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The Victoria History of the Counties of England, commonly known as the Victoria County History or the VCH, is an English history project which began in 1899 with the aim of creating an encyclopaedic history of each of the historic counties of England, and was dedicated to
Queen Victoria Victoria (Alexandrina Victoria; 24 May 1819 – 22 January 1901) was Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland from 20 June 1837 until her death in 1901. Her reign of 63 years and 216 days was longer than that of any previ ...
. In 2012 the project was rededicated to Queen Elizabeth II in celebration of her Diamond Jubilee year. Since 1933 the project has been coordinated by the Institute of Historical Research in the University of London.


History

The history of the VCH falls into three main phases, defined by different funding regimes: an early phase, 1899–1914, when the project was conceived as a commercial enterprise, and progress was rapid; a second more desultory phase, 1914–1947, when relatively little progress was made; and the third phase beginning in 1947, when, under the auspices of the Institute of Historical Research, a high academic standard was set, and progress has been slow but reasonably steady. These phases have also been characterised by changing attitudes towards the proper scope of
English local history Local history is the study of the history of a relatively small geographic area; typically a specific settlement, parish or county. English local history came to the fore with the antiquarians of the 19th century and was particularly emphasised by t ...
. The early volumes were planned on the model of traditional
English county histories English county histories, in other words historical and topographical (or " chorographical") works concerned with individual ancient counties of England, were produced by antiquarians from the late 16th century onwards. The content was variable: m ...
, with a strong emphasis on manorial descents, the
advowson Advowson () or patronage is the right in English law of a patron (avowee) to present to the diocesan bishop (or in some cases the ordinary if not the same person) a nominee for appointment to a vacant ecclesiastical benefice or church living, a ...
s of parish churches, and the local landed gentry: a prospectus of c. 1904 stated that "there is ''no Englishman'' to whom
he VCH He or HE may refer to: Language * He (pronoun), an English pronoun * He (kana), the romanization of the Japanese kana へ * He (letter), the fifth letter of many Semitic alphabets * He (Cyrillic), a letter of the Cyrillic script called ''He'' in ...
does not in some one or other of its features make a direct appeal". More recent volumes – especially those published since the 1950s – have been more wide-ranging in their approach, and have included systematic coverage of
social Social organisms, including human(s), live collectively in interacting populations. This interaction is considered social whether they are aware of it or not, and whether the exchange is voluntary or not. Etymology The word "social" derives from ...
and economic history, industrial history, population history, educational history,
landscape history Landscape history is the study of the way in which humanity has changed the physical appearance of the environment – both present and past. It is sometimes referred to as landscape archaeology. It was first recognised as a separate area of study ...
, religious nonconformity, and so on; individual parish histories have consequently grown considerably in length and complexity. From 1902 the joint general editors were H. Arthur Doubleday and William Page. Doubleday resigned (in acrimonious circumstances) in 1904, leaving Page as sole general editor until his death in 1934. In 1932 Page bought the rights to the ailing project for a nominal sum, donating it to the Institute of Historical Research the following year. Page was succeeded as general editor by L. F. Salzman, who remained in post until 1949. The early volumes depended heavily on the efforts of a large number of young research workers, mostly female, fresh from degree courses at
Oxford Oxford () is a city in England. It is the county town and only city of Oxfordshire. In 2020, its population was estimated at 151,584. It is north-west of London, south-east of Birmingham and north-east of Bristol. The city is home to the ...
,
Cambridge Cambridge ( ) is a university city and the county town in Cambridgeshire, England. It is located on the River Cam approximately north of London. As of the 2021 United Kingdom census, the population of Cambridge was 145,700. Cambridge bec ...
,
London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...
or the Scottish universities, for whom other employment opportunities were limited: the VCH of this period has been described as "a history for gentlemen largely researched by ladies". From 1909 until 1931 Frederick Smith, later 2nd Viscount Hambleden, was the VCH's major sponsor. In February 2005 the Heritage Lottery Fund awarded the VCH £3,374,000 to fund the England's Past for Everyone project, which ran from September that year until February 2010.


Progress

The first VCH volume was published in 1901, and publication continued slowly throughout the 20th century, although in some counties it has come to a halt, especially during the
First World War World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was List of wars and anthropogenic disasters by death toll, one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, ...
and again in the 1970s. Some inactive counties have recently been reactivated. There are now more than 230 VCH volumes, with around three new volumes published per year. Each is published with a red cover, and they are therefore sometimes known as "the big red books". When the Institute of Historical Research published a short history of the project to mark the 75th anniversary of taking it over, it was titled ''The Little Big Red Book''. A special edition Jubilee book was published in 2012, ''A Diamond Jubilee Celebration 1899–2012.'' A map showing the publication status appears on the VCH website.


Structure and content of the county histories

From its inception, responsibility for writing the volumes was delegated to local editors for each individual county. The county editors traditionally worked under the direction of a general editor, following a uniform format and style. In general, the histories begin with one or more volumes of general studies of the county as a whole, including major themes, such as religious history, agriculture, industries, population (with summary tables of decennial census totals 1801–1901), and an introduction to and translation of the relevant section of
Domesday Book Domesday Book () – the Middle English spelling of "Doomsday Book" – is a manuscript record of the "Great Survey" of much of England and parts of Wales completed in 1086 by order of King William I, known as William the Conqueror. The manusc ...
. These volumes are followed by others consisting of detailed historical surveys of each Hundred, Wapentake (discussed in separate riding volumes) and ward, parish by parish. At first, ancient ecclesiastical parishes formed the unit of investigation, but since the mid-1950s the VCH parish is the civil parish, the modern successor of the ancient parishes or of townships within them. Large towns are dealt with as a whole, including, since the 1960s, built-up areas of adjoining, formerly rural parishes. Under the original plan, each county, in addition to its general and topographical volumes, was to have a genealogical volume containing the pedigrees of county families. Genealogical volumes were published in a large
folio The term "folio" (), has three interconnected but distinct meanings in the world of books and printing: first, it is a term for a common method of arranging sheets of paper into book form, folding the sheet only once, and a term for a book ma ...
format for
Northamptonshire Northamptonshire (; abbreviated Northants.) is a county in the East Midlands of England. In 2015, it had a population of 723,000. The county is administered by two unitary authorities: North Northamptonshire and West Northamptonshire. It ...
(1906) and Hertfordshire (1907), but the research costs were found to be excessive, and this side of the project was discontinued.


Completed county histories

Some of the county histories have been completed, as follows:


Counties in progress

For each uncompleted county history on which work is continuing (i.e.: "active" in VCH terminology), progress is as follows:


Dormant counties

Several volumes are not currently being worked on.


Counties with no published volumes

* Northumberland produced its own, non-VCH, history in 15 volumes, published by the Northumberland County History Committee, completed in 1940. * Monmouthshire, sometimes regarded between the 16th and 20th centuries as an English county, has never been treated as such by the VCH, and has never been proposed for inclusion within the project. A non-VCH county history of Gwent/Monmouthshire was published by the
University of Wales Press The University of Wales Press ( cy, Gwasg Prifysgol Cymru) was founded in 1922 as a central service of the University of Wales. The press publishes academic journals and around seventy books a year in the English and Welsh languages on six general ...
in five volumes between 2004 and 2013. * Westmorland has not yet produced a VCH volume, but the area is included within the VCH Cumbria project.


General editors

* William Page (General Editor 1904–34) *
Louis Francis Salzman Louis Francis Salzman (26 March 1878 – 4 April 1971) was a British economic historian who specialised in the medieval period. He was born in Brighton in 1878, the son of Dr. F. W. Salzmann, and educated at Haileybury College and Pembroke Coll ...
(General Editor 1934–49) *
Ralph Pugh Ralph Bernard Pugh (1 August 1910 – 3 December 1982) was an historian and editor of the ''Victoria History of the Counties of England'' from 1949 to 1977. He was also a professor of English history at the University of London, a Fellow of St ...
(General Editor 1949–77) * Christopher Elrington (General Editor 1977–94) * Christopher Currie (General Editor 1994–2000) * Anthony Fletcher (General Editor/Director 2000–2005) * John Beckett (General Editor/Director 2005–2010) * Elizabeth Williamson (Executive Editor 2010–2014) * Richard Hoyle (General Editor/Director 2014–2016) * Catherine Clarke (Director 2019–present)


Notable county editors

* William Page (Somerset, also general editor) *
David Crouch Sir David Lance Crouch (23 June 1919 – 18 February 1998) was a British Conservative politician. Crouch was educated at University College School, London and became a marketing consultant. He contested Leeds West in 1959, and served as Memb ...
(Yorkshire, East Riding) * Peter Ditchfield (Berkshire) *
Mary Lobel Mary Doreen Lobel (née Rogers) (25 June 1900 – 1 December 1993) was an historian who edited several volumes of the ''Victoria County History'' and a three-volume ''British Atlas of Historic Towns''. Biography Lobel was born Mary Doreen Rog ...
(Oxfordshire) *
Susan Reynolds Susan Reynolds FBA (27 January 1929 – 29 July 2021) was a British medieval historian whose book ''Fiefs and Vassals: the Medieval Evidence Reinterpreted'' (1994) was part of the academic critique on the concept of feudalism as classically ...
(Middlesex) *
J. Horace Round (John) Horace Round (22 February 1854 – 24 June 1928) was an historian and genealogist of the English medieval period. He translated the portion of Domesday Book (1086) covering Essex into English. As an expert in the history of the British p ...
(Essex) * John William Willis-Bund (Worcestershire) * Oswald Barron (general editor of the genealogical volumes for Northamptonshire and Hertfordshire)


Notable contributors

* Mary Bateson * Madeleine Hope Dodds (contributed to Durham) *
Charles Reed Peers Sir Charles Reed Peers (22 September 1868 – 16 November 1952) was an English architect, archaeologist and preservationist. After a 10-year gap following the death of Lieutenant-General Augustus Pitt Rivers in 1900, Peers became England's se ...
(Architectural Editor, 1903-10) * Maud Sellars (contributed to Yorkshire, Durham) * Ethel Stokes (contributed to Essex) *
Margerie Venables Taylor Margerie Venables Taylor (20 January 1881 – 24 December 1963) was an archaeologist and editor of the '' Journal of Roman Studies'', and held posts including Secretary for the Society for the Promotion of Roman Studies. She was particularly in ...


Online availability

Much of the content of the older VCH volumes is now accessible via the ''
British History Online ''British History Online'' is a digital library of primary and secondary sources on medieval and modern history of Great Britain and Ireland. It was created and is managed as a cooperative venture by the Institute of Historical Research, Uni ...
''
digital library A digital library, also called an online library, an internet library, a digital repository, or a digital collection is an online database of digital objects that can include text, still images, audio, video, digital documents, or other digital ...
, digitised by double rekeying. Priority has been given to the topographical volumes containing histories of individual parishes. The more general introductory volumes are excluded for the time being, with the exception of those sections covering the
religious house A monastery is a building or complex of buildings comprising the domestic quarters and workplaces of monastics, monks or nuns, whether living in communities or alone (hermits). A monastery generally includes a place reserved for prayer which ...
s of each county.


See also

*
Gloucestershire Victoria County History ''Gloucestershire Victoria County History'' is an encyclopaedic history of the county of Gloucestershire in England. It forms part of the overall Victoria County History of England founded in 1899 in honour of Queen Victoria. With twelve volum ...
*
Somerset Victoria County History The ''Somerset Victoria County History'' is an encyclopaedic history of the county of Somerset in England, forming part of the overall Victoria County History of England founded in 1899 in honour of Queen Victoria. With ten volumes published i ...
*
Wiltshire Victoria County History The Wiltshire Victoria County History, properly called The Victoria History of the County of Wiltshire but commonly referred to as VCH Wiltshire, is an encyclopaedic history of the county of Wiltshire in England. It forms part of the overall Vi ...
* Cambridge County Geographies *
English county histories English county histories, in other words historical and topographical (or " chorographical") works concerned with individual ancient counties of England, were produced by antiquarians from the late 16th century onwards. The content was variable: m ...
*
Historiography of the United Kingdom The historiography of the United Kingdom includes the historical and archival research and writing on the history of the United Kingdom, Great Britain, England, Scotland, Ireland, and Wales. For studies of the overseas empire see historiog ...


References


Further reading

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *


External links

* {{Official website
The Victoria County History at Boydell & Brewer


– Daily Telegraph obituary Archaeology of England Historiography of England Victorian era History books about England Series of books History of England by county English local history Book series introduced in 1899