Victoria County History
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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 begun in 1899 in honour of Queen Victoria with the aim of creating an encyclopaedic history of each of the historic counties of England.
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[edit] General
The project is coordinated by the Institute of Historical Research at the University of London.
From the beginning, the responsibility for writing the volumes was delegated to the individual counties. The first VCH volume was published in 1901, and publication continued slowly throughout the twentieth century, although in some counties it ground to a halt, especially during the 1970s. However, some inactive counties have been reactivated.
In February 2005, the Heritage Lottery Fund awarded the VCH £3,374,000 to further its work and to facilitate public access to its research. There are now more than 230 VCH volumes, with about three new volumes published per year. Each is published with a red cover, and they are sometimes known as "the big red book"; 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".[1]
[edit] Structure of the County Histories
In general, the histories begin with one or more volumes of general studies of the County as a whole, followed by detailed historical surveys of each Hundred, parish by parish.
[edit] Completed County Histories
Some of the county histories have been completed. For each of these, the number of volumes published and the date of completion is as follows:
- Bedfordshire (3 volumes) 1972
- Berkshire (4 volumes) 1972
- Buckinghamshire (4 volumes)
- Cambridgeshire (10 volumes) 2002
- Hampshire (5 volumes) 1973
- Hertfordshire (4 volumes) 1971
- Huntingdonshire (3 volumes) 1974
- Lancashire (8 volumes) 1993
- Surrey (4 volumes) 1967
- Warwickshire (8 volumes) 1969
- Yorkshire (North Riding) (2 volumes) 2002
- Worcestershire (4 volumes) 1971
[edit] Counties in Progress
For each uncompleted county history on which work is continuing, the number of volumes published and the dates of the most recent are as follows:
- Cheshire (6 volumes) 2005
- County Durham (4 volumes) 2005
- Cornwall (1 volume in 2 parts) 1925
- Essex (10 volumes) 2001
- Gloucestershire (11 volumes) 1976
- Kent (3 volumes) 1974
- London (1 volume) 1974
- Middlesex (12 volumes) 2004
- Northamptonshire (5 volumes) 2002
- Oxfordshire (15 volumes) 2006
- Rutland (1 volume) 1975
- Somerset (9 volumes) 2007
- Staffordshire (20 volumes) 1984
- Sussex (11 volumes) 1987
- Wiltshire (18 volumes) 2002
- East Riding of Yorkshire (7 volumes) 2002
[edit] Dormant Counties
- Cumberland (2 volumes) 1968
- Devon (1 volume) 1906
- Dorset (2 volumes) 1968
- Herefordshire (1 volume) 1975
- Leicestershire (5 volumes) 1988
- Lincolnshire (1 volume)
- Norfolk (2 volumes) 1975
- Nottinghamshire (2 volumes) 1970
- Shropshire (11 volumes) 1985
- Suffolk (2 volumes) 1975
- Yorkshire (general volumes & city of York) (4 volumes)
[edit] Counties with no published volumes
[edit] See also
[edit] References
- Victoria County History online
- England’s Past for Everyone
- The Victoria County History at Boydell & Brewer
- ^ 75 years at the IHR, accessed 24 May 2009.
