Frequently Asked Questions

Here are some frequently asked questions about this website.  If you’d like to ask another question, please contact us or use the ‘add a comment’ link at the foot of this page.

What’s the aim of the website?

The Our Warwickshire website aims to help people discover, share and record the heritage of Warwickshire. By heritage, we mean both our local and social history, and also our natural heritage (plants, animals, geology etc).

Who’s behind the site?

The website was set up by Heritage & Culture Warwickshire (HCW), in partnership with local history societies. It’s currently run by a team of volunteer editors, managed by a staff member. If you’d like to volunteer as an editor, please contact us.  Find out more about the origins of this site.

What does the website cover?  How much content is there?

There are three main types of content on Our Warwickshire.

  • Firstly, there are about 1,000 ‘articles’, mainly contributed by local people and HCW staff. These are short pieces of writing, often illustrated by photos or videos. They are usually snippets of historical information, memories or stories.
  • Secondly, there are about 10,000 old photos.
  • Thirdly, there are details of about 10,000 ‘historic sites’ around the county, from the list maintained by the Historical Environment Record.

There are lots of maps on Our Warwickshire as well – just go to a page about any particular location or subject and you’ll find a map. The site also includes details of local heritage groups, a list of local heritage events and a blog.

See more information about the types of content on Our Warwickshire.

How do I find content about a particular place or subject?

For places, the best place to start is the Locations page. There’s an A-Z list and a map view. For subjects, you can start at the Subjects page. Here the subjects are organised in a hierarchy, so you should choose a top-level subject (such as Celebrations and Events) and then you’ll find other subjects within it. If you want to search for a particular subject, the best thing to do is to use that subject as a search word on the Search page.

Why does some content have photos but not much text, or the other way round?

The thousands of old photos on the site originally came from Windows on Warwickshire. These photos just have a title and a caption. It would be great to add more information related to these photos. So if you know more about the photo, or the subject of the photo, please use the ‘Add a comment’ link to add some information to the page.

The thousands of ‘historic sites’ come from the list maintained by the Historical Environment Record. We don’t have photos of most of these sites, so often there are just some text details. We’d love to have more photos  if these historic sites, so please help by taking a photo if you can. You’ll see a link for adding your photo when you look at the details of a particular historic site.  For example, see the page about the historic site of the Old Church of St James, Packington.

Why isn’t there much content about particular subjects or places?

Inevitably, while we have dozens of photos and articles about certain subjects and places, we have very little content about others. Our Warwickshire is growing all the time, though, so if you find your particular village doesn’t have much content about it, please do get involved and add more. It’ll be much appreciated.

What kind of material can I upload or contribute?

Have a look at the Get Involved section. You’ll see there’s a wide range of ways you can contribute to the site.  This includes uploading photos and uploading very short articles. An ‘article’ is like a short piece of writing in the local newspaper – it can just be a snippet of historical information, or a memory or a story.  We’re also hoping people will send us photos of the some of the ‘historic sites’ listed on Our Warwickshire.  Find out more about you and Our Warwickshire.

How do I use the search facility?

Go to the search page and enter a search term in the search box. If you get a long list of results, you can narrow down your results by using the ‘filters’. For example, you can choose to see only results from a particular time period, or results which are photos.

If you want, instead of starting by entering a search term, you can start just by clicking on one of the filters. So you could start your search by clicking on Alderminster on the ‘Filter by location’ list.

How do I use the maps?

You can find the maps by going to any subject, location or time period and clicking on Map View. Once you’re at a map, click on the Show help button for guidance on using the map. You’ll also see buttons for overlaying the map with historic maps and changing the type of content that is marked on the map (for example, you could choose just to see photos). More information on the use of maps can be found here.

How do I ask another question not listed here?

Please contact us or use the ‘add a comment’ link at the foot of this page.