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vch-home.bsky.social
Victoria County History
@vch-home.bsky.social
5.1K followers 1.5K following 520 posts
Begun in 1899, the Victoria County History is an encyclopaedic record of England’s places & people.

https://www.history.ac.uk/research/victoria-county-history
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vch-home.bsky.social
Our friends @ihrlibrary.bsky.social have been checking on some of our archival holdings including materials on #Cumberland and #Kent.

This forms just part of the material which is available for researchers (including research materials, correspondence & more). Get in touch! #Skystorians
October 29, 2025 at 3:55 PM
vch-home.bsky.social
A wonderful surprise this morning in the form of the latest publication from @wiltshistory.bsky.social.

Have a quick flick through @lrylandepton.bsky.social’s ’Langley Burrell and Kellaways, A History’, available now from @hobnobpress.bsky.social.
October 2, 2025 at 9:43 AM
vch-home.bsky.social
Join us online on 24 Sept to celebrate the 250th VCH Big Red Book!

Founded in 1899, @vchlondon.bsky.social is writing the #history of every place in #England, with partners across the country. We'll also celebrate #LocalHistory, #communityhistory & #place based history more widely. All welcome!
https://www.history.ac.uk/news-events/events/celebrating-local-place-based-history-westmorland-250th-vch-big-red-book#:~:text=Event%20information%3E&text=In%20September%202025%2C%20the%20UK's,and%20community%20history%20more%20widely.
September 15, 2025 at 9:06 AM
vch-home.bsky.social
Meanwhile, we hear from our amazing colleague Sarah Rose (who has done so much to bring Westmorland I to fruition as editor), advance copies have arrived!

Look out for a launch discount with @boydellandbrewer.bsky.social - coming soon!

#SneakPeak #NewBook #Skystorians
Three brown cardboard boxes - the top one is open and red books are peaking out! Pages from a book, showing a map of the parish of Kirkby Lonsdale.
August 12, 2025 at 12:27 PM
vch-home.bsky.social
Wonderful news about the Heath Fritillary in Devon from @nationaltrust.org.uk!

VCH Devon vol. I (1906) – Lepidoptera by the late Chas. G. Barrett F.E.S, describes its distribution and notes:

“Devon seems to have always been specially favoured by this very local and beautiful butterfly”
Page from a book. The pertinent text reads: Melitaea athalia [Heath Fritillary], Esp. Bickleigh Vale; Horrabridge; and elsewhere on Dartmoor; formerly in Fordlands Woods nr. Exeter; Buckland... Page from a book, continuing from the previous image. ... Woods; Newton Bushel; Barnstaple; Instow; Torrington; and Exmoor. Devon seems to have always been sepcially favoured by this very local and beautiful butterfly.
June 26, 2025 at 2:29 PM
vch-home.bsky.social
Our latest book from #Herefordshire, Cradley, was launched last night on a beautiful summer evening.

The authors, Anastasia Stylianou and Fergus Eskola-Oakes and our director, @cathamclarke.bsky.social joined an appreciative audience.

We sold plenty of copies, but if you would like one [cont.]
A book, 'Cradley', by Anastaisia Stylianou and Fergus Eskola-Oakes, with a cover featuring a timber framed building in an autumnal landscape. The gable end of the same building, Cradley parish hall, formerly the church ale hall, built in the 15th century is the backdrop, below a deep blue sky. The authors, Anastasia Stylianou (left), in a long dress, smiling, and Fergus Eskola-Oakes, wearing a blue shirt and black jeans, holding their book against the backdrop of Cradley parish hall, a timber framed building which is also on the cover.
June 19, 2025 at 10:35 AM
vch-home.bsky.social
NEW BOOK! We are delighted to announce the publication of our latest book from our colleagues in Herefordshire - Cradley is a large parish beneath the Malvern hills, joining VCH Shorts on Eastnor, Colwall, and Bosbury.

Buy direct from @uolpress.bsky.social, or (soon!) from bookshops in #Ledbury. 🗃️
Cover of The Victoria History of Herefordshire, Cradley. Grey title band with, below, an image of a timber framed building against a backdrop of trees in autumn yellows.
June 10, 2025 at 4:07 PM
vch-home.bsky.social
A nice surprise in the post from @boydellandbrewer.bsky.social in the shape of a reprinted edition of @gillint.bsky.social's 'The Townscape of Darlington' which tracks the development of the town from the Middle Ages to the Millennium.

More here:

boydellandbrewer.com/978190435621... 🗃️ 1/2
June 4, 2025 at 11:10 AM
vch-home.bsky.social
Today is our annual #VCHDay where colleagues from around the country gather for a catch up and to share ideas, experiences and new publications.

Here's a preview of our next book, a proof of 'Basingstoke Reinvented, 1800-1925, soon to be available from @hobnobpress.bsky.social. 🗃️ #LocalHistory
Front cover of a book, entitled 'Basingstoke Reinvented, 1800-1925, from Agricultural Town to Manufacturing Centre', edited by Jean Morrin. The title is white on a red band occupying the top third of the cover. Beneath are two views if the town from the same spot. The top (a black/white engraving), shows trees and thatched cottages. The lower image, a hand tinted photograph shows the 19th century streets that replaced the cottages, c. 1920.
May 15, 2025 at 11:35 AM
vch-home.bsky.social
More of the tensions in a bit, but first: have you ever wondered why #Southend is called that?

In 1777 - from Chapman and Andre's map of Essex - it was 'Southend Common', part of the village of #Prittlewell.

The whole map (and many more), are on @chppc.bsky.social's www.layersoflondon.org. 🗃️
Excerpt from a map of Prittlewell, Essex. It shows the sea (well, the Thames estuary) at the bottom, with rising land, shown with hatchures above cliffs. Settlement is sparse, and scattered.
April 11, 2025 at 8:52 AM
vch-home.bsky.social
Where better to start - because the early expansion of the early resort of #Southend was tied heavily to London commuters - that at Fenchurch Street station of the London, Tilbury & Southend Railway?

From 1856, well-heeled City types could head into town from their villa by the sea.
The Victorian frontage of Fenchurch Street station - yellow London stock brick with a curved tympanum over two storeys. A zigzag-roofed canopy provides shelter below 11 curved top windows on the first floor. There's a clock: it's broken. Inside is pure British Rail from the late 1970s, but you wouldn't know it from here! The train to Southend (well, Shoebury). In 1856, the journey to Southend was an hour and a half. Progress! Now, it's a little over an hour on these modern(ish) white electric trains with yellow bibs below the cab windows. The arrangement of lights makes them look as though they're smiling. There are substantial buffer stops made of old rail in the foreground: bright red.
April 11, 2025 at 8:19 AM
vch-home.bsky.social
This latest excerpt from our next #BigRedBook, Westmorland, volume 1, is for #FolkloreFriday shows the range of our histories.

At #Killington in the Lune valley, and into Cumberland, 15 miles away, foot and mouth disease in 1839 was met with a 'need fire'. What's that? Read on!

#VCHRedBook250
Excerpt from a text: Livelihoods were threatened by foot and mouth disease in 1839. In response, farmers resorted to a need fire, a ceremony by which it was believed the magic of the fire would provide a cure. The brand was taken from farm to farm, spreading as far as Skirwith in Cumberland. This was the last known occasion this superstition was acted upon. The importance of dairy farming is also illustrated by the residency of the butter merchant, James Wilkinson, in 1829. Killington Hall, Westmorland - a crenulated stone building of two storeys with a gable end and chimneys visible. The setting is a stone-walled lane with grass and trees rising above it. The old Scotch road, Killington. A straight, undulating minor road bounded by stone walls heading towards plantation conifers on the hills rising at the back of the shot. This was the medieval route from Lancaster to Scotland via Carlisle. Despite its apparent straightness, the Roman road was elsewhere (and still visible in the landscape).
April 4, 2025 at 7:12 AM
vch-home.bsky.social
Over the next few months we'll be previewing highlights from our first volume for the historic county of #Westmorland - which happens to be a milestone for the project as a whole: our 250th #BigRedBook.

Here's the first, showing the impact of the slave trade in rural NW England. 🗃️

#VCHRedBook250
Text reads: 'By the 18th century, demand for service may have resulted in Black people being brought from slave plantations overseas. In 1753, the parish register [of Kirkby Lonsdale] recorded the baptism of Samuel, the son of a female slave, called Pwers. She had come from Caroline in North America. Unfortunately, it is not known where Samuel or his mother were based in the parish. Before buying Underley, London alderman William Thompson (1792-1854) presented a petition for the abolition of slavery, on 29 March 1831. Some residents of the town were more closely connected with slavery in the Caribbean. Richard Atkinson, a man of 'independent means'...
April 1, 2025 at 2:33 PM
vch-home.bsky.social
Possibly (probably) not the hat in question, but a lovely story about one of our early authors. #WearAHatDay 🗃️
A lady in long skirt and tailored jacket with an extravagant broad-brimmed hat (and what may be a fur scarf). This is Maud Sellars, standing in the steps of the Merchant Venturers Hall, York.
March 28, 2025 at 11:35 AM
vch-home.bsky.social
... notably the small matter of the First World War.

Smith, by then inheritor of the family peerage, as Viscount Hambleden was Lt. Col. in the Royal Devon Yeomanry from 1914, and a year later was stationed in the Dardenelles.

This was not ideal - as this letter from our archive hints.
Typewritten letter. Text reads: William Page Esq. 10, Orange Street, Leicester Square, W.C. Dear Page, The staff will, I know, regret to hear that Lord Hambledon has been taken very seriously ill in the Dardenelles. He is, however, reported to be convalescent and is said to be on the way home on a hospital ship. I feel sure that the staff will share the regret of the directors that the gallant colonel should have been invalided and obliged to give up, for the time being, the command of his regiment. Yours very truly, A.W. Meredith
March 28, 2025 at 11:16 AM
vch-home.bsky.social
... for younger readers, a quick aside: it is hard to imagine how ubiquitous W.H. Smith was in the early 20th century. Almost wherever railways went, there was a Smith's book stall. This was a serious undertaking and - being a publisher as well as a businessman - a helpful contact for Page.
A restored W.H. Smith kiosk on the 'Great Central Railway', Loughborough Central> Picture y: https://shopfrontelegy.wordpress.com/2017/03/05/w-h-smith-son-kiosk-loughborough/
March 28, 2025 at 11:02 AM
vch-home.bsky.social
A challenge then, for our General Editor, William Page who - having paused work (and seemingly laid off a few of the staff), tapped up his contacts.

Among them, the MP for Strand (Westminster - note the lack of definite article), one William Frederick Danvers Smith. [cont.]
Portrait of William Page - a bearded, grey haired man with dark coloured jacket and a red tie - taken from an oil painting that lives in the VCH office. W.F.D. Smith - a slim man with a large forehead and prominent moustache with waxed tips. He is wearing a white short, long black jacket over grey striped trousers with turn ups over highly polished black shoes. Every inch the Edwardian gent. "head of the greatest publishing house in Christendom" Smith as caricatured by Spy (Leslie Ward) in Vanity Fair, December 1904
March 28, 2025 at 10:50 AM
vch-home.bsky.social
Some of our archive has had a little TLC thanks to our @ihr.bsky.social intern, Madison Luckey.

These before/after pics show how she's taken some rather battered and badly wrapped (in 1908!) research notes for Westmorland and rehomed them in lovely new envelopes and custom boxes.

#VCHRedBooks250
Brown paper packaged tied up with string - you know the rest. The packages are in an orange plastic crate and protected with bubblewrap. BEFORE: a battered and torn brown paper package tied cross-ways with grubby string. The text on the package reads: Westmorland Calendar of Exchequer Depositions and Special Commissions, Elizabeth to George III. Freshly packaged with new, acid-free, materials and tied with archive quality ribbon, labelled 1210, Westmorland. An off-white archive box, open to show the bespoke boxing made to measure: by so doing, the papers in the box will be protected from handling-related damage.
March 27, 2025 at 12:33 PM
vch-home.bsky.social
Huge excitement in the office today at the arrival of the page proofs from @boydellandbrewer.bsky.social for a very special publication.

Lonsdale Ward will be the first ever volume we have produced for the historic county of Westmorland, and will also be our 250th #BigRedBook. 🗃️
Crop from the title page: The Victoria History of the Counties of England, A History of Westmorland Volume I. Map showing the area covered by the volume. The small towns of Burton-in-Kendal and Kirkby Lonsdale to the south, with Lancashire beyond. To the east is the West Riding of Yorkshire and to the west, Kendal Ward of Westmorland. The area covered is the Lune valley and - on a map, at least - forms a flat bottomed triangle. In case any geographers are watching, we'd love to know how t write Alt-Txt for maps... Illustration from the proofs: three sheep atop a rocky outcrop. The outcrop is known as 'Fox's Pulpit' after the Quaker, George Fox, who preached at this spot, 300 metres up, for 3 hours, in 1652. The Anglicans had a chapel up there before that. No, we really don't know why: the medieval chapel was in a much more hospitable spot at the bottom of the valley.
March 11, 2025 at 3:21 PM
vch-home.bsky.social
This page from our early project management ledgers (somewhere between an Edwardian spreadsheet and a GANT chart), records unpublished work for Lincolnshire. One of the women noted, Henrietta Garbett is in the @beyondnotables.bsky.social database 🗃️:

beyond-notability.wikibase.cloud/wiki/Item:Q537
March 10, 2025 at 9:41 AM
vch-home.bsky.social
Our training series on #placedbased #religioushistories beyond the #parish #church will continue with a session on #catholicism. Hosted with @catholicrs.bsky.social it will feature @carmenmangion.bsky.social @drfrancisyoung.bsky.social & Lawrence Gregory www.history.ac.uk/events/resea...
More info about the training session mentioned in post. All this info can be found at https://www.history.ac.uk/events/researching-place-based-religious-histories-beyond-parish-church-2
February 20, 2025 at 4:42 PM
vch-home.bsky.social
NEW TRAINING SESSION ANNOUNCEMENT: Join us in March to learn more about how to research place-based religious histories beyond the parish church. Everyone is welcome for this free training. www.history.ac.uk/events/resea...
Poster containing training session name, date, location & blurb. All the info available in link included in post.
January 16, 2025 at 12:59 PM
vch-home.bsky.social
A little pre-Christmas treat from our friends @uolpress.bsky.social - the cover of our next but one 'Short' on the parish of Cradley in Herefordshire.

This is the latest in a string of excellent 'Shorts' covering the area below the Malvern hills and Ledbury, watch this space for more! 🗃️
The cover of a book, The Victoria History of Herefordshire, Cradley, by Anastasia Stylianou and Fergus Eskola-Oakes. Text in white on a mid grey band, cover image shows (left), a timber framed building with a brick chimney with a backdrop of hills and trees in autumn orange. The foreground is wet ground, puddles on an unmade road.
December 19, 2024 at 11:16 AM
vch-home.bsky.social
Huge thanks to Michelle Behr for her generous review of St George Hanover Square - you can buy direct from @uolpress.bsky.social or (in person) from St George's church, Hanover Square - more about them here: www.stgeorgeshanoversquare.org.
Cover of St George Hanover Square.
November 19, 2024 at 4:23 PM
vch-home.bsky.social
Today, we're working on the proofs of our latest 'Short' with @uolpress.bsky.social, on the development of the Victorian town and seaside resort (and now a city), Southend. 🗃️

Due to be published in February 2025, for more: uolpress.co.uk/book/the-vic...
Cover of a book: The Victoria History of Essex: Southend, Victorian Town and Resort - the title is in white on a light grey band, the cover image is a hand coloured, late 19th century photograph of a long seaside pier disappearing into the distance against a blue sea scattered with small boats.
November 14, 2024 at 11:56 AM