Search the archives catalogue

 
 

Help with searching WESTCAT

How archives are catalogued

Archives are not generally catalogued as single entities (like books) but as component parts of a group. Archive catalogues have a hierarchical structure with the following main levels of information:

  • Fonds-level (a summary of each archive collection, for example a particular business such as Watney, Combe, Reid and Co Ltd)
  • Sub-Fonds level (a subsidiary part of an archive collection such as Watney and Co, Combe and Co or Reid and Co)
  • Series-level (each series of records within the collection. For example the minute books or ledgers, of Combe and Co with their covering dates.)
  • File-level (a group of related records within the series. For example the photograph album of the Stag Brewery)
  • Item-level (one item within the series, for example a single photograph, with its date. such as a photograph of the war memorial at the Stag Brewery)
Searching WESTCAT

All you need to do is enter a search term in one or more of the fields on the Search form. The more fields you use, the more specific your search will be – so you may find that you get better results if you don't fill in too many of the fields. If you get unexpected results with your first searches – try again using a simpler search.

Using the search fields
  • Any Text
    Use this field to search across all the text fields in the entire database. You can enter any word or phrase here just as you would in a web search engine like Google. For example, to find out if we have the records of a particular Westminster parish or business, enter the name here and click on the Search button at the bottom of the screen.
  • Title
    Use this field to search across the entries in the title field of all of our records. This should give you rather more specific results than those you would get using the "any text" search.
  • Date
    Use this field to find all the records we have for a particular period.  The best way to use this field is in conjunction with a search on another field. For example, you could enter a business name in the Title search field and then specify that you are only interested in records between 1900 and 1999 by entering this range of dates here.

    WESTCAT is very flexible in the type of dates that it will accept as search terms. Examples of valid date searches are as follows:
    • 1867
    • 19th century
    • 1900-1922
    • circa 1850
    • mid 19th century
    • early 20th century

    You are advised to experiment with this date field if you get unexpected results at your first attempt.

  • Management Group
    This allows you to limit your search by selecting one of three options:
    Archives – Official Records (Westminster City Council and its predecessors)
    Archives – Deposited Records (records from all other sources)
    Local Studies – mainly printed material including prints and photographs
  • Management Sub-Group
    Our collections are grouped together by type according to the individual, or organisation which created them. Use this field to browse our collections and identify our holdings in different areas. for example, if you are interested in records of Westminster schools, you can scroll down this list and select ‘Schools and other educational institutions’, and then click on Search. This will return a hitlist showing all the records that we have that we have from schools in this area.
  • Category
    This is a tool to help you to browse our collections to see if we have a particular type of material. For example, if you want to see information about the collections of wills and probate records which we hold, select 'Wills and probate documents' from this list and click on Search.
  • Prints and Photographs
    If you only want to search for images select 'Prints and Photographs' from the Category field and click on Search. Copies of the images can be provided through our digital scanning service.