VHV

Victoria County History

The Victoria County History of the Counties of England was established in 1899 as a National Survey designed to record the history of every county of England in detail. The first volume in the series was published in 1900. Bedfordshire was among the first counties to be studied and the Victoria History of the County of Bedford was published in three volumes plus and index volume between 1904 and 1914 under the editorship of William Page FSA. The topographical sections for Bedfordshire were researched and written by H.S.F.Lea, J.Hauteville-Cope, Stanley Williams, and the Misses A.Violet Rickards, Muriel R.Manfield, Olive M.Moger, Grace Ellis, Catherine Beveridge, Annie R.Grundy and Clare Thunder. Their research notes form the nucleus of the papers described in this list. Acces to local archive material was limited at the time when the research for the Victoria County History was being carried out. In Bedordshire, the County Records Committee assumed responsibility for Quarter Sessions and County Council records in 1898 but it was not until some time after the establishment of the County Record Office in 1913 that the full range of local records became easily accessible. Consequently most of the material used by the research team in preparing the Bedfordshire volumes came from central sources and principally from the Public Record Office and the British Museum. The parish notes [VHV1] provide valuable details to amplify the information given in the published history in which, however, sources are carefully referenced by footnotes to the text. the notes often contain full transcripts or lengthy extracts from documents only briefly mentioned in the text. After completion of the Bedfordshire project, the research notes were handed over in 1922 to the newly formed County Record Office. They were deposited by William Page, the general editor, on behalf of Lord Hambledon. It should be noted that the VCH notes in this collection fo not incude the original plans and descriptions of buildings (e.g. churches), the heraldic notes, or the accounts of charities, which were prepared by specialist contributors.

fonds

Smith, William Frederick Danvers [2nd Viscount Hambleden],
Page, William,
Lea, H S F,
Hauteville-Cope, J,
Williams, Stanley,
Rickards, A Violet,
Manfield, Muriel R,
Moger, Olive M,
Ellis, Grace,
Beveridge, Catherine,
Grundy, Annie R,
Thunder, Clare

books, local history