W. G. Hoskins, the Victoria County History, and the Study of English Local History

Abstract

The Victoria County History (VCH) was founded in 1899 but struggled to survive during the inter-war years. After 1945 it was revived in a number of counties, including Leicestershire, and this raised questions about its subject matter. This article argues that W. G. Hoskins' interests in the 1930s and 1940s were far distant from the VCH approach to local history, but that with the founding of the Department of English Local History at University College, Leicester, in 1948 he needed all the 'academic friends' he could find. The VCH had been taken over by the University of London in 1933, and work had resumed in Oxfordshire. These credentials were helpful to Hoskins, but he soon ran into difficulties with the VCH over the nature and content of traditional VCH parish histories. This led to a debate between 1950, when he drafted an entry for Great Stretton, Leicestershire, and 1952 when he left Leicester University College for a post at Oxford. The VCH moved its position on the subject matter of its parish histories in the 1950s and in doing so reflected Hoskins' argument for greater emphasis on the community of farmers, labourers and their farms in addition to its traditional strength in manorial and church history.