Discover the top 10 history websites

Museum curators, historical societies and other custodians of our history see the internet as a way to share their archives with a far greater number of people than could visit an exhibition or archive in person.

After several projects to digitise some of the world’s most important art, literature, history and other records, there’s a wealth of material online covering the history of Britain, its people, and just about anything else. Here we pick the very best places to learn about the past online.

English Heritage
Just as historic figures don’t stick around for ever, many of England’s notable buildings, parks and landscapes have been lost. Fortunately, many survive under the stewardship of bodies such as the National Trust and English Heritage, while the latter also undertakes archaeological research into how the country once looked, and why changes occurred.

The English Heritage website has details of its work, and lists of places to visit, including a set of holiday cottages situated in heritage sites, but more information lies through the Heritage Gateway. On this part of the site you can search national and locally held records of England’s historic sites and buildings, revealing details of the important structures that still exist.

The records don’t extend to other UK countries, but there’s Historic Scotland and Cadw for Wales. There are some interesting historical resources for Northern Ireland, while those who want to learn about the heritage of the Republic of Ireland should click here.

British History Online
If you want to research British history, this site – the creation of the Institute of Historical Research and the History of Parliament Trust – is perfect. While most of the sites on this list take a subjective view of our past, homing in on key events and narrating them, the site contains mainly raw information: great for research, but not so easy to browse or dip into.

Although the site is funded partly by subscribers, the majority of its content is free and the breadth of the material available is astonishing. Records from as far back as the 11th century have been digitised, and can be searched by keyword and refined by regions or topics such as religion, law, economy, parliament and culture. Although most records are text-based, you can also find Ordnance Survey maps and others from before 1800.