A new web site is aiming to put the nation's history on the online map.

History.uk.com has been launched by a team of Sussex-based consultants to cover everything from medieval castles and industrial heritage sites to historic parks and gardens, inns and pubs.

The site, the idea for which was thought up about a year ago by Evolution writer Ray Hatley, hopes to take advantage of people's continuing fascination with all things historical.

Television programmes, such as archaeology show Time Team and the Six Wives of Henry VIII, presented by Professor David Starkey, have helped push history into the spotlight.

Interest in local history is also booming and, by the end of this year, there will be a dedicated local studies centre in the redeveloped Brighton Museum and Art Gallery to bring together for the first time local history material from every Brighton and Hove museum and library.

The new site's director of sales and marketing Anna Bolton said: "The market for history keeps on growing, what with people's continuing interest in genealogy, a resurgence of interest in local history and recognition of the importance of oral history."

The site uses public domain information and the research team spent hundreds of hours scouring the internet for suitable material, browsing hundreds of directories, reference books and brochures to find contact details for more than 25,000 people, organisations and places associated with UK history.

Ms Bolton said although the site was more resource than a commercial venture, it had been set-up to pay for itself. It has also received sponsorship from BT.

She said: "Visitors can access the site free and any organisation or place with a historical connection can have a free listing.

"If they want what we call a premium listing, which can include additional information and photographs, it costs £25 a year.

"The idea is for the site to be directory of everything historical, a single point of call where people can locate the organisations and experts to answer their questions.

"It's also a fabulous resource for planning a day out and should help the tourism industry, which was hit so badly last year."

Because many local and regional historians are only interested in places close to home, the site's search engine allows users to search by name of organisation, town, country, postcode or even the STD dialling code. There is also a history timeline with headlines for each year, making it easy to appreciate how events related to each other.

The timeline was produced by former Evolution journalist Alix Macfarlane, who will also oversee future features, such as What Happened On This Day In History.

A number of Sussex companies have contributed to the development of the site.

Much of the technology was provided by Sigmer Technologies, based at the Sussex Innovation Centre (SIC). E-Velocity, also SIC based, has been selected to host the site.

Its indexing was developed with help from the East Sussex Library Service and Brighton-based Indexing Specialists.

www.history.uk.com
www.bt.com
www.brighton-hove.gov.uk/bhc/museums/brighton/index.html
www.sigmer.com
www.e-velocity.co.uk