You Most concerned citizens feel their hackles rising and their blood pressure soaring at the destruction of some valued part of our physical heritage - the ploughing up of a ringfort, the demolition of a Victorian landmark, even the felling of mature trees. Yet every day, unremarked and unobserved, a little part of our heritage of knowledge slips quietly into oblivion as elderly people take their folk memories and their local idioms to the grave, as public authorities and private firms discard redundant records, as local landscapes are modified and altered in minor but multitudinous ways to serve the community's changing social and economic needs. The continuing dissipation, with the passage of time, of local historical material, is so widespread and so unremitting that the handful of professional historians in our centres of learning cannot be expected systematically to ensure its preservation. Their work must be complemented by the efforts of an army of local historians in every district, working as individuals and in organised groups, to study, record and interpret the various historical factors which have contributed towards making our towns and rural areas what they are today - customs and attitudes. Amateur historians, through their numerical strength, their local background knowledge, and their lifelong interest in their locality are in a unique position to document local history not only as a matter of personal satisfaction but to provide the source material for future historical research by others.
Local history is by definition specialised - a specialised study of a particular district.
Yet it provides a variety or study topics to suit particular personal preferences. Biographies Heraldry Genealogy Old tracks and roads Boundaries Oral history Local bibliographies Religion Education Administrative history Buildings Architecture Military history Law and order Land and agriculture Trade and industry Transport Public utilities Social life Population 1. This Horse Trough at Lower Mounttown, South Country Dublin, dates from the days of horse transport. There are thousands of objects which are so familiar to passers by, but are rarely noticed for what they are. A study of topographical features can itself produce an awesome array of historical evidence.