The Victoria County History England’s Past for Everyone Project: Volunteer Researchers in the Medway Towns
Volunteers are the key to the success of the Victoria County History's England's Past for Everyone project. This initiative, which has been supported by the Kent Archaeological Society from the outset, will see the publication of two paperback volumes. The first, Life and Work in the Lower Medway Valley, 1750-1900, by Andrew Hann, will appear later this year and the second, The Medway Towns 1550-1900 by Sandra Dunster, is scheduled for publication in 2010.
Dr. Sandra Dunster of the University of Greenwich, team leader of the Medway Towns project has no hesitation in acknowledging her debt to the twenty five volunteers who have worked with her. "I place tremendous value on the resource provided by such willing, knowledgeable and skilled volunteers. Without their help I would not have been able to access the wide range of new local material that they have uncovered, within the tight deadline set for the project."
Working in small groups volunteers have undertaken the transcription of probate inventories for Gillingham, apprenticeship records for Rochester and census data for Old and New Brompton, Troy Town, Luton and Strood. Details of crime in the Medway area have been extracted from the Old Bailey records.
There have also been individual initiatives. The 1861 diary of a teenage girl living in Old Brompton has been transcribed. Research into the Medway Bathing Establishment has cast light on the perhaps surprising early nineteenth century attempt to turn the Medway area into a fashionable health resort. Another project has looked at the outings enjoyed by clubs, societies and employees in the nineteenth century. Biographies of individual Medway residents have been prepared and work continues on early records of dockyard workers, prison hulks, ethnic minorities, popular protest and politics and the list of topics tackled continues to grow.
Not all of this material will make its way into the Medway Towns book, but none of it will go to waste. Data, articles and images will be loaded onto the Kent section of the England's Past for Everyone website, www.englandspastforeveryone.org.uk. Local publication of articles based on individual research has already begun and will continue to be encouraged and supported by the team leader.
As she begins to write up the Medway Towns book in the final year of the project, Sandra acknowledges her debt to the local history community in Kent. "This England's Past for Everyone volume must be a fitting tribute both to the local history societies, like KAS, who have provided financial support and to the volunteers who have poured so much time, energy and effort into the research which underpins the project. I would like to think that this Victoria County History initiative for the twenty-first century marks the beginning of more collaborative work in Kent."
If you wish to know more about the project please contact Sandra Dunster s.a.dunster@gre.ac.uk
