The Trust

Photo of Caen Hill Locks at Devizes by Diane Vose

By David Moss, chairman

I am very pleased to welcome you to our website and to explain who we are, what we do and why we do it.

The Victoria County History, or VCH, is the greatest publishing enterprise in English local history.

Professional historians, working to the highest standards, produce detailed local histories covering the whole country, parish by parish. They use original sources going back, whenever possible, to the earliest known records.

It’s a huge undertaking and the result is the definitive local history, providing information for dozens of uses, now and in the future. And it’s not just for historians: anyone with an interest in where they live will find fascinating detail in the VCH. No wonder it has been likened to a modern Domesday Book.

The project is taken forward, county by county, coordinated by the Institute of Historical Research at the University of London. Here in Wiltshire we have so far produced 18 of the famous big red books. They are readily available in public libraries. Most of them are also available online, free of charge; you can find links on the previous publications page.

Volume 19, covering Mere and the Deverills, and volume 20 for the Chippenham area, are both being written at the moment. Research for the first two parishes in the new volume 21, covering south east Wiltshire, was completed in late 2022. Our objective is to tell the story of Wiltshire in 25 volumes and we are well on our way towards achieving that ambition.

For many years work on the VCH in Wiltshire was funded by local authorities, most recently Wiltshire Council with additional help from the University of the West of England. But public spending cuts brought that to an end in 2014. Rather than abandon the VCH, a group of individuals with a shared love of history rose to the challenge of completing the work by creating a charitable trust - registered charity number 1196961 - now a Charitable Incorporated organisation (CIO), under the patronage of Sarah Rose Troughton, HM Lord-Lieutenant of Wiltshire.. I am proud to chair the trust and you can find out about my 13 fellow trustees here.

History of this quality is expensive - each volume of the VCH currently costs over £150,000 to research and write, and would be much more if we employed staff rather than using freelance researchers. Our major challenge is therefore to raise funds. We have already had success with the friends of the VCH, a series of events and applications to grant-giving bodies.

The funds raised are used to commission suitably qualified historians to research and write each chapter of the book. When the writing is complete the text must be approved by the Institute for Historical Research at the University of London before being published. Draft texts of the chapters are available to read free online.

All donations go directly to fund the painstaking and important task of researching our county’s fascinating history for the benefit of this and future generations.

The VCH is history for everyone, and we want everyone to have the chance to share our county’s captivating story.

You can help us to achieve our goal of a complete history of Wiltshire in 25 volumes by making a donation, becoming a friend of Wiltshire VCH, or remembering us in your will.

Thank you.

David