Victoria County History
The Victoria County History (VCH) is a national project to write an authoritative history of all the parishes in England. Although the project began in 1899, it had a slow start in Gloucestershire: a general volume was published in 1907 but work on the detailed parish histories did not start until 1960. By 2010, when funding from the county council and University of Gloucestershire came to an end, nine volumes covering almost half the county had been published. These are available to consult at Gloucestershire Archives and most of them are also available online http://www.british-history.ac.uk/search/series/vch--glos.
The Gloucestershire County History Trust was set up in October 2010 to enable the project to continue locally. It supports the VCH Gloucestershire Academy, a group of editors, commissioned by the Trust, that is working with volunteers to undertake the necessary research and writing. The County Archivist, Heather Forbes serves as a trustee and we have received generous practical and moral support from both her and her staff, with the Archives' Alvin Street premises providing an important hub for our activities. In September 2016 we published The Vale of Gloucester and Leadon Valley (Volume 13), which completed coverage of the county west of the River Severn. We are currently working on 3 areas:
14: Yate and the Sodburys,
15: Cheltenham hundred,
16: Cirencester and district.
We welcome new members to the Academy, whatever their interests and experience. We are also seeking people to act as local ‘ambassadors’ and as trustees, particularly from Cirencester and South Gloucestershire. If you are interested, do contact me.
As we write sections of editorial, we post the drafts (https://www.victoriacountyhistory.ac.uk/counties/gloucestershire/work-in-progress), on which we welcome comments.
You can find out more from the VCH Gloucestershire Academy website where you can also download our regular newsletter.
Jan Broadway
admin@vchglosacademy.org
Victoria County History – South Gloucestershire
VCH Volume Gloucestershire XIV - Yate and district. Work on the three adjacent parishes of Chipping Sodbury, Lttle Sodbury and Old Sodbury began in 2016 and is expected to take about two years. Beth Hartland is researching the medieval period for all three parishes, while Phil Baker works on the early modern and later material.
We have been very fortunate to receive significant grant support for this stage from the Bristol & Gloucestershire Archaeological Society and further assistance from South Gloucestershire Council and Hanson plc.
If you are interested in joining the volunteers who are helping with the research for this volume, please see our Academy website for more details.
Comments on the drafts are very welcome, and should be addressed to vchglos@btinternet.com. The first two are about schools, and are posted at https://www.victoriacountyhistory.ac.uk/counties/gloucestershire/work-in-progress/sodburys.
History project seeks local coordinator
You may have seen the new history of Yate by Rose Wallis, which came out in 2015. The research for it was carried out by a charity, the Gloucestershire County History Trust – supported by a South Glos Council grant. It was the first step in a new project to investigate and write up all the nearby parishes, to the national standards set by the Victoria County History (VCH). The Trust has now begun work on Chipping Sodbury, and draft sections written by our main researcher, Phil Baker, are starting to appear online, at
https://www.victoriacountyhistory.ac.uk/counties/gloucestershire/work-in-progress/sodburys . Another researcher, Beth Hartland, is working on the medieval sources for all three Sodbury parishes.
Although most of the specialised investigation is done by paid professionals, there’s a lot that volunteers can do, especially with more recent sources. This was true at Yate, and we’d like to create a similar set-up at Chipping Sodbury, where we already know there are willing hands. However, what the Trust lacks is someone on the spot, to provide a personal bridge between local volunteers (and their local knowledge) and the rest of the ‘VCH Glos’ effort, whose centre of gravity tends be Gloucester itself, where many of the relevant archives are.
Ideally, we’d like someone with an active heritage/history interest, who is local to the Sodburys and perhaps also knows the scene in the neighbouring parishes we’ll be tackling in due course. In the first instance, the task is to organise, guide and encourage volunteers, and generally promote the project locally – adding up to a few hours per week. Depending on inclination and aptitude, there are also openings for new trustees.
If this sounds like you, or someone you know, then James Hodsdon, chair of the Trust, would be delighted to hear from you: jj49@btinternet.com or 01242-233045.
The Yate book is available from the Yate Heritage Centre and Chipping Sodbury Tourist Information, as well as public libraries.