EDITORIAL NOTE

This is the fifth volume to be produced as a result of the partnership between the Somerset County Council and the University 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 largely by the Libraries, Museums and Records Committee and from 1998 by the Information and Leisure Board under the successive chairmanship of Mr. A. W. Cotton (1989-93), Dr. S. E. Openshaw (1993-5), and Mr. J. Farley (from 1995). 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 chairmen, and for the notable support of Mr. J. K. Whitcutt, County Secretary and Solicitor until 1998, and of Mr. M. R. Jennings, Corporate Director, Education.

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 offered to Mr. J. Bishton, Mr. A. Goverd, Miss A. Hickley, Miss S. Maude, Mr. P. Nokes, Mr. M. Passmore, Mrs. M. Tyler, and members of the East Somerset Archaeological Society. Thanks are also offered to the owners and staffs of the private archives at Hadspen House (especially Mr. N. Hobhouse), Horsington Manor (Mr. C. Bailward), King's School, Bruton, Sherborne castle (especially Mrs. A. Smith), and Winchester College. Among the public libraries and record offices to whose librarians or archivists and their staff the thanks of the History are rendered for their active support, special mention must be made of the Somerset Record Office, the Somerset Local Studies Library, the Dorset Record Office, the Wiltshire and Swindon Record Office (especially Mr. S. D. Hobbs), and the Architectural and Historic Heritage section of the Somerset County Council's Environment and Property Department.