Local history on a national level

The Victoria County History (VCH) is a long-term local research project of international standing, founded in 1899 and dedicated to Queen Victoria to commemorate her Diamond Jubilee. In 2012 HM The Queen accepted a re-dedication of VCH to mark her own Diamond Jubilee.

The aim of VCH, since inception, has been to compile a history of every parish in England, based on original research. The books are issued in sets for each county. Since 1900 some 250 volumes have been published for almost all the counties of England. Older out-of-print volumes are made available through British History Online.

VCH is complete for about a third of the counties of England, in progress for another third, and dormant elsewhere for lack of funds.

In Derbyshire, where two volumes of VCH were published in 1905–7, work restarted in 2001. Between 2005 and 2009 an award from the Heritage Lottery Fund enabled two paperback studies to be published, making available VCH research in a more popular format. In Nottinghamshire work restarted in 2009.

In both counties the project is led by a part-time county editor, who is on the staff of the Department of History at Nottingham University and is helped by about forty volunteer researchers, who meet weekly or fortnightly in groups run on the lines of university continuing education classes.

More information on the progress of this project and resulting publications can be found on the Victoria County History website.