The Sources used in Gatehouse

The information on the individual buildings or sites pages in this web site is derived from numerous sources.

Online Sources (click for more detailed list of links)

Several historical monument databases are now available online, the most important of these are PastScape and Coflein, which are respectively, the online National Monuments Records for England and Wales.

Most County Councils have put their Historic Environment Records (Previously called the Sites and Monuments Records) online in searchable databases of various quality. Many of the secondary sources used and reference in Gatehouse have used the original hard copies of these records but the author of Gatehouse has only occasionally actually visited the county offices and viewed the records directly.

There are a few web sites covering many sites and a fair number of buildings have web pages, usually of limited worth but occasionally of real value.

A number of important source texts are becoming available online. Notably British History Online is transcribing many editions of the Victoria County History and other importance primary and secondary sources. Where such online editions of books an attempt to give a direct link is made.
Many older books and journals, which are no longer in copyright, are now available as online scanned copies. These texts are often of interest and value but should be used with great care. There have been major changes in the understanding of castles and important archaeological and historical discoveries since these texts were published so newer texts should also be consulted.

Books (click for a bibliography)

Printed, and other physical, sources fall into several different types;

• General texts, cover general descriptions and themes but will use specific sites as detailed examples of a more general point.
• Gazetteers are listing of sites in a specific area, or of a specific type, usually with site descriptions.
• Journal articles can be detailed site descriptions or local gazetteers.
• Primary tend to be published transcriptions/translations of the primary source such as the PRO editions of the Calendar of Patent Rolls rather than the actual original manuscript, although very occasional these are detailed.
• Antiquarian are published transcriptions/translations of texts written by contemporary or near contemporary authors, most notably John Leland and William Camden.
• Other sources are often unpublished thesis or in house reports but can be a variety of other things including personal correspondence. There is also gray literature including archaeological 'watching briefs' and some other small scale archaeological investigations which do not get published in journals. Information on academic thesis may be available via Index to Theses other reports may be lodged with the appropriate Historic Environment Record holder (contact details via each site page). A few other odd sources, such as television programmes are also sometimes referenced.
  Some other documents of related interest, such as The Heritage at Risk Register, are also record here.