Chronicles of the county

In France, Dreyfus was pardoned by presidential decree and in The Hague the first - but by no means the last - international peace conference opened.

Meanwhile in England, a large-scale project was launched that is still with us today, still a source of usefulness and pleasure - and still incomplete - the Victoria County History of England, or VCH for short.

"One of the few things we are producing that we can be sure will be of lasting value a hundred years from now"; so wrote the Times columnist Philip Howard in 1992 of the VCH, an immensely ambitious local history of England that has been steadily ploughing its way the length and breadth of the country for more than 100 years, county by county.

The VCH was originally dedicated to Queen Victoria. It had though nothing in particular to do with the Queen or Victorian history but everything to do with Victorian self-confidence and belief in national monuments, whether political, cultural or historical.

As a link with 1899, two books take pride of place on my bookshelves. The first is a magnificently bound Big Red Book' - a history of the University of Oxford. The second is a more modest paperback - a history of Woodstock. Both are written with scholarly care, include wide-ranging subject matter, and are illustrated by maps, plans and photographs. The volume on the history of Oxford University begins with a grand tour d'horizon', followed by articles on the university grammar schools, and its later buildings and educational institutions.

Each college and hall, from the splendour of Christ Church and Magdalen to the comparative anonymity of St Benet's Hall and Campion Hall, are given sympathetic but rigorous treatment.

The second volume on Woodstock is equally wide-ranging. Following a general introduction, the reader is provided with a history of every building in the main streets of the town. Then come an economic history, and descriptions of Woodstock markets and fairs, education, churches and much else.

Both volumes are invaluable and come from the same stable - the Victoria County History of Oxfordshire.

VCH is still flourishing, and the basic intention has not changed over the years. It is, in the words of Dr Simon Townley, editor of VCH Oxfordshire, "to produce a scholarly but accessible history of every town and village in England, based on rigorous academic research."

This mind-boggling exercise involves enormous work, taking in detailed treatment of agriculture, industry, religious and social history - not to mention buildings, all illustrated by specially-drawn maps and plans, augmented by a variety of modern and historic photographs. No wonder the project has had its ups and downs. For example, the first volume of Oxfordshire (somewhat confusingly titled volume two) was published in 1907. The second volume did not appear until 1939.

The resulting histories are now made available both in hardback and paperback and increasingly on the web as well, creating a unique resource for anyone interested in local or family history.

Over 260 volumes have been published so far, each one covering a specific area. The VCH headquarters are at the Institute of Historical Research at London University - who meet the publishing costs - and it has historians working the length and breadth of England.

And this is where Oxfordshire comes in. A county so rich in buildings and documentation is fertile ground for the VCH. From the beauty of Oxford college buildings and the depth of their archives to the county's extensive stock of historic and local buildings and archaeology.

Fifteen volumes of Oxfordshire have been published so far (you may have seen them on the reference shelf of your local library).

These volumes are used extensively by a wide range of people, from residents who want to know more about their town or village through to the academic historian or archaeologist.

I recently took a group on a walking tour of Woodstock and was asked about the history of a couple of prominent buildings, Fletcher's House and Chaucer's House. VCH Oxfordshire had a full answer to both questions in the Woodstock paperback - an offprint of part of Volume XII.

The 15 volumes now cover some two-thirds of Oxfordshire. They are widely available in libraries and are gradually appearing on the web (British History Online, www.british-history.ac.uk). The most recent are on Witney and Minster Lovell/Carterton. They join a long list of towns and villages, from Adderbury and Adwell to Yarnton and Yelford.

For example, VCH Oxfordshire notes that Adwell is an ancient parish some 13 miles south-east of Oxford. It is situated on sloping ground that rises to Adwell Cop', which is crowned with a Bronze Age barrow. The Cop was long associated with fairies. Travellers would see them dancing and singing: At Adwell Cop there stands a cup, Drink the drink and eat the sop, And set the cup on Adwell Cop.' On the other side of the county, VCH Oxfordshire describes Yelford as one of Oxford's smallest rural parishes, three miles south of Witney. The village has always been noted for its seclusion and is accessible only by a single narrow lane. In the Middle Ages some ten to 12 households are recorded.

Today, Yelford comprises a church, a former rectory, a manor house, a farmhouse and a few modern houses. Clearly, not much has changed over the years.

High up in the refurbished Clarendon Building in the centre of Oxford, the five VCH Oxfordshire staff led by Dr Townley, all experienced research historians, are pressing on to complete coverage of the county.

VCH employees have to be able to cover all aspects of local history. Their research takes place in the National Archives in Kew, in the Oxfordshire Records Office in Cowley, in the Bodleian Library and of course, in the field - looking at title deeds, talking to people, visiting great houses like Blenheim Palace or small Oxfordshire churches.

Discoveries can come from unlikely sources. Dr Robert Peberdy recalls finding out about a 13th century manorial fish pond at Brize Norton through studying a 17th-century map, part of a sale document, in an Oxford college archive. Such an enormous range of sources makes for skilled and difficult work.

Burford and Henley-on-Thames are the next two big projects for VCH Oxfordshire. It is worth pausing to consider the former project in particular, as it illustrates the work of VCH past and present so well.

Burford is surely one of the most beautiful towns in Oxfordshire. A small former market town on the edge of the Cotswolds, its streets contain a remarkable variety of timber and stone houses and buildings. The chief treasure is the parish church of St John the Baptist, tucked away in a secluded corner of the town. With its Norman tower and slender spire towering above the flat riverside landscape, the church is a constant reminder of the wealth and civic pride of a place that was an important Cotswold wool town in the Middle Ages.

The town then began to decline in size and importance in the 18th century. It lost its coaching trade and never acquired a railway. But this decline has been at least to the advantage of local historians.

Burford remains much as it was in the Middle Ages, and has escaped the 19th century and modern developments that have altered the appearance of so many towns. The early houses and buildings - some 30 date to before the mid-16th century - are a treasure trove for VCH staff and local enthusiasts.

The Burford history is nearing completion and illustrates how the venerable VCH is changing with the times. There will be a paperback out next spring, which looks at the town's medieval origins and later development, as well as the superb timber and stone buildings, all in the context of the town's wider history.

Later a main-series volume will be published as well. And, if that sounds slightly too academic, enter the England's Past for Everyone (EPE) project. This is a recent VCH development programme to engage new audiences in new ways.

Mainly funded by the National Heritage Lottery fund, there are web initiatives, outreach, and work with volunteers and schools.

So in Burford, VCH Oxfordshire has been working with up to 60 volunteers, who have helped with recording buildings, photography and transcribing nearly 1,000 wills that shed light on trade and religion as well as family relations and domestic life.

As the EPE website states: the Burford project is about the town as visitors experience it - its extraordinary buildings, and the complex network of streets, lanes and house-plots which underlie it. But the present investigation goes deeper. It looks at Burford's medieval town plan, its social and economic life and how people lived, worked and died there. Much of the material is new, based on recent research.

The project has also benefited from collaboration between VCH Oxfordshire and the Oxfordshire Buildings Record, a voluntary organisation which encourages involvement in recording historic buildings.

Dr Antonia Catchpole describes recording days with volunteers, dividing a town such as Burford into blocks and measuring frontages to recreate a medieval plan. Such recording can then help to uncover several phases of planned development over the centuries.

Plots, churches and back lanes all combine in towns like Burford and Thame to build up a complex picture of the past.

Photography has also been undertaken by both volunteers as well as professionals from English Heritage. And the Burford website will include a historical gazetteer of every building in the main streets, and details of past owners and occupiers, plus maps, photos and transcripts of the wills. All this, of course, requires money.

Support for VCH Oxfordshire comes from a variety of sources. The county council provides core funding and Oxford University gives a grant and accommodation for VCH staff in the Clarendon Building; the National Heritage Lottery Fund also contributes to self-contained EPE projects.

Last, but by no means least, an independent VCH Oxfordshire Trust engages in crucial fundraising. At present it funds the greater part of a research post and contributes towards the cost of Oxfordshire EPE projects. Established in 1998, it also holds events, produces a periodic newsletter and monitors the work of VCH Oxfordshire.

But, in an age of globalisation, increasing internationalism and shrinking boundaries, why does the work of VCH Oxfordshire and the study of local history matter? Why should anyone care to know about charity schools of yesteryear in, say, Woodstock, or its history of glovemaking or indeed in the very origins of the town - the place in the woods?

Simon Townley has an answer. To the Victorian founding fathers, VCH was first and foremost a national monument. Today, local history is valued for itself rather than as part of a national statement. Put simply, it is a way of studying past communities and understanding the evolution of our townscapes and landscapes.

Local studies also contribute to the big picture, reminding us that it was not just kings and queens and politicians who have shaped the past. And local history groups are increasingly in demand, as is good popular history, whether on television or in print.

The job of VCH is to keep up its authoritative standards. But it must also produce history that is accessible to the general public. The VCH is uniquely placed to do this. Its publications are comprehensive, telling us chronologically and in the round where we come from, and it has the staff and outside contributors to make sense of the many sources.

Meanwhile, the study of history continues at the VCH Oxfordshire office. Work on two main series volumes ( VCH Oxfordshire XVI and XVII) taking in, respectively, Henley-on-Thames and neighbouring Chiltern parishes and the Langford and Broadwell area of West Oxfordshire, is due for completion in 2010.

Other areas, such as Chadlington Hundred (a Hundred was a subdivision of a county or shire, having a court) have yet to be covered. There are buildings to inspect, archives to read, wills to transcribe, churches to visit.

But, funding permitting, the end seems to be in sight for this mighty undertaking, with full coverage of Oxfordshire.

The historian Lord Blake said of VCH Oxfordshire It is a compendium and a treasure house.' And he could have added - it is both modest and magnificent'.

For more information visit the website: www.victoriacountyhistory.ac.uk/Oxfordshire or call 01865 277239