The Victoria County History of Leicestershire
Volume I of the Leicestershire series was published in 1907. Under the influence of W.G. Hoskins the project was revived after the Second World War with four volumes published between 1954 and 1964.
Work was revived through a four-year project, supported by the Heritage Lottery Fund, called Charnwood Roots (Opens in new window) (2013-17) which researched the histories of 35 towns, villages and hamlets in the Charnwood area of Leicestershire (not all within Charnwood District Council area).
Leicestershire VCH Trust is now raising funds to write up this research as traditional VCH 'Big Red Books', starting with a volume on the town of Loughborough. As a first step, it is intended to publish two paperbacks on the history of the town since 1750, the first on the social, cultural and religious history of Loughborough, and the second on the town’s industrial history.
Meanwhile, four paperback books have been published in the VCH ‘Shorts’ series. Castle Donington (Opens in new window) and Buckminster and Sewstern pens in new window)were published in 2017 and Ibstock (Opens in new window) was published in 2020. The most recent paperback (2022) is a history of the town of Lutterworth(Opens in new window).
Drafts are available (Opens in new window) for some other parishes in Leicestershire.
Part of Volume II and all of Volumes IV and V are on British History Online (Opens in new window). For full access to all volumes, check your local library catalogue or your local archive.
