a result establish our connection to it. 

Local History is one of the oldest and most recently recognised fields of study.

Something I found very prominent when researching certain topics in the 18th and 19th centuries, was that many Historical Societies existed then. 

 

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