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Occupations information for Berkshire and places above it in the hierarchy

Berkshire

  • General information about researching occupations and guides from TNA.  
  • See also Business and Commerce.
  • TNA's Discovery facility allows you to search their records of a person by occupation (try "apothecary AND richardson") and may be listed on the NRA.  
  • Trade directories can provide some information about individuals and companies through the years, see sample pages from a 1915 directory.
  • Warwick University's Modern Record Centre provides definitions of  trades and occupations, many of which will be unfamiliar (scroll down the page).
  • Ancestry provides subscription access to some occupational records.
  • Apprenticeships: The RBA have some registers of apprentices in their Poorhouse records.
  • Church ministers
    • Many early ministers of the Church of England were graduates of Cambridge or Oxford Universities which publish brief biographical details - see under Schools.
    • Crockford's Clerical Directory: first published in 1858, contains biographies of over 26,000 clergy of the Church of England, the Church in Wales, the Scottish Episcopal Church and the Church of Ireland.  Copies are held by many libraries, including Reading Central Library. Also available free for different years from various online books sites  (e.g. this 1865 edition from Google Books).  Clergy since 1968 are also listed online
    • The Church Times is a weekly C of E newspaper which often contains obituaries.  
    • The Surman Index is an online biographical card index of Congregational ministers which "includes the names of about 32,000 ministers, and, where known, their dates, details of their education, ministries or other employment, together with the sources used. It covers the period from the mid-seventeenth century to 1972".
    • The Dictionary of Quaker Biography consists of approximately 20,000 biographical entries of prominent British and American Friends from the 17th to the 20th centuries.
    • Trade directories can provide some information about ministers through the years, see sample pages from a 1915 directory.
    • See also Church History
  • Dentists
  • Doctors
    • For hospital medical staff, try also the Hospital Records Database below.
    • Some hospital staff will be listed in the censuses.  
  • Horse racing and training is well established in Berkshire, see sketch map.
  • (aka public house (pub) landlords, licensees):
    • See also Inns, Hotels and Pubs.
    • The records of their licences issued by the local authorities are held by the RBA.  Search their holdings using TNA's Discovery advanced search and include "Berkshire Record Office" in the "Exact word or phrase" field, in addition to your own search term(s).
    • See this description from TNA.  
    • Abbot Cook to Zero Degrees: an A to Z of Reading’s Pubs and Breweries, a comprehensive directory and history of pubs and breweries in Reading, both past and presen, around 500 in all.  Factual information about the premises, landlords and surveys is embellished with anecdotal information and contemporaneous reports from newspapers, periodicals, etc.
  • Millers:
    • Berkshire Windmills, Guy Blythman, 2007, available from Berkshire FHS shop and Reading Central Library, lists the 49 windmills known to have existed in Berkshire with brief details and locations.
    • Mills Archive Trust is a repository for historical and contemporary material on traditional mills and milling worldwide (including Berkshire) and is located in Reading. 
  • Nurses:
    • District Nurses - healthcare for the poor in the first half of the 20th century was often provided by District Nurses who were funded by District Nursing Associations. 
    • These District Nursing Associations' records are available from the RBA
      • The Bagley Wood Nursing Association (for Kennington, Radley, Sunningwell and Wootton), 1923-1948, (D/QNA/BW).  
      • The Wantage District Nursing Association (for Grove and Wantage, and from 1940 Letcombe Bassett and Letcombe Regis), 1928-1942, (D/QNA/WT). 
      • Also available are the minutes of Sonning Deanery Moral Welfare Association, 1934-1938 (D/RDS) which helped unmarried mothers, fallen women and deserted wives by providing financial assistance, places in homes, referrals to the police, and assistance with prosecutions for maintenance, although the names of its clients are omitted.
  • Police - Berkshire is currently policed by the Thames Valley Police, formed by the amalgamation of various local forces:
    • Abingdon Borough Police 1836-1889 amalgamated with the Berkshire Constabulary.
    • Newbury Borough Police 1836-1875 amalgamated with the Berkshire Constabulary.
    • Reading Borough Police 1836-1968 amalgamated to form the Thames Valley Constabulary (now Thames Valley Police).
    • New Windsor Borough Police 1836-1947 amalgamated with the Berkshire Constabulary.
    • Wokingham - policed from Reading.
    • Berkshire Constabulary 1855-1968, amalgamated with the Buckinghamshire Constabulary,  Oxford City Police, Oxfordshire Constabulary and Reading Borough Police to form the Thames Valley Constabulary (now Thames Valley Police).

Sources of historical information about the police:

  • General information about the Police. 
  • The Thames Valley Police Museum is located within Sulhamstead House, known locally as the 'White House', at Sulhamstead, Berkshire, open by appointment.  
  • Surviving personnel records are patchy:
    • Buckinghamshire police records are held by the Archives and the Local History Library, Aylesbury. 
    • Oxford City Police records are held by the Oxfordshire History Centre.  
    • Berkshire Constabulary records are held by the RBA,  including examination records for many police officers 1856-1929 (Q/APE series), including details of age, address, previous jobs, reading ability, etc. Search by name at TNA.
    • Oxfordshire Constabulary and Reading Borough police records are held at the Thames Valley Police Museum, Sulhamstead.  
    • Windsor Borough Police records were destroyed by flood.  
  • Reading Borough Police Registers for the periods 1865-1880 and 1881-1905 are available from Berkshire FHS shop and the originals are held at the Thames Valley Police Museum.
  • Was Your Ancestor a Berkshire Policeman?,  article in Berkshire Family Historian, Vol 14, page 112 gives a brief history of the Berkshire police forces.
  • Queens Peace, a History of Reading Borough Police 1836-1968, Alan Wykes, 1968, available from Reading Central Library.   
  • Short History of the Berkshire Constabulary, 1856-1956, 1956, ISBN: 9999043185, available from Reading Central Library.  
  • Wikipedia.  
  • Post Office workers
  • Prisons - see Correctional Institutions
  • Railway workers - see Business & Commerce
  • Royal household in Windsor castle - see The Royal Archives.  
  • Soldiers, see Military
  • Teachers - see Schools
  • Trade Union records 
    • RBA hold records of the Reading Typographical Society, 1898-1970 (ref. D/EX1941); and the Reading branch of the GMB union and its predecessors (originally the National Union of Gasworkers and General Labourers), 1911-1988 (ref. D/EX2017).
    • The location of archived papers may be listed on the NRA.  
  • The Weavers’ Company in Newbury was a powerful trade gild founded in the 16th century. Records held by the RBA (ref. D/ENM, etc), including the organisation’s 1602 charter from Queen Elizabeth I.

*Organisations, Other

See below for records of organisations other than Business and Commerce RecordsSchoolsCourtsMilitaryNewspapers.  Check the links below, and use TNA's Discovery advanced search and include "Berkshire Record Office" in the "Exact word or phrase" field, in addition to your own search term(s).    

  • Reading Co-operative Society - records are held by the RBA (ref. D/EX1497). 
  • Sports clubs - The RBA hold records of a number of Berkshire sports clubs, see the Berkshire Echo Vol 60 of 2012, Vol 64 of 2013, including those of Berkshire County Cricket Club 1903-2013. Typical records might include administrative records, minutes, annual reports, accounts, programmes, newsletters, photographs, membership lists.
  • Statutory authorities - various records of some public companies are held by the RBA
  • Thames Conservancy - see Names, Geographical

Parish Records - see Church Records.

England

UK and Ireland