Places to Visit - Modern History

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How our Lancashire ancestors lived

Photograph of Queen Street Mill Textile Museum There are a number of web sites and museums illustrating facets of our Lancashire ancestors’ lives and including extensive archive resources.

For a real life working mill experience head off to Quarry Bank Mill in Cheshire or Helmshore Mills Textile Museum and Queen Street Mill Textile Museum in Lancashire where you can see machinery in action in it's rightful place!

Bolton Museum Aquarium and Archive Photograph of Bolton Lives Gallery at Bolton Museum

Learn about the invention of the spinning mule, the changes to Bolton through the textile industry's rise and fall and the lives of Boltonians in the local history gallery - Bolton Lives.

Bolton History Centre

Trace your family tree or take your very own personal journey into the past in the History Centre. Bolton Council has collected a wide variety of published and unpublished material of local significance for more than 150 years. Visit our website for more information about tracing your family tree before visiting the centre.

British Commercial Vehicle Museum

Photograph of vintage bus at British Commercial Vehicle Museum The British Commercial Vehicle Museum holds an extensive archive consisting of over 256,000 photgraphs and glass plate negatives. In addition it holds 100's of paper records. All of this material is sourced from commercial vehicle manufacturers around the UK. Although the majority of these images show vehicles, many also show people in the work environment, street scenes and people at leisure (holidays, week-ends, etc).

These records cover the past 100 years and show social history development both in the UK and abroad.

Cotton Town

This web site concentrates on Blackburn & Darwen, but gives insights into the history of the cotton industry.

People’s History Museum

The People’s History Museum’s collection relates to the history of working people in Britain. It is also houses the Labour History Archive and Study Centre (LHASC) – the main specialist repository for research into the political wing of the labour movement.

Spinning the web

This web site brings together a unique collection of some 20,000 items from the libraries, museums and archives of North West England which tell the story of the Lancashire cotton industry.

Most local museums have examples of the local population at work and play, sometimes with temporary exhibitions featuring specific aspects.

Merseyside Maritime Museum

Photograph of Merseyside Maritime Museum The Maritime Archives and Library at Merseyside Maritime Museum house a great collection of maritime books and documents spanning three centuries.

The reference library covers all aspects of maritime history, with specific emphasis on the Merchant Navy and the port of Liverpool. The library contains substantial collections of several benefactors, shipping companies, merchant ships' libraries and business associations. The library also includes many rare and unique items including first editions. There are substantial slavery and emigration collections, with printed bibliographies available for purchase.

They have specific Records of slave traders and abolitionists, records of Seamen's charities such as the Liverpool Sailors' Home, and education establishments such as the training ships HMS Conway and TS Indefatigable. Liverpool's one time importance as the second largest port of the British Empire, and its long connection with the Merchant Navy is reflected in the many career and personal papers of seafarers held in the Archives. They relate to all ranks including captains, officers, engineers, boatswains, surgeons, stewards and stewardesses, pursers, carpenters, ordinary seamen and apprentices, and feature letters, diaries and photographs. We have particularly good representations from the two World Wars and famous vessels such as the Titanic and Lusitania. Although no official pre-1890 records of emigrants survive in Britain, the Archives have many personal records from the mid 19th century, such as voyage diaries and letters written from the New World etc. We also have related documents in our business and shipping company archives.

More information

MOSI

Photograph of the Steam Train at MOSI At MOSI they have an extensive archive collection that primarily consists of business records and personal papers. The business records include the company archives of local firms, such as Beyer, Peacock & Co. Ltd, Mather & Platt Ltd and Ferranti Ltd, as well as the archives of the Electricity Council (and predecessors), the national body responsible for promoting electricity supplies. The personal papers are mainly the work papers of employees of local companies. The archive material ranges from minute books and order books to photographs and advertising films. The company archives include material relating to employees but they do not include comprehensive staff records, so there may be a limited scope for family history research.