Very much enjoyed joining @vch-home.bsky.social online this evening (just a guest today while on Mat Leave) to celebrate the publication of Westmorland 1, the VCH’s 250th big red book! So too did my small friend 👶

New #OnHistory blog post fro @ruthslatter.bsky.social updating us on progress of the @vchlondon.bsky.social and @bho.bsky.social digitisation project. blog.history.ac.uk/2025/07/digi...

A new VCH volume available @bho.bsky.social - for more detail, please have a read of this blog from our co-General Editor, @ruthslatter.bsky.social:

#Job alert! Come and join us for 12 months in our lovely @chppc.bsky.social team @ihr.bsky.social. We're seeking a fixed-term #Lecturer in Historic Environment, who'll work on @vchlondon.bsky.social projects & more. Closing date 29 August. Please share! www.jobs.london.ac.uk/Job/JobDetai...

Brilliant news as my exceptional colleague, @ihr.bsky.social Director @clairelanghamer.bsky.social, is made Fellow @britishacademy.bsky.social. It's a privilege to work with Claire as she ensures the IHR is a supportive, inspiring & inclusive home for all #historians www.london.ac.uk/news-events/...

We're very pleased to welcome @themakingofmaidstone.org, a Victoria County History project working on the development of Maidstone in the 16th and 17th centuries. Led by @jack-newman.com, this three-year project restarts our work in the county. For more: #Skystorians #LocalHistory

It was brilliant to host Tre Ventour-Griffiths in our seminar series earlier this term, talking about the ways in which adaptations of #Austen novels have overlooked her female characters’ role as (absentee) enslavers. The recording is now available here www.history.ac.uk/news-events/...

Are you interested in the history of #London? #Francisboorman from #VCH London will be giving a lecture on the development of #Mayfair as a London Suburb on 15.07.25 for the Residents’ Society of Mayfair & St James’s. More info here www.rsmsj.com/events

This was a really warm & collaborative event, which highlighted the value of historians working in all sectors coming together & sharing their experiences of the joys & challenges of collaborative research. Thank you to everyone who came along & generously engaged in the workshop in this spirit!

Great to see this blog post mention several members of the #VCH community who attended the workshop & shared their practical experiences of engaging in #placebased #publichistory

*NEW BOOK* (yes, the second in a fortnight). Basingstoke Reinvented, 1800–1925: from Agricultural Town to Manufacturing Centre is the latest in our 'Partnership Publications' series, this title in collaboration with @hobnobpress.bsky.social. #LocalHistory #Skystorians

You can buy Cradley online from @uolpress.bsky.social: uolpress.co.uk/book/the-vic... But not only from there! [cont.]

Our latest book from #Herefordshire, Cradley, was launched last night on a beautiful summer evening. The authors, Anastasia Stylianou and Fergus Eskola-Oakes and our director, @cathamclarke.bsky.social joined an appreciative audience. We sold plenty of copies, but if you would like one [cont.]

Many thanks to Tre for sharing in such an open & personal way in this seminar last night. So much food for thought in his reflections on how the representation of white women in Austen screen adaptations is another way of dismissing the violence & trauma of enslavement. Recording coming soon.

In Herefordshire, like all out VCH counties, work is dependent on the support of volunteers and donations. To learn more about the project and how to support it, please see our website. #Skystorians

NEW BOOK! We are delighted to announce the publication of our latest book from our colleagues in Herefordshire - Cradley is a large parish beneath the Malvern hills, joining VCH Shorts on Eastnor, Colwall, and Bosbury. Buy direct from @uolpress.bsky.social, or (soon!) from bookshops in #Ledbury. 🗃️

For all you locals, the archivist at the Diocese of Cleveland is really nice and has been extremely helpful for my grad students doing research on old Irish history in Cleveland and the like.

This was a brilliant session. I learnt so much about how Catholic archives have(n’t) been curated & where to look for documents for place-based research. Hugely grateful to @catholicrs.bsky.social @carmenmangion.bsky.social @drfrancisyoung.bsky.social & #LawrenceGregory for sharing their wisdom.

The next event in our summer events series will take place 11.06.25, 5.30-7pm (BST), online only. Tre Ventour-Griffiths will explore female absentee enslavers in #JaneAusten ‘s novels. Everyone is welcome. Use the link below to sign up 👇

My @vchlondon.bsky.social #PartnershipPublication on the history of Langley Burrell, Wilts has been called ‘excellent’ by the reviewer!!! Out July. It threw me so many great anecdotes, not least the lust loving c17 church minister who I absolutely loved writing about (maybe a bit too much). 😁

A little window into a distant past courtesy of a bit of editing I'm doing on a book for @vchlondon.bsky.social on #Loughborough. Women's internationals were played at Loughborough for five years ending in 2013. A lot of familiar names, some still playing today, but what a different context.

The lengths our researchers go to…!

I’m really looking forward to chairing this session in a couple of weeks time. Tre is an innovative ECR who is asking important new questions across various aspects of his research into Black communities in the history of Britain’s rural spaces.

This is happening tomorrow 28.05.25. Online only. Everyone is welcome. Use the link below to sign up 👇

Always amazing to celebrate the work of our @vchlondon.bsky.social network. Sarah’s hard work recruiting & training VCH volunteers & researching & writing VCH histories is just one of many examples of how the VCH increasing uses collaborative methods to produce authoritative & trusted histories.

So exciting to see @lrylandepton.bsky.social ‘s hard work collaborating with local communities to simultaneously produce @vchlondon.bsky.social red books & community focused publications recognised & celebrated last week.

Sarah is the sort of person that makes @vchlondon.bsky.social a special outfit to work for. She's a fine scholar, indefatigable organiser, patient and generous with her support to volunteers, fellow authors and the project more generally (yes, she's also a friend). [1/2]

#DidYouKnow - we rely on a lot of hidden labour to support volunteers, research, write, edit, fundraise and to keep the show on the road. As such, we have awards for outstanding achievement. Among this year's recipients, Dr Sarah Rose of @lancasteruni.bsky.social, for her work with VCH Cumbria. 🗃️

A pleasure to share this wonderful news - and a lovely photo of a very happy occasion. Congratulations to Dr Sarah Rose of @lancasteruni.bsky.social & VCH #Cumbria on her #VCH Outstanding Contribution Award - the 'Gold Blue Peter Badge' of @vchlondon.bsky.social. It was an honour to make the award.

For some reason @vchlondon.bsky.social have decided I have made an ‘outstanding contribution’ 😱 to the project and awarded me 👇

It was an honour to make this award to Louise, in recognition of her wonderful work for the Victoria County #History in #Gloucestershire and #Wiltshire, and her generosity in mentoring and supporting others across the project. Congratulations, Louise! @vchlondon.bsky.social

We could not be prouder to publish this fantastic book on behalf of our friends at Hampshire VCH! A huge congratulations to them for this great piece of local history. #VCHPartnershipPublications @vchlondon.bsky.social www.hobnobpress.co.uk/books/p/basi...

We first covered Basingstoke in 1907 when, as was the pattern at that time, we were concerned with the lord or the manor, church and charities. This book tracks the 19th century transformation of the town from a market town, to an industrial and transport hub more recognisable to modern residents.

Really looking forward to this online event. My PhD student #JustinMuchnick will be sharing brand new research into the classical curriculum at Phillips Andover & Exeter Academies in the late 18th & 19th centuries. Exciting discoveries with practical implications for those teaching classics today.

This looks like a super interesting PhD opportunity for an artist or historian engaged in creative practice-based research www.rca.ac.uk/study/apply-... @royalcollegeofart.bsky.social #nationalmaritimemuseum @josiekane.bsky.social

"The rise and decline of mainstream churches in Cambridge since the 1800s" lostcambridge.wordpress.com/2016/12/29/t... I wrote this back in 2016 - a little piece of local 'town' history. #LostCambridge.

The closure of churches is such a difficult topic fraught with emotion. But when church closures are necessary how could/should their histories be preserved? This & much more was discussed in this round table 👇Recording now available!

Inspired by the #ChurchofScotlands plans to sell 40-50% of its church buildings by 2027, this session brought together researchers & those at the front line of church closure across the UK to discuss how histories & stories of churches & their communities could/should be preserved. Worth a watch.

We’re really looking forward to the next FREE training session in our series about placed-based #religious #history beyond the parish church. Join us & the @catholicrs.bsky.social online next Wednesday 7th May 2-4pm. Sign up using the link below 👇

Fantastic day yesterday in #Newcastle with colleagues from @uhihistory.bsky.social, @newcastleuni.bsky.social, @vchlondon.bsky.social, public & community history groups from Scotland & England.

Intrigued to see Beatrix Potter's British Museum Reading Room application at bottom right here notes her interest in "County Histories" bsky.app/profile/fran... @cathamclarke.bsky.social @adamchapman.bsky.social @ruthslatter.bsky.social

Still time to sign up for this tomorrow - online round table discussion about what happens to churches’ histories & stories when buildings have to close. Sign up using the link below 👇

A fascinating in-person #lecture for anyone interested in the formation of #Humanities disciplines in the early 20th century, the role of early #women historians, and historical processes of research & #publishing. 15 May, free to all, book via link @ihr.bsky.social www.history.ac.uk/events/women...

This looks to be a really interesting project at Worcester with Anna Muggeridge. They're looking for a research fellow for 'Voices of Motherhood: A History of Maternal Activism from the Women's Co-operative Guild to Pregnant then Screwed': www.jobs.ac.uk/job/DMT220/r...

If this sounds intriguing, & learning how women historians helped shape the study and writing of history in the early 20th century is interesting, come along to @ihr.bsky.social on 15 May to hear the wonderful @amalexathorn.bsky.social explore some of the many stories about these remarkable women. 🗃️

Exciting (and important) news for #Skystorians! England's longest and most durable #LocalHistory project is now even bigger! With these four new projects, @vchlondon.bsky.social is now actively researching in 22 counties and two Ridings of Yorkshire: the most since before the First World War. 🗃️

Proud to be part of this. It's early days but feel very lucky to be able to do this important work.

Intrigued to see that a new novel, Murder at Hampton Court, is set in the Palace's Grace & Favour residences www.historiamag.com/grace-favour.... I'll be discussing former Grace & Favour residents Edith & Gyneth Keate in my @vchlondon.bsky.social lecture 15 May www.history.ac.uk/events/women...

We are thrilled that @vchlondon.bsky.social are starting a new project on London as a whole city building on the excellent work going in in Middlesex.

It’s a huge pleasure to be working closely with the amazing researchers working on these 4 new @vchlondon.bsky.social projects. Each project is using exciting #communityhistory methods to continue to produce characteristically detailed & authoritative #VCH publications, exhibitions & events.