What is the Victoria County History?

The Victoria County History (VCH) is an ongoing project providing an encyclopaedic record of England's places and people from earliest times to the present day
The VCH is published in volumes county by county. Most counties have at least one volume published so far
The VCH volumes give a huge amount of detailed local history information, written from original documents and fieldwork
For each county there are introductory chapters covering general subjects such as social and economic history, religious houses and archaeology. These subjects are followed by a comprehensive account of each city, town and village
For the sake of consistency, the Victoria County Histories use the county boundaries as current when planned in the 1890s. Within each county the areas are divided into Hundreds, an administrative system devised by the Anglo Saxons
The VCH was founded in 1899 and originally dedicated to Queen Victoria
It is based at the Institute of Historical Research in the University of London and is written by historians working in counties across England

Page last updated: 16th July 2020