Commercial & General Directory & Red Book Of Leicester 1875

Product Description:

Unlock the secrets of Victorian Leicester with this fascinating reproduction of the Commercial & General Directory & Red Book Of Leicester 1875.

Whether you are tracing your family tree, researching the history of your house, or interested in the local industrial heritage, this directory is an invaluable window into the past. Ideally suited to bridge the gap between the 1871 and 1881 census years, this book allows you to track where your ancestors lived, who their neighbours were, and their exact occupations.

Format & Navigation: This product is available as a high-quality digital download or on a CD. Please note that these are scanned images of the original pages; therefore, the text is not embedded or internally searchable in the traditional sense. However, due to the highly organized alphabetical nature of the directory—sorted by surname, street, and trade—navigation is straightforward and intuitive.

Tip: Most modern PDF readers (such as Adobe Acrobat) offer OCR (Optical Character Recognition) on the fly. You can often use the "Find" or "Search" tool in your PDF viewer to locate text within these images, making research even easier.

What’s Inside? This comprehensive Red Book is packed with detail, offering a panoramic view of Leicester life in the mid-1870s. It includes:

• Street Directory: An alphabetical listing of the streets and lanes of Leicester, showing the head of household or business at each address.
• Commercial & Trade Directory: A classified list of trades and professions—from Hosiery Manufacturers to Boot and Shoemakers—crucial for understanding the town’s industrial dominance.
• Private Residents Directory: An alphabetical list of the gentry, merchants, and prominent citizens, often including their residential addresses.
• Official Information: Details of the Corporation, local officials, magistrates, clergy, and public institutions.
• Advertisements: Hundreds of period advertisements promoting local businesses, medicines, and services, adding vivid colour to your research.

Filling the Census Gaps Census records only provide a snapshot every ten years. If you have "lost" an ancestor between 1871 and 1881, or if they were simply out visiting on census night, this directory serves as a vital substitute. It confirms residency and trade status in the year 1875, helping you confirm family movements and economic standing.

Leicester in 1875: Context & Curiosities

• Industrial Powerhouse: In 1875, Leicester was at the height of the Industrial Revolution. This directory captures the boom in the Hosiery and Knitwear industries, as well as the flourishing Boot and Shoe manufacturing trade which made the city famous worldwide.
• Famous Residents: While browsing these pages, you may encounter contemporaries of the city’s great innovators. Thomas Cook, the pioneer of popular tourism, was a native of Leicester and his business was active in the city during this era.
• Sport & Leisure: While Leicester City Football Club (originally Leicester Fosse) would not be founded until 1884, 1875 Leicester was sport-obsessed with cricket being highly popular. The directory lists many clubs and societies associated with the Leicestershire Cricket Club.
• Music & Culture: The city had a vibrant musical scene. The directory lists committees and patrons for the Leicester Philharmonic Society and various choral societies that were the heart of Victorian social life.

Map Disclaimer Please Note: The original publishers of the 1875 Red Book did not always include fold-out street maps in every edition, and over the last 150 years, maps have often been removed from surviving copies. While we have made every effort to preserve the original book exactly as it was, we cannot guarantee that a street map is present in this specific scan. However, if a map was present in the source book we digitized, it is included here as a valuable bonus.

System Requirements: To view these PDFs, you will need a PDF reader installed on your computer (such as Adobe Reader or similar).

Bring the history of Leicester to your fingertips today!