Established May 2010 | Location Cumbria, England | |
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Website www.cumbriacountyhistory.org.uk | ||
The Cumbria County History Trust (CCHT) was launched in May 2010 to coordinate and gather resources for the Victoria County History of Cumbria project, a collaborative community project created to research and write the histories of all parts of Cumbria, and to make historical information generally available, within the framework and standards of the Victoria County History of England.
Contents
General
The aim of CCHT is to initiate a step-change in the awareness and understanding of Cumbria’s local historical heritage, by harnessing the enthusiasm for local history which exists widely across Cumbria, and pooling expertise. Its ultimate aim is to write the history of every town and village in England. To date, a team of over 100 volunteers from across Cumbria has compiled brief histories, called Jubilee Digests for each of the 340 parishes/townships in the county, using the Civil Parishes as they existed around 1900, forming a springboard for future work. In addition a smaller core of volunteers has embarked on researching and writing full parish/township histories, in the standard style of the Victoria County History, which will eventually form part of the national work of local historical reference. Please see the Completed Draft Histories section for more details.
Early Work
No VCH town or village histories had been published for the historic counties of Cumberland and Westmorland before the VCH Cumbria project was launched in 2010; the only parts of Cumbria previously to have been researched in detail by the VCH were those parts which were formerly in Lancashire. The story of the early attempts to publish a VCH for Cumberland and Westmorland has been told by John Beckett in a paper in the Transactions of the Cumberland and Westmorland Antiquarian and archaeological Society, New Series, vol XI, (2011) pp. 207–225
Lancashire
The Furness and Cartmel areas (Lonsdale North of the Sands) were covered in VCH Lancashire, Volume VIII (published in 1910)
Cumberland
Two introductory volumes were published in the early twentieth century, Volume 1 (1901), which covered Early Man, Pre-Norman Remains, Introduction to and Texts of the Cumberland Domesday, Early Pipe Rolls, and Testa de Nevill and Volume II (1905) which covered Political History, Industries, Sport Ancient and Modern, Forestry
Westmorland
Nothing has been published to date
Jubilee Digests
The Jubilee Digests are so named after the Queen’s Jubilee, as they were launched in 2012. All 340 Digests are accessible through an interactive map or search engine on the CCHT website.
The aim of the Jubilee Digests is to summarise aspects of each community’s history from the earliest times to the present day, in a standard format, using a limited set of specified sources.
Each ‘Jubilee Digest’ contains the following information:
Completed Draft Histories
A list of completed full parish/township in draft form is accessible and downloadable from the CCHT website.
Project Direction
All the work on the Victoria County History of Cumbria project is being done by volunteers, under the overall direction of Professor Angus Winchester of Lancaster University and with volunteer guidance and support provided by Dr Sarah Rose, Volunteer Co-ordinator.
Volunteers are provided training to ensure that the high standards of scholarship expected from the Victoria County History are maintained, and that the output, both Digests and Draft Histories, provides a factual, reliable and authoritative work of reference for everyone with an interest in the history of their town or village - and possibly their family too.
A practical guide for volunteers contributing to the Victoria County History (Cumbria) Project has been published and is freely available. It contains guidance on all aspects of researching and writing the history of a parish or township for the VCH, drawing attention to sources and themes of particular relevance to the history of local communities in Cumbria.
Trustees
The Cumbria County History Trust (CCHT) is a registered charity (Charity Registration Number 1137379). The charitable aims of the Trust are:
- to further the education of the public in the history and heritage of the County of Cumbria and its communities and to promote and foster public knowledge, understanding and appreciation of the history of the area in general.
- to undertake research into the history and heritage of the County of Cumbria and its communities and to disseminate the useful results of such research for the public benefit.
CCHT has a current membership of 138 individuals and 12 societies. The project is managed by the Board of Trustees, chaired by Bryan Gray, CBE.
The trustees are:
Patrons and Sponsors
This project is part financed by the Cumberland & Westmorland Antiquarian & Archaeological Society, the Society of Antiquaries of Newcastle upon Tyne, and the European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development.
The Trusts Patrons are:
The Trust is supported by the following organisations: