1880-1921 Kelly’s Directory

Kelly's Directory was a trade directory listing all businesses and tradespeople in a particular city, town or village, as well as a general directory of postal addresses of local gentry, landowners, charities, and other facilities.

The first Directory was created in 1836 by Frederic Festus Kelly who took over publication of the Post Office London Directory. He went on to found Kelly & Co and he and various family members gradually expanded the company over the next several decades, producing directories for an increasing number of UK counties and buying out or putting out of business various competing publishers of directories. In 1897, Kelly & Co became Kelly’s Directories Ltd, and continued to produce County Directories until the mid-1970s.

Copies of Kelly’s Directory of Worcestershire may be found at Evesham Library and at The Hive in Worcester. In addition, a copy of the 1921 Kelly’s Directory has been donated to The Badsey Society by Gerard Poulter.

Names appearing in Kelly’s Directory for the years 1880-1921 are given below. Private residents were listed separately to tradesmen in the Commercial category. Please note that only the years 1880, 1888, 1896, 1912 and 1921 have been looked at, so the date range is just an indication of the time that the person was living in the village.