Welcome to the Local History Archive Spreadsheet

This spreadsheet provides a downloadable Excel file carrying multipage indices to the local history archives.

Sheet 1 (Full details document order) comprises a full index in document reference number order.

Sheet 2 (Full details index term order) is the same as sheet 1 but sorted on the index term.

Sheet 3 (Abbreviated index) comprises index terms, document location and reference number only.

The full index content includes the following information where each document is represented by a row entry in the spreadsheet and the descriptive information about the document is represented by the column contents.

Reference number. This is a 4 digit number starting at 1000 which identifies the document. Where more than one index term is used to refer to a document, a separate entry with the same reference number is listed for each index term.

Index term. This describes the contents of the document and classifies it by topic or subject category; e.g. churches or maps. If Sheet 2 (full details index term order) is used, all documents will be grouped together by their search term, on consecutive rows.

Title. This is the name of the document and identifies the subject matter.

Media type. This defines the format in which the document is held. Most documents are articles and identified as ‘text’ but other examples are maps and photos.

Date of origin. This is the original date of creation or reference of the document. For a published article it is the date of publication; for maps or census data it will be the year created, and for photos the relevant date taken. A date will be provided to the nearest year if the exact date is not known.

Storage location. The archives are stored in a number of locations. For those currently indexed, they are held in files identified by a volume number. Each volume is subdivided into a number of subfolders and hence location V2 S3 indicates volume 2 subfolder 3.

Comment. Some but not all documents have an additional comment of a descriptive nature providing further related information of interest; e.g. the name of the person providing the document or who provided a photograph.

The spreadsheet may be opened in your browser or downloaded to your PC and subsequently opened in Microsoft Excel. If you do not have Microsoft Excel installed on your PC you may download a viewer from the Microsoft Download Centre website.

To open or download the document, from the website local history page click on the file title “Local history – archive spreadsheet” and open or save the file. Once opened in Excel you may sort the file on any field or use any of the three indices. Some familiarity with Spreadsheets in general, and Excel in particular, is assumed.

You will also see that reference numbers are provided with hyperlinks. Clicking on the hyperlink will open the corresponding record in the Great Baddow Online website Local History section. This lists the document description in a vertical tabular format, rather than the horizontal format of the spreadsheet. The choice is one of personal preference.