Research Plan Summer 2011-12

VCH Cumbria Project: Research Plan Summer 2011 – Summer 2012

 

The following notes should be read in conjunction with the ‘Project Plan 2011-12’, agreed by trustees at their meeting on 14 April 2011.

Six individuals have volunteered to act as ‘drafters’, forming the nuclei of research groups working on articles for individual townships, as follows:

  • Eric Apperley                          Papcastle

  • John and Margaret Gowling      Brough-under-Stainmore area

  • Tony Cousins                          Skelsmergh

  • Emmeline Garnett                     Kirkby Lonsdale area

  • Jane Platt                                 Houghton (near Carlisle)

 Cells have already begun to form for Houghton.

Volunteers are being invited to join a research cell to help work on one of the townships listed above, each cell being led by the ‘drafter’.

 

Volunteers who do not wish to join one of the research groups may contribute to the project in one of the following ways:

1. Continue to work on ‘Task 1’ from the ‘Making a Start’ programme, with the aim of completing the collection of census data for the whole of Cumberland and Westmorland in the next few months.

2. Work as an individual or group towards preparing a future VCH article by

  1. researching (aspects of) the history of a particular township
  2. focusing on specific primary sources for a group of townships, ideally those which are planned to be covered by a ‘red book’ (e.g. Hearth Tax returns; visitation records)
  3. researching a particular theme at a volume or county level (e.g. coal mining in West Cumbria)

 

Angus Winchester and Sarah Rose have held regular meetings with drafters since July. Guidance notes have been produced advising drafters on sources for each section of a township article, which are to be be consulted in association with the VCH guidelines on ‘Writing a Parish History’. Please see http://www.victoriacountyhistory.ac.uk/local-history/writing-parish-history

Guidance notes are available to all volunteers on the Resource papge of the CCHT website. This includes a checklist of sources (Briefing Paper 2) which volunteers may find useful when starting to research their township.