Gatehouse uses a number of varied sources to collate the data with makes up this gazetteer and the main function of Gatehouse is to give as full a 'bibliography' as possible. Apart from books old and new, periodicals, web sites, national and local monument databases and the statutory listed building and scheduled monument reports there are some other 'unpublished' or differently published sources that may contain information of value.
Academic Theses and Dissertations
These will always represent a lot of research and will have extensive bibliographies. The best will represent new understandings and challenge old presumptions. Some of these will get slightly modified for publication in book form. However the conclusions and interpretations of other theses may well be questionable and an universal quality should not be assumed. A copy of a thesis should be held by the academic institute that examined it and some theses are now available online via;
- Index to Theses is a comprehensive listing of theses with abstracts accepted for higher degrees by universities in the United Kingdom and Ireland since 1716. Fifty thousand links to full text. Only available from subscribing institutions.
- EthOS Electronic Theses online service. This is a British Library service with theses from over a hundred UK institutions (list of participating institutions) about half of which provide open access. However, not all institutions are participating in EThOS, notably Cambridge and Oxford.
- Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations (NDLTD), an international organization dedicated to promoting the adoption, creation, use, dissemination, and preservation of electronic theses and dissertations (ETDs).
- DART-Europe E-theses Portal.
- University digital repositories. A growing number of institutions have there own digital repository and newer theses will be in these, older theses are unlikely to be added to these. Most of these institutions will participate in EThOS.
- Archaeological Data Service has a small number of downloadable theses.
- The Castle Studies Group has links to several theses of importance to castle studies.
Grey Literature
Reports published by organisations where publishing is not the primary activity of the producing body. This is things like archaeological watching briefs and surveys made by archaeologists for various clients. Can be difficult to find but may contain original and recent work. (
Wikipedia entry on 'gray literature'.) Probably the best place to actually find such reports would be the
county Historic Environment Record holder (
Welsh Archaeological Trusts) but this will normally require a physical visit. Some effort has now been made to make this grey literature more accessable and a number of online resources, databases and gazetteers are now available.
Television
Television has had a long standing relationship with archaeology and, more generally, with history. However, the media has been seen as transient and this has effected the form of television programmes and the accessibility of programmes for reviewing. Recent developments in digital storage does mean that TV programmes may start to become readily accessible as records.
