It was interesting to read about the cutbacks to the BBC's web services as there are loads of areas being cut which I never had heard of. One problem trying to be everything is that somethings fall by the wayside. One such service is BBC Legacies which appears to be an effort to centralize local British history. When you get there you find loads of links as well as some stories - including one on a clan of cannibals from near my mother's home town, Largs in Ayrshire, entitled "Sawney Bean: Scotland's Hannibal Lecter". Yikes. Not a lot of action in the public participation areas when you have a look around.

Following those links, however, you find lots of great information including local history links from South Ayrshire's Council, one of which is a free searchable database of old UK maps, including one, a detail of which is shown below, from the 1850s of Largs showing Brooksby House which is now an nursing home where in 1987 I spent a week visiting with my Grannie flipping around her stroke-impaired memory like the video for Elvis Costello's "Veronica".

Maybe this BBC site is not a success because others are taking care of the topic.