VCH Spalding – Update

As you know, last year we launched the VCH, Spalding (Victoria County History) project from the Centre for Fenland Studies in Ayscoughfee Hall. We have many local researchers contribution material on all aspects of the history of the town. We have also received funding from a number of supporters that is enabling us to progress the project.

In autumn/winter 2025/6 we are planning to hold a series of training workshops for researchers and local historians to provide essential skills.

The programme will include……

1. The Historian’s Craft:

• Trends and movements in history, the antiquarian tradition, local history and national history. Primary and secondary sources. Disciplines and conventions. Practical aspects of using archives and libraries

2. The Local Historian’s Toolbox:

• Key resources. Online, Ancestry, British Newspaper Archive, Historical Directories BHO/VCH. Printed sources, record series, journals. Archival sources, by creator. Local govt, diocese, parish, estate.

3. The History of the Landscape:

• Landscape archaeology, maps, place names, archaeological resources, arial photography, Lidar

4. The History of Buildings:

• Examining and describing buildings, vernacular and polite architecture, modern and recent buildings and housing. Special types of buildings, religious, industrial, civic. Documentary sources and techniques.

5. Working with Documents:

• Palaeography and techniques for reading documents. Latin, identifying and understanding different types of deeds, manorial records, parish records etc.

6. Ownership and Government:

• Landownership, feudal tenures and manorial decent, manorial courts and control, development of vestry and parish responsibilities. Proliferation of local authorities and their functions.

7. Movement and Migration:

• Roads, canals and railways and the evolution of travel. The study of population including migration, immigration and emigration. The drift from countryside to the town.

8. Community, Society and Welfare:

• Caring for the poor sick and elderly. Local and national justice. Bringing up and educating children. Social activities, legal and illegal, moral and immoral.

9. Working Lives of Men and Women:

• Farming the land, rural and urban trades and industries. Sources for women’s history, restoring the balance between male and female work.

10. The influence of Religion:

• Ubiquity of the medieval church, monasteries and chantries. The effect of the reformation. Puritans and nonconformists. Victorian religiosity and its aftermath.

The workshops will be open to all local historians/researchers and not just to those working on the VCH project. Subject to space all will be very welcome.

More details to follow shortly.