Historical Directories in the UK

I'm not sure this is complete yet, but there's enough to be seen at the Digital Library of Historical Directories that you'll be browsing a while. It's available at http://www.historicaldirectories.org/ .

This site is a collection of historical local and trade directories for England and Wales. Currently directories from 1750-1920, divided by era. I chose 1850-1860 and got a list of 88 directories, from Stranger's Guide and Directory to Altrincham, 1855 to Wright's Nottingham Directory, 1858.

Click on the title of the directory and you'll get a set of images through which you can browse. Pages are zoomable; information about the directory is available on the left. There's also a link to search the entire collection. A search of Wodehouse found 982 hits, presented ten at a time. The links in the search results led straight to the search hits in the directory, which are highlighted in yellow.

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