Victoria History - "The Victoria History of the counties of England - Essex"
Volume 1, Essex - 1901
I came across when I was researching the earthworks at Castle Hedingham.
There is some information relating to Thuderlow, the demesne of the area (with respect to de Vere and de Mandeville) and
the vineyards in Belchamp Walter and Great Waltham.
The scan of "The Victoria History of the counties of England - Essex" can be found on archive.org and was held in the
The Alfred Library, University of Toronto. When the book was aquired by the U of T is not definitely known but the book is
dated 1901 and there is a hand-written date of 24/6/03, so it could have been a contemporary purchase by the library.
King Alfred Library, University of Toronto
The VICTORIA HISTORY of the Counties of England is a National Historic Survey, which, under the direction of a large staff
comprising the foremost students in science, history, and archarology, is designed to record the history of every county of England
in detail. This work was, by gracious permission, dedicated to Her late Majesty Queen Victoria, who gave it her own name.
It is the endeavour of all who are associated with the undertaking to make it a worthy and permanent monument to her memory.
Rich as every county of England is in materials for local history, there has hitherto been no attempt made to bring all these
materials together into a coherent form.
Although from the seventeenth century down to quite recent times numerous county histories have been issued, they are very unequal
in merit ; the best of them are very rare and costly ; most of them are imperfect and all are now out of date. Moreover they were
the work of one or two isolated scholars, who, however able, could not possibly deal adequately with all the varied subjects which
go to the making of a county history.
In the VICTORIA HISTORY each county is not the labour of one or two men, but of several hundred, for the work is treated
scientifically, and in order to embody in it all that modern scholarship can contribute, a system of co-operation between
experts and local students is applied, whereby the history acquires a completeness and definite authority hitherto lacking
in similar undertakings.
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Vineyards
When I was researching Castle Hedingham and the de Veres I came across The Victoria History. It was in relation to the
earthworks.
