Where will I find descriptions of towns?

[Beavances]

I know I have seen these somewhere but for the life of me I cannot remember where! Somewhere there is a description of towns and villages at different dates  - they gives detail of where the town is situated, miles form London, population, times post was collected etc etc. I am looking for Hitchin in Hertfordshire about 1850 - 1900. Does anyone know what I am talking about? Can anyone suggest where I can look? Thanks you

[StevieSteve]

This?

http://joinermarriageindex.co.uk/pjoiner/genuki/HRT/Hitchin/

If yes, then just google town name & genuki and it should be one of the first in the list

[barryd]

I use Wikipedia. Here is a town in Australia that had a name change.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Birdwood,_South_Australia

[stanmapstone]

There is also GB Historical GIS / University of Portsmouth, History of Hitchin in North Hertfordshire | Map and description, A Vision of Britain through Time. http://www.visionofbritain.org.uk/place/999

Stan

[ShaunJ]

You can download 19th century Hertfordshire directories from the University of Leicester collection. They will give you the sort of information you are looking for. http://leicester.contentdm.oclc.org/cdm/search/collection/p16445coll4/searchterm/Hertfordshire/field/place/mode/exact/conn/and/order/nosort

Also Bradshaw's railway guide would be a useful source

[stanmapstone]

You can see the start of the entry for Hitchin in Kelly's Directory of Hertfordshire, 1895 at
http://cdm16445.contentdm.oclc.org/cdm/ref/collection/p16445coll4/id/42214

Stan

[Beavances]

Thank you all! It was the Genuki I had seen previously and could visualise - but not remember!  However the links to Kelly's and Vision of Britain will also be useful.