VCH Durham
Latest news
The Trust is currently arranging the annual subscriber's meeting for 2009, which we hoped to combine with the launch of Sunderland: building a city (due in spring 2010). Once we have confirmation of the book launch date, we will be able to announce the date of the meeting.
Our work
Since the Victoria County History of Durham was revived in 1999, we have written a major history of Darlington - vol. iv in the county series - as well as a paperback history of the Darlington landscape.
We are now working on the history of Sunderland. Sunderland and its Origins: Monks to Mariners, by Maureen M Meikle and Christine M Newman was published in 2008. Lavishly-illustrated, it covers the early history of the Wearmouth settlements, up to the foundation of Sunderland parish in 1719. See the publisher's website for details of how to order it at a special price of only £13.49.
The second paperback, Sunderland: Building a City, will be published in early 2010. It takes a long view of how the landscape developed, from medieval settlements to modern city.
The Sunderland project has drawn in contributions from a wide range of people: volunteers and their leaders, academic colleagues, architectural historians and archaeologists, and local historians with specialised interests. Our plan is to produce a significant history of Sunderland from earliest recorded history, to the modern day.
We're appealing....
The end result - our big history of Sunderland - will appear as Victoria County History of Durham volume v. To complete this will take another two years, for which we urgently need funds. So we're launching an appeal. If you would like to join our supporters, you can donate online here. Or for details of other ways of subscribing see here.
New!!! on sale now - transcripts of 16th-century wills, fully indexed, available on CD.
News and events from the last two years
Antiquaries exhibition comes to Sunderland - with David Starkie lecture
Goodbye to Christine after eight years.
Our annual subscribers' meeting and lunch in Easington, November 2008.
Our stall at the popular History Fair in Seaburn in June 2008.
And what else do we do? If you were wondering, see here.
Sunderland and its Origins is now available.
Victoria County History of Durham volumes ii and iii now online
Contact us:
Richard Higgins, newsletter editor: r.i.higgins@durham.ac.uk
