This blog post was written by Dr Ruth Slatter and Dr Adam Chapman, Co-General Editors of the VCH.  

Following the announcement of four new VCH projects in 2025, in this blog post Ruth Slatter and Adam Chapman (Co-General Editors of the VCH) share exciting updates from these projects and news of a fifth new VCH project in Devon.  

In April 2025, the Victoria County History (VCH) announced the launch of four new projects. Eighteenth months later, these projects in Dorset, Kent, Lincolnshire, and London are flourishing and have been joined by a fifth new VCH project in Devon. Swelling the VCH network to twenty-one projects, undertaking research in twenty-four English counties and two Ridings of Yorkshire, each of these projects is approaching place-based history in a different way. Collectively they provide a representative snapshot of the varied and lively ways in which the over-125-year-old VCH network continues to engage in rigorous and community-focused place-based research.  

Devon  

The new VCH project is Devon is re-working an unpublished manuscript of VCH Devon Volume 2, which was first completed around 1906.  

To date, the county of Devon only has one published VCH Red Book dating from 1906. A manuscript for a second, detailing the county’s medieval religious houses, was completed around the same time and survived in the VCH’s archive until it was transferred, along with other early research notes and draft parish entries, to the Devon Heritage Centre in Exeter.  

Professor Nicholas Orme is now updating this material, with the aim of publishing it as Volume 2 of the Victoria County History of Devon, likely in two parts. And some revised sections are already available in draft form via the VCH pages of the IHR website, as an aid to researchers.  

Professor Orme was also responsible for a similar VCH volume on the church in Cornwall published in 2011, and is well-known for his scholarship on the medieval church. 

The project is grateful for the support of the Victoria County History Trust for funding high resolution scans of the manuscript material and so making this research possible. 

To find out more about this project visit the VCH Devon page on the IHR website.  

Dorset  

Since April 2025, the Dorset project has established the Dorset Victoria County History charitable trust, launched their own website, and published their first draft parish history on the VCH pages of the IHR website.  

Dorset VCH is run by Dr Mark Forrest, former collections archivist at the Dorset History Centre, and overseen by a Trust full of local people with professional experience in historical and archaeological research, the heritage sector, and fundraising. The project is currently working towards a VCH Red Book about the Isle of Purbeck, with Corfe Castle and East Holme as pilot parishes. As they work towards this Red Book, it is possible that VCH partnership publications about two or three of the parishes (Corfe Castle, Swanage, and perhaps Studland) will be published.  

The project’s new draft text is about East Holme, a small parish situated on the south side of the river Frome two miles west of Wareham.  

To find out more about this project visit the VCH Dorset page on the IHR website.  

Kent  

VCH Kent is working on ‘The Making of Maidstone’, a three-year project funded by The William and Edith Oldham Trust. Dr Jack Newman is researching and writing a VCH partnership publication about the history of Maidstone from 1549 to 1660.  

Over the past 18 months, the project has launched its own website, recruited volunteers to transcribe wills via the digital platform Transkribus, submitted draft text VCH Central Office at the IHR, and begun to explore the VCH Kent archive.  

Speaking about the project, Jack Newman has said:  

One of the pleasures of the project has been discovering how familiar sources can reveal something new when read together. I have identified, for the first time, a poem by the surgeon John Hall as a response to the Protestant burnings in Maidstone and Canterbury, whose victims included his sister. This previously unrecognised link helps us understand the poem as a response to events that touched Hall personally. It also opens up questions about how survivors remembered the persecution and how those experiences shaped the town’s later religious and political life. 

Looking ahead, I hope to work with volunteers to broaden access to the VCH Kent archive, making the research gathered by earlier generations more accessible to anyone interested in the county’s history. There is an opportunity to build on that work and to help more people make future discoveries of their own.   

To find out more about this project visit the VCH Kent page on the IHR website.  

Lincolnshire 

VCH Lincolnshire is focusing on the history of Spalding.  

Based in the Centre for Fenland Studies and supported by the Spalding Gentlemen’s Society, Ayscoughfee Hall Museum, and the Lincoln Records Society, the project steering group is led by Dr Michael Gilbert and Sue Hughes.  

Since April 2025, the project has recruited Dr Gabbrielle Storey as Contributing Editor.  Alongside research in local and national archives, Gabby has been working with the project’s committed volunteers, providing them with training and support as they work on researching and writing different aspects of Spalding’s history.  

To find out more about this project visit the VCH Lincolnshire page on the IHR website.  

London  

VCH London is currently focussing on the history of the parish and community if St Anne Soho. County Editor Dr Francis Boorman has been working with creative historian Maxine Beuret and volunteer Daisy Mansfield.  

Francis and Maxine have recently received Westminster City Council Ward Budget funding to undertake oral history interviews with local residents in Soho. These interviews will focus on the unique qualities of life in Soho, the difficulties of preserving community in the face of change, and the individual stories that constitute the bedrock of local institutions and businesses.  

Daisy Mansfield has been researching the history artists in the parish, publishing an On History blog post on this topic in January 2026.  

To find out more about this project visit the VCH London page on the IHR website.  

These five new VCH projects highlight the VCH’s continued commitment to rigorous, place-based research. They also demonstrate the diverse range of ways this is being undertaken and the value that the VCH network places on collaborative research, community involvement, and the expertise of professional researchers. These projects also illustrate the breadth of (often local) funding sources currently supporting  VCH research and the importance of the VCH network as a resource for the researchers within it. All these projects have benefited from being part of the VCH network, whether it be through training and editorial guidance from VCH Central Office, advice and guidance shared by other local VCH groups, or financial support from the VCH Trust.  

The post Updates from the Victoria County History’s Five New Projects   appeared first on On History.