Help & User Guide

Learn how to search and navigate the History of Tetbury Society Digital Archive

Quick Start: Enter keywords in the search box and click Search. The system searches item descriptions, reference IDs, and metadata to find relevant items.

Searching the Archives

Basic Search

Enter keywords in the search box and click

button. The system will search through item descriptions, reference IDs, and metadata to find relevant items.

Advanced Search Features

📝 Abbreviations & Smart Expansion

The search automatically expands common abbreviations:

St. → Saint
Dr. → Doctor
Rd. → Road
Ave. → Avenue
Sq. → Square

It also handles possessives automatically. Searching for Marys will find Mary's, Marys, and Marys'.

Example:

Searching for St Marys finds: St Marys, St Mary's, Saint Marys, Saint Mary's

🔍 Exact Phrases

Use double quotes to search for exact phrases:

"London Road" will only match that exact phrase
"Market Square" won't match "Market" or "Square" separately

📄 Include Text Found in Documents

Tick this option to search within the text extracted from PDF documents and images. This provides a more thorough search but may return more results.

Document Types

Search includes all document types by default. Select a specific type to limit your search, or choose All Types to search everything again.

A

Artifact

B

Booklet

D

Document

E

Electronic

L

Library

M

Map

P

Photograph

R

Recording

Viewing Documents

Click the

View

button next to any item that has an associated document to open it in a new window.

Search Tips

🎯 Be Specific

"St Marys Church" is better than just "church"

🔢 Use Reference IDs

Try P000960 to find specific items

🗂️ Browse All

Click Search with no keywords to see all items

About the Society and our Online Archive

The History of Tetbury Society (HoTS) is dedicated to researching, preserving, and sharing the rich history of Tetbury and its surrounding areas. Our archives contain thousands of historical documents, photographs, maps, and artifacts spanning several centuries.

This digital archive system provides public access to our collection, making it easier for researchers, historians, genealogists, and anyone interested in local history to discover and explore our holdings.

Our Collection

The archive includes:

Photographs: Historical images of Tetbury, its people, streets, and buildings
Documents: Deeds, maps, census records, and official documents
Publications: Books, pamphlets, and booklets about local history
Artifacts: Physical objects of historical significance
Digital Collections: Born-digital materials and digitized resources

Advanced Search Technology

This archive uses intelligent search technology that understands natural language, automatically expands abbreviations, and searches through OCR-extracted text from documents. The system is designed to help you find relevant items even when you're not sure of the exact wording.

Visit & Contact

Website: www.tetburyhistory.com

Contact: Contact Form

For inquiries about access to physical materials, research assistance, or to report any issues with this digital archive, please use our contact form.

Using Our Archives

Copyright & Usage: Materials in this archive are provided for research and educational purposes. Copyright remains with the History of Tetbury Society unless otherwise noted. Please contact us if you wish to reproduce or publish any materials.

Technical Information: This archive uses up to date technology featuring intelligent search pre-processing with abbreviation expansion, search normalisation, and relevance-based ranking. The system uses Optical Character Recognition (OCR) technology combined with Large Language Models (LLMs)to make historical documents easier to search.

Feedback:We welcome your feedback on our online archive's functionality and any suggestions for improvement. Please use our contact page to share your thoughts.

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