The aim of the project was to improve access to local and trade directories for the period 1750-1919 by making a substantial collection of English and Welsh directories available online as a Digital Library of Historical Directories. This digital resource comprises in total some 600 directories, covering every English county together with Wales, and ranging widely over the period 1750-1919 (the latter cut-off point chosen for copyright reasons). There is a particular focus on the 1850s, 1890s and 1910s, with at least one directory provided for each county in each of these decades. The digitisation of the volumes involved a two-stage process, in which (1) the hard-copy source was scanned to produce a graphic image of each page, and then (2) those images were processed using OCR software to generate a machine-readable text file.An online version of this resource can be found on the Website of the University of Leicester. This data collection includes the following directories:- History, Directory, and Gazetteer, of the Counties of Cumberland and Westmorland, with that part of the Lake District in Lancashire  forming  the  lordships  of  Furness  and  Cartmel (1829)- History,  Gazetteer,  and  Directory  of  Cumberland;  comprising a general survey of the county, and a history of the diocese of  Carlisle;  with  separate  historical,  statistical,  &  topographical descriptions of all the boroughs, towns, parishes (1847)- History, Topography, and Directory of Westmorland, and of the Hundreds of Lonsdale and Amounderness in Lancashire (1851)- Post Office Directory of Cumberland (1858)- Post Office Directory of Westmoreland (1858)- The  Post  Office  Directory  of  the  principal  towns  and adjacent places in Cumberland and Westmorland (1873)- History,  Topography  and  Directory  of  West  Cumberland,  comprising  its  ancient  and  modern  history;  a  general  view of  its  physical  features;  geological  character,  mines  and  minerals;  trade,  commerce  and  manufactures;  statistics,  &c.,  &c. (1883)- History,   Topography,   and   Directory   of   Westmoreland, comprising its ancient and modern history; a general view of  its  physical  features;  its  mines,  manufactures  and  agricultural  statistics;  historical  and  descriptive  sketches  of  each  town,  parish  and manor (1885)- Kelly's Directory of Cumberland (1894)- Kelly's Directory of Westmorland (1894)- Kelly's Directory of Cumberland (1897)- Kelly's Directory of Westmorland (1897)- History, Topography, and Directory of Cumberland, comprising its history and archaeology; a general view of its physical and  geological  features;  with  separate  historical  and  topographical descriptions of each town, parish (1901)- Kelly's Directory of Cumberland (1906)- Kelly's Directory of Westmorland (1906)- Kelly's Directory of Cumberland (1910)- Kelly's Directory of Westmorland (1910)- Kelly's  Directory  of  Cumberland  and  Westmorland (1914)