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Local History Website From the Past - Lancashire at War Website

Local History Website From the Past
Lancashire at War Website  

Lancashire At War Website - Exploring the hidden history of War sites in Lancashire
Lancashire At War Website


Over the past couple of years, I have been sharing some of the local history websites or blogs that I have discovered along the way when researching Preston & Lancashire History.  This has generally been via Social Media Group posts.  There are a good number out there, but they aren't always easy to find.  Some are extremely niche, and explore a very specific topic to a very detailed level.

This one has previously had me in a 'battle' with the well-known social media platform beginning with 'F'.  Whenever I posted it the system removed it after several hours, saying that it was akin to a canned meat food introduced in 1937.

This particular local history website is about the county of Lancashire at war.  Obviously that is all around the county. However, there is quite a bit that is specific to Preston.

It is one of two websites written by brothers A & R Bowden.  I have featured the other one on previous posts.  It is called Lancashire Past.  I will put a link to it in the comments below.  Over the years the brothers have discovered some lost and forgotten sites from World War Two.  That later sparked an interest in finding more varied sites that were not specifically wartime related, which ultimately led them to discover many things of interest, from different eras, all across Lancashire.

The brothers grew up in Bury.  They say that they spend an inordinate amount of time looking at old maps & books and then subsequently going out looking for things in the (usually) wet Lancashire weather.  That sounds a bit like me!

At the time of my first posting, I could only recommend Googling the phrase:

Lancashire at War Website 


However, since then, things have taken a turn for the worse.  The website later disappeared altogether.  I think it may have been hacked, and that is possibly why my previous attempts at posting failed.


That leads my to my second part of this post.


The Wayback Machine 


Over time, I find that many interesting local history websites and personal blog projects disappear.  The aren't always free to run, and if they are, hosting policies change.  If you have a personal domain name (a website name like prestonhistory.com) that incurs a small (generally) annual fee, which need to be paid on a regular basis.  If the author gets bored, can't afford it, or sadly passes away, etc. the website generally dies with them.


Fortunately, for the moment at least, there is a website out there that effectively backs them up in a viewable format.  It is run by an organisation called the Internet Archive.  They store all manner of digital resources, such as scanned copies of library books that are in the public domain (not under copyright).  The Wayback Machine is part of their archive.  


The History of the Wayback Machine

Origins: The Wayback Machine is a service of the Internet Archive, a non-profit digital library founded in 1996 by Brewster Kahle. His vision was to create a permanent record of the internet, much like how libraries preserve books.

Launch: The Wayback Machine went live to the public in 2001. By that time, the Internet Archive had already been collecting web pages for five years, storing "snapshots" of websites at different points in time.

How it works: Web crawlers (similar to those used by search engines) periodically capture and store versions of websites. These are timestamped and archived, allowing users to "go back in time" and see how a website looked on a particular date.

Scale: It has grown enormously. As of the mid-2020s, the Wayback Machine holds over 800 billion web pages and petabytes of data. It also preserves other digital content: books, audio, video, and software.

Name: The name comes from the cartoon “Rocky and Bullwinkle,” where characters Sherman and Mr. Peabody used a time machine called the WABAC Machine to travel to historical events.

Impact: The Wayback Machine has become invaluable for researchers, journalists, lawyers, and the public. It is used to verify sources, track changes to web content, restore lost material, and preserve digital culture.

Challenges: Despite its size, it cannot capture everything — some websites block its access, use dynamic content, or are otherwise difficult to archive. Copyright concerns also influence what can be displayed.


In the main though, for the sort of thing I have viewed and then it has disappeared, the Wayback Machine generally has a copy of it.  Often the pictures can be missing, but the text information can generally still be referenced. 


When you use the service, if the website you want to review has been captured, a calendar of dates is presented and you can choose the one that you think is most suitable.  In the case of  Lancashire At War.co.uk I went back to a point in May 2024 when I knew the website hadn't yet started experiencing problems.


Wayback Link:


https://web.archive.org/web/20240515040144/http://lancashireatwar.co.uk/


.

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Location: Lancashire, UK

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