EDITORIAL NOTE

This is the third volume to be produced as a result of the partnership between the Somerset County Council and the University of London Institute of Historical Research. That partnership is described in the Editorial Note to Volume III, which was published in 1974. The County Council's responsibilitv for the Victoria History of Somerset has, during the compilation of the present volume, been borne by the Libraries, Museums and Records Committee (until 1978 the Libraries and Museums Sub-Committee of the Education and Cultural Services Committee) under the successive chairmanship of Dr. A. W. G. Court (until 1977), the late Mr. G. C. Wyndham (1977–8), the late Sir Michael Gass, K.C.M.G. (1978–81), and Mrs. D. S. Prettejohn (from 1981). 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.

Mr. R. J. E. Bush, B.A., resigned as Assistant Editor in March 1978 and was succeeded in September of the same year by Miss Mary C. Siraut, B.A., M.Litt.

Many people have given valuable help in the preparation 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 rendered to Lt.-Col. G. W. F. Luttrell, M.C., Lord-Lieutenant for the County of Somerset; the late Sir Michael Gass; Lady Gass; the late Mr. G. C. Wyndham; Dr. Katherine Wyndham; Mrs. R. Brayne-Baker; Dr. A. W. G. Court; Mr. W. Hancock; Mrs. Anna Pawlyn; and Mr. A. F. Tyler. Among the public libraries and record offices to whose librarians or archivists and their staff the thanks of the History are offered for their sympathetic and patient co-operation, special mention must be made of the Somerset Record Office.

The structure and aims of the History as a whole are outlined in the General Introduction (1970).