Catalogues at the Oxfordshire History Centre

Catalogues of most of our archive and local studies’ collections can be searched online

Digital resources

Many of our collections and holdings are listed online. Full details of these are in the catalogues' section of our Digital resources for Oxfordshire history website

Archives, Local Studies and Oral History catalogues

Heritage Search

Use Heritage Search - our principal online catalogue - to search our archives, local studies and oral history catalogues.

Check our frequently asked questions for more information about how we have improved Heritage Search and check for details of the data sets included.

Heritage Search offers key word searching (for example, by subject, place or name) for records of the documents, publications and audio recordings we hold at Oxfordshire History Centre.

Local Studies holdings (publications) can also be searched on SOLO, the catalogue of the University of Oxford libraries.

Some earlier archive catalogues are accessible only as card catalogues in our searchroom. To consult these, you will have to visit Oxfordshire History Centre.

Others can be searched on The National Archives’ Discovery catalogue. Browse a list of card catalogues (pdf format, 226Kb)

Some earlier archive catalogues are accessible only as card indexes in our searchroom. To consult these, you will have to visit Oxfordshire History Centre.

Heritage Search can also be used to search for objects held by Oxfordshire Museums Service and for buildings, monuments, excavations, surveys and archaeological finds recorded by Oxfordshire Historic Environment Record.

Picture Oxon

Picture Oxon

Picture Oxon is our online image library containing photographs, prints, drawings, and printed maps held by Oxfordshire History Centre, covering Oxfordshire and the Thames Valley from the 1850s to the present, and including 380,000 catalogue records of images and 145,000 digital images.

Picture Oxon is fully integrated into Heritage Search and can be searched simultaneously alongside all our heritage datasets.

Digital images are available to view online for many of our records, and you can purchase copies for non-commercial research or private study, but to see original images we haven’t yet digitised, you’ll need to make an appointment to consult them at Oxfordshire History Centre.

Catalogues not yet on Heritage Search

A broad overview of collections which are not searchable via our Heritage Search online catalogue:

Archive collections

  • Quarter Sessions: bundles of papers of administrative and criminal business, 1687-1830 and 1864-1971
  • Parish records: the 6% of the catalogues not on Heritage Search are accessible in pdf form via the Digital resources for Oxfordshire history website 
  • Deposited records from individuals, organisations, estates, businesses, and families: some are still only accessible on cards, but increasingly these are being made available on Discovery.

More information on archive collections.

Books and pamphlets

Oxfordshire County, Oxford City and University books are mostly listed on Heritage Search, but only a minority of periodicals is included.

A separate list of trade and street directories is available.

More information on books and pamphlets.

Maps

Ordnance Survey maps

Interactive digital OS mapping (historic and current) is available in the Oxfordshire History Centre’s public search room.

Paper editions are not catalogued on Heritage Search, but holdings lists of County Series and National Grid plans are available in Oxfordshire History Centre’s public search room.

Other historic printed maps

Most are listed on the Picture Oxon website. Choose ‘Historic Maps’ from the Collections dropdown list.

Guided access to a selection of historic printed maps is available through the Maps section of our Digital resources for Oxfordshire history website

More information is available on published mapping.

District valuation records

District valuation maps and survey books dating from 1910 are available to search on our District valuation page.

Newspapers

Not catalogued on Heritage Search, but this holdings list of our newspaper collections (microform and digital) is available separately.

More information on newspapers, periodicals and directories.