Tracing historical businesses in England/UK

Question

I'm told that some distant relatives ran a fish and chip shop in their local town.. Any tips on how to find more details about businesses/shops/companies from around 1900 in the uk (specifically England)?

Answer 1

Familysearch.org is a free site. If you can’t find anything there, come back with more info so I might be able to help

I have findmypast and some records can be found there.

Ancestry has some trade directory records.

Both are paid sites

Comments

Trade directories  for every county  in England and Wales are free online from univ of Leicester. Their collection is also on ancestry The only difference is that it is easier to search on ancestry.

http://specialcollections.le.ac.uk/digital/collection/p16445coll4

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Thanks Marion, Helen, I'm trying to avoid ancestry as it seems like a massive price gouge!

I'll have a look at the Leicester Uni stuff, thank you

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I recommend you view the video about how to search.