Jon CANTRILL reports that the Liverpool Mercury of Monday, 4th February, 1867 reports Bankruptcy: DOWNING, Joseph, Turnditch, Derbyshire, farmer.

• Registration of Companies and Businesses, there are three Research Guides from The National Archives with useful background information.
• Companies House has a database of companies and directors

• TNA provide:
  • A very useful  Research Guide: Companies and business
  • Their National Register of Archives (NRA) ("Discovery") is particularly useful for finding the location of the archived records of named organisations
• The Association of Business Historians creates and disseminates knowledge about business history.
• TNA hold some railway company records. (Ancestry provides subscription access to the TNA's railway employment records 1833-1958, from a number of historic railway companies.)
• Some employers' and trade association archives are held by Warwick University's Modern Record Centre.
• Trade directories can provide some information (including advertisements) about businesses, large and small, through the years.
• Railway Work, Life and Death - records of railway worker accidents in Britain between 1911 and 1915 - "a joint initiative between the University of Portsmouth and the National Railway Museum (NRM)".
• The John Lewis Memory Store: ". . . a living history of John Lewis & Partners. Through the site, people share their memories, photos, maps and information about John Lewis & Partners, past and present."
• United Kingdom Cemetery Records, from Interment.net.