Resumption of the Kent Victoria County History: Report on Progress
1. At the AGM of 1st July 2000 I suggested a small committee should be formed to consider the restarting of the Kent VCH, the last volume of which had been published in 1932.
2. The President, Mr. Oldham, asked me to form such a Committee, and Dr. C. Chalklin and Mr. Tony Smith at once asked to join. To these I was able to add Dr. Frank Panton and, after receiving an encouraging letter from her, Dr. Joan Thirsk.
3. My first step was to interview the acting Editor of the VCH at the Institute of Historical Research, Dr. Alan Thacker, and I spent a fruitful hour-and-a half with him on 2nd November. He expressed delight that things were beginning to move in Kent and said that if some £17,500 could be raised, a lottery bid to make up the remaining £52,500 would enable work to be started.
4. As a meeting of the KAS Publications Committee was shortly to be held on 11th November, Dr. John Whyman of the Committee asked me to prepare a report for its consideration. The Publications Committee accepted the need for restarting the Kent VCH and recommended the proposal to the Council.
5. And then an unforeseen and wholly welcome development occurred. The newly appointed General Editor of the VCH, Professor Anthony Fletcher, telephoned me on the 9th November saying that the University of Greenwich had promised £4,000 for restarting Kent VCH. Even better, as it turned out, they were to provide premises, secretarial help, and in Dr. James Longmore, Head of the School of Humanities, a scholar of boundless enthusiasm and a born organiser. Suddenly I knew what Moses felt like when the Red Sea opened up before him.
6. Dr. Longmore began by setting up a Steering Committee for restarting the Kent VCH and I simply added my little committee to it. The first Steering Committee meeting was held on 7th December and the second on 20th February. Huge progress has been made between these two dates. Some twenty-two people attended the second meeting including the General Editor of the VCH, the Vice-Chancellor of the University of Greenwich and representative of the Kent County Council. At the December meeting it was decided to start with the topographical volumes and at the February meeting that the first of these should cover the parishes of the lower Medway. The reason for this location was that it would be the one most likely to attract the support of two large local authorities: the KCC and the Medway towns. The General Editor congratulated all concerned at the swift progress made.
7. The third meeting of the Steering Committee was held at the University of Greenwich on the 12th June. Here it was revealed that progress on the VCH had had to be cut back on some counties for economic and administrative reasons, but so impressed had been the management with the speed with which Kent had got off the mark that the county was not one of those adversely affected. For this credit must go chiefly to Dr. Longmore and her Greenwich colleagues. Secondly gratitude was expressed to the KAS Council for the valuable help of £2,000 p.a. (I presume that this has been, or will be, formally conveyed). This has helped enable the target sum to be met, and on the assumption that the lottery bid is successful, work on the fourth Kent volume should begin in April 2002, with completion five years later.
8. It simply remains to say that this will be an ongoing project, that further volumes are envisaged, and that it is incumbent upon all who want to see this great work completed to rally support, both moral and financial, throughout the County.
Brian E. Porter, Ph.D., F.R.Hist.S.
23rd June 2001