FOREWORD
This is the seventh volume to be produced as a
result of the partnership between Somerset County
Council and the University of London's Institute of
Historical Research. That partnership is described in the
Editorial Note to Volume III, which was published in
1974. The County Council's responsibility for the
Victoria History of Somerset has, during the compilation
of the present volume, been borne first by its Libraries,
Museums, and Records Committee, from 1998 by its
Information and Leisure Board, from May 2000 to
March 2001 by its Community, Leisure, and Information Review Committee, and from March 2001 by its
Culture, Inclusion, and Access Policy Panel. The University here records its most sincere thanks for the generosity with which the County Council has met and
continues to meet the expense of compiling the History,
for the active enthusiasm of successive chairs and portfolio holders, Mr. John Farley, Ms. Liz Palmer, Mrs.
Annie Cant, and Ms. Paddy Macmaster; and for the
notable support of Mr. John Whitcutt, County Secretary
and Solicitor until 1998, of Mr. Michael Jennings,
Corporate Director, Education, and of Mrs. Jane
Murray, Corporate Director, Culture and Community.
Many people have given valuable help in the prep
aration of this volume. Those who were concerned with
particular parishes are named in the footnotes to those
parishes: they are thanked most warmly. For more
extensive help particular thanks are offered to Mr. David
Bromwich, Local Studies Librarian, to Mr. Tom
Mayberry, County Archivist and Head of Heritage
Services, to Mr. Philip Nokes, Assistant Diocesan Secretary, Wells, to Mr. Michael Protheroe, to members of the
Somerset Vernacular Buildings group (especially Mr.
John Dallimore), and to colleagues in the County
Museum Service and the Historic Environment group.
Thanks are also offered to the owners and staffs of the
private archives of C. & J. Clark at Street, of the
Moravian Church at Muswell Hill, London, at Sherborne Castle, Dorset (especially Mrs. A. Smith), and at
Longleat House, Wiltshire. Among the public libraries
and record offices to whose staffs the thanks of the
History are rendered for their active support, special
mention must be made of the Somerset Local Studies
Library and the Somerset Record Office.
The general editing at VCH Central Office was carried
out by Dr A. T. Thacker (Executive Editor) and Ms
Elizabeth Williamson (Architectural Editor).