Editorial note

EDITORIAL NOTE

VOLUME TEN is the fourth volume of the Victoria History of Gloucestershire to be published since the establishment of the Victoria History. An outline of the structure and aims of the History as a whole, as also of its origins and progress, is included in the General Introduction to the History (1970).

The revival of the Gloucestershire History in 1958 is described in the Editorial Note to Volume VI. The arrangements indicated there by which the Gloucestershire County Council and the University of London collaborate to produce the History of the county have continued with little alteration, and the present volume is the third to be produced by that partnership. It is the General Editor's pleasure to record once again the University's gratitude for the generosity displayed by the County Council.

The Victoria History Sub-Committee of the County Council was dissolved in 1970, and its functions were transferred to the newly formed Library and Archives Committee; Mr.G.T.St.J. Sanders, who was Chairman of the Sub-Committee at its dissolution, has been Chairman of the Library and Archives Committee from its inception. In September 1968 Mr. C. R. Elrington resigned his appointment as county editor on his appointment as Deputy Editor of the History, and in May 1970 the County Council appointed Mr. N. M. Herbert, formerly assistant editor, in his place. In the interval the County Archivist, Mr. B. S. Smith, had acted as part-time county editor. Mr. W. J. Sheils succeeded Mr. Herbert as assistant editor in October 1970. The present volume was largely written before the departure of Mr. Elrington, who has continued, though more remotely, to supervise its progress since then. The narratives were completed under the direction of Mr. Smith, who also did much of the work of selecting and preparing the maps and other illustrations. Mr. Herbert saw to the final preparation of the text for the printer and to correcting the proofs.

Among the many people who have given help in the preparation of the volume, those who are named in the footnotes as providing information about particular parishes need not be individually mentioned here, but the extent of their combined contribution will be clear from the footnotes and they are warmly thanked. The notes compiled by the late Mr. A. Cossons of Nottingham on the county's turnpike roads and those compiled by Mr. G. Dutton of Barnwood on religious nonconformity have again been of value. Mr. L. F. J. Walrond, of the Stroud Museum, has given much useful advice on mills and other buildings in the neighbourhood of Stroud, and Miss J. de L. Mann has provided information about the cloth industry. Among the collections of source material, special mention must be made in this volume of the Badminton estate records, both at Badminton and in the National Library of Wales, to which his Grace the Duke of Beaufort, K.G., G.C.V.O., kindly allowed access. The Gloucestershire County Records Office and the Gloucestershire City Library have continued to give their indispensable assistance, and the efforts of successive County Archivists, Mr. I. E. Gray, M.B.E., and Mr. B. S. Smith, of the City Librarian, Mr. A. J. I. Parrott, and of their respective staffs are recorded with particular gratitude.