Editorial note

EDITORIAL NOTE

Volume X is the seventh volume of the Victoria History of Shropshire to be published, and the sixth since the revival of the project outlined in the Editorial Note to Volume VIII (1968). The partnership between the Shropshire County Council (with the continued support of the Walker Trust) and the University of London continued until 1994, local supervision of the History's work being devolved by the Council's Leisure Services Committee on the Victoria County History Advisory Board. Mr. N. L. Pickering chaired the Committee and the Board from 1985 to 1993 when he was succeeded in both capacities by Mr. R. K. Austin, chairman of the Board 1993-4.

In 1994, a new partnership was formed to manage the Shropshire History: the University of Keele agreed to employ the local editorial staff with financial assistance from the Shropshire County Council, editorial control and other responsibilities remaining, as before, with the University of London. In 1994 the University of Keele formed a new Advisory Board on which the three partners were represented, and Mr. J. H. Y. Briggs became its chairman, Mr. Austin its vice-chairman. In 1997 Dr. J. R. Studd succeeded Professor Briggs. For thus securing a continuance of work on the Shropshire History for a further period of years the University of London records its gratitude to the University of Keele and the Shropshire County Council and also to Professor B. E. F. Fender, C.M.G., then Vice-Chancellor of Keele, and Mr. J. L. Hirst, then County Leisure Services Officer, for their successful endeavours to this end. Work on the present volume has also received the generous support of Bridgnorth District Council and Mr. T. S. Acton.

Of the local staff mentioned in the Editorial Note to Volume IV (1989) Mr. G. C. Baugh, County Editor, and Dr. D. C. Cox, Assistant County Editor, have continued in post. Dr. P. A. Stamper, Assistant County Editor since 1981, took up a new appointment in 1992. Mrs. J. M. Day continued until 1995 as part-time secretary, also undertaking some research. Her predecessor, Mrs M. B. Key, typed the index. Mr. P. B. Hewitt began to work voluntarily for the History in 1992.

For help given during the preparation of this volume thanks are offered to the Hereford Diocesan Registrar and to the staffs of the Hereford and Worcester Record Office, Hereford, under Miss D. S. Hubbard; the Natural and Historic Environment Group (Shropshire County Council Environment Department) under Mr. H. O. Thomas, especially Miss P. A. Ward; the Local Studies Library, Shrewsbury, under Mr. A. M. Carr; the Royal Commission on the Historical Monuments of England at Keele, under Mr. P. Everson; Shropshire Libraries, especially the Information Service under Elaine Moss and those at headquarters; the Shropshire Record Office successively under Mrs. L. B. Halford (now Mrs. K. Roberts) and Miss R. E. Bagley; the Staffordshire Record Office and William Salt Library, Stafford, successively under Dr. D. V. Fowkes and Mrs. D. M. A. Randall; and the Department of Manuscripts and Records of the National Library of Wales. Special mention too must be made of the invaluable practical assistance afforded over several years by Mrs. P. A. Downes, town clerk of Much Wenlock, and by the town council's archivists, the late Mr. V. H. Deacon and his joint successors Miss M. Furbank and Mr. O. G. McDonald. As so often in the past Mr. J. B. Lawson, Shrewsbury School Librarian, and Dr. B. S. Trinder have given much generous help, as has Mrs. M. Moran. Mr. M. W. Greenslade and Mr. D. A. Johnson are thanked for their help in checking materials in Stafford at a late stage in the preparation of the volume. Thanks are also owed to Professor C. R. Elrington, who after his retirement as General Editor of the Victoria History in 1994 continued to help with the editing of the volume, and to those landowners (in particular Lord Forester and Sir Michael Leighton) and private householders who have courteously given access to their property and muniments. Many others who have helped with particular articles or sources of information are named in appropriate footnotes.

Lines by Louis MacNeice on page 5 are quoted (from his Collected Poems, published by Faber & Faber, 1966) by permission of David Higham Associates.

The General Introduction to the History (1970) and its Supplement 1970-90 (1990) outline the structure, aims, and progress of the series as a whole.