British History Online

British History Online is the digital library containing some of the core printed primary and secondary sources for the medieval and modern history of the British Isles. Created by the Institute of Historical Research and the History of Parliament Trust, we aim to support academic and personal users around the world in their learning, teaching and research.

Top Sources

By Region


Integrated search for early modern and 19th-century British history

British History Online on Facebook

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British History Online contains primary and secondary sources for the history of the British Isles. You can find a diverse range of sources here, such as:

British History Online is run by the Institute of Historical Research - the centre for the study of history in the UK - at the University of London. Our goal is to produce highly accurate digital versions of the core works of British history, as part of the Institute's national role in historical research.

Highlights of the collection include:

Economic

Coin, hammered sovereign of the Commonwealth, dated 1653 Coin, hammered sovereign of the Commonwealth, dated 1653
© V & A

Administrative and legal

Serjeant at Law's ring Serjeant at Law's ring
© V & A
 

Updates British History Online blog

  • 02 May, 2012
    Jonathan Blaney
    Alumni Oxonienses
    The Alumni Oxonienses, 1500-1714 , is now complete on British History Online ...
  • 23 Apr, 2012
    Peter Webster
    New resources for architectural history
    We're just about to begin work on a new digitisation project: of the inventory volumes of the Royal Commission on the Historical Monuments of England...
  • 29 Mar, 2012
    Bruce Tate
    An index of sustainability: ISURV
    This project will investigate the creation of a sustainability index which will be the product of three variables: unique visitors, their return rate and the number of page requests per visit...
  • 08 Mar, 2012
    Bruce Tate
    BHO wins new funding
    We are pleased to announce that British History Online has been awarded funding by the Joint Information Systems Committee ( JISC ) under strand B, 'Enhancing the Sustainability of Digital Collections', of the 16/11 Digital Infrastructure call ...

 

 

Use the list below as a quick way to find our sources relating to a particular geographical area or topic.

 

Parliamentary

James Bertie, Second Son of James, Earl of Abingdon James Bertie, Second Son of James, Earl of Abingdon
© V & A
 

Links to our material categorised by type

Primary sources

The texts of original documents, such as the Journals of the Houses of Commons and Lords, Acts and Ordinances of the Interregnum, and the Statutes of the Realm.

Secondary texts

Works by modern historians, such as the Victoria County History of the Counties of England, Fasti Ecclesiae Anglicanae, English Heritage's Survey of London, and Office Holders in Modern Britain.

Guides and calendars

Summaries of primary sources, prepared by modern editors, such as multiple series of the Calendars of State Papers, the Catalogue of Ancient Deeds, and the Letters and Papers of Henry VIII.

Gazetteers and dictionaries

Listings of places, property, goods and markets, such as Lewis' Topographical Dictionaries of England, Scotland and Wales, Harben's Dictionary of London, plus the Dictionary of Traded Goods.

Maps

Historic maps from the Ordnance Survey, including the complete 1:10,560 series, and 1:2,500 maps for selected areas (Epoch 1), plus selected maps of London before and after the great fire.

Local

The Harvest Moon The Harvest Moon
© V & A

Ecclesiastical and religious

Salisbury Cathedral from the Bishop's Ground Salisbury Cathedral from the Bishop's Ground
© V & A
 

Recent BHO references in academia and on the web Twitter: @bho_history

British History Online has a premium content section, which is only available to subscribers. The revenue from the premium content supports the maintenance and development of the free areas of the site. Individual subscriptions cost £30 a year.

The premium content consists of the Parliament Rolls of Medieval England (Edward I to Henry VII), all the volumes of the Calendar of State Papers, Domestic 1537-1714, the Calendars of State Papers for Scotland and Ireland, plus the Calendar of Close Rolls.

All 180 volumes are scanned and double re-keyed, with a guarantee of 99.9 per cent accuracy. This means that the search facility will be able to find all the content; none of it is hidden.

  • More reliable search results than texts converted less accurately using OCR technology;
  • Fully cross-searchable with free material such as the Lords and Commons Journals
  • Developed by historians for historians at the Institute of Historical Research;
  • By subscribing to this resource, you are supporting the maintenance and development of the free areas of the site (the ratio of free to premium content is approximately 4:1).

Registered users can subscribe now (individual annual subscriptions are just £30 USD, EUR ), libraries should contact us (or JISC in the UK) for information on site licenses and to request a trial. There is more information on the premium content, including a full list of publications on the Subscribe page.

Places

The Queen's House, Greenwich The Queen's House, Greenwich

Subjects

London Bills of Mortality, 1665London Bills of Mortality, 1665
 

News from across other IHR Digital projects IHR Digital blog

  • 03 May, 2012
    Simon Baker
    British Parliaments and Assemblies: A Bibliography of Printed Materials
    The Parliamentary History Yearbook Trust and Wiley have published online the British Parliaments and Assemblies: A Bibliography of Printed Materials ...
  • 01 May, 2012
    Jonathan Blaney
    The digital history of mathematics
    There is a joke among mathematicians that if you have an idea that no one has ever had before you should check, before publishing, that it's not in Gauss's papers...
  • 30 Apr, 2012
    Peter Webster
    Exploring the Domain Dark Archive
    Bookings are open now for the first of a series of day workshops on the Domain Dark Archive, a comprehensive archive of websites from the UK web domain for the period 1996 to 2010...
  • 20 Apr, 2012
    Simon Baker
    Searching for condoms on ECCO
    Perhaps it's the library geek in me but I enjoy articles which describe the construction and improvement of online searching...

 

Local

The Mermaid dish The Mermaid dish
© V & A

Ecclesiastical and religious

St Nicholas being Chosen as Bishop of Myra St Nicholas being Chosen as Bishop of Myra
© V & A