Help with searching
There are a number of ways that you can search the information held by Exploring Surrey's Past.
Find Out
The quickest way to start searching is to use the Find Out box. This is located on the home page, and in the right panel of every other page.
Try putting in a particular site, or try a place familiar to you. You could also try a type of archaeological find or monument.
This searches across all of our databases, covering archives, archaeology, museums, local history as well as finding any themes written on the subject, place or person you are looking for.
From your search results list you can narrow down your query, by selecting which category you are particularly interested in.
These are indicated by the use of these icons:
Archives 
Archaeology 
Museum 
Local History 
Themes
To find out more about how these groupings are organised, please read about how this site works.
When you search, the system may also look for related terms. So, if your search is for "tumulus", the system will make the follow suggestion:
Clicking on this suggested term will start a new search running for this word. Because some of our databases have slightly different ways of recording similar information, we will try to link together similar concepts and ideas using related terms.
Near You
Our near you search tool lets you find out about the archaeology near you - using your Surrey post code.
Simply enter your full postcode in the format GU21 6ND
The results, archaeological sites, listed buildings and findspots recorded in the Historic Environment Record (HER) will be plotted onto an aerial view of the postcode you have antered. You can hover over and click on records to see more about a particular record.
Also, this search suggests Parish names which you may like to try to find out what else we hold in our archive, museum and local history collections connected to your neighbourhood.
Advanced Search
Too many records returned in your Find Out search? If you are looking to search just one particular type of database, or even just a single database, you can try our advanced search. It can be accessed from the front page and from the right panel on every other page. Just look out for the Green magnifying glass icon - 
This presents a pick list of all the databases available on this site. These are grouped to allow you to quickly select the type of material you are interested in. The groupings are explained, and full details of the databases are given under How this site works.
You can then search using a Who, What, Where, When approach. These can be combined for more controlled searching.
Specialist Search
We are currently developing the specialist search, which allows you to search any specified field in our online database. You must hvae a knowledge of how our database works. Please contact us for further details.
Searching from Theme Pages
From the main sections - People, Places and Times you can browse through our specially written theme pages. However, if you are looking for a particular Person, the Parish where you live or want to learn more about a Time Period, you can use our special search boxes on these pages. They search both our themes and data for your keyword, specially targeted to find either a Person, Place or Time Period.
Specialist Search