EDITORIAL NOTE

This volume is the eleventh to appear in the Staffordshire set of the Victoria History of the Counties of England. It was begun under the supervision of the Staffordshire Victoria County History Committee, which was a partnership between the University of London, Staffordshire County Council, and the four Metropolitan Boroughs in South Staffordshire. In 1993 the boroughs found themselves unable to continue their financial contributions to the Committee, which therefore dissolved itself in July. A new partnership was then formed between the University of London, the University of Keele, which assumed responsibility for employing the staff of the Staffordshire History, and Staffordshire County Council, which agreed to continue its financial contribution. It is that partnership which has supervised the completion of this volume.

As a result of the changes in 1993 the County Editor, Mr. M. W. Greenslade, and one of the two Assistant Editors, Mr. D. A. Johnson, formally retired, and the post of the other Assistant Editor, Dr. N. J. Tringham, was transferred to the Department of History at Keele. Mr. Greenslade was thereupon re-employed as County Editor by the University of Keele and Mr Johnson as part-time Assistant Editor by the University of London. In 1995 Mr. Greenslade and Mr. Johnson retired, Dr. Tringham became County Editor, and Dr. I. J. Atherton and Dr. A. E. Tomkins were appointed Assistant Editors. The staff thenceforth combined their work for the History with lecturing in the Keele History Department.

The University of London gratefully acknowledges the past help of the Staffordshire V.C.H. Committee, the generosity of the University of Keele in taking over the local management of the History and of Staffordshire County Council in continuing its support, and also the generous help of the Britannia Building Society, which has made an annual grant towards the cost of this volume. Particular thanks are owed to Mr. A. G. Ward, C.B.E., and Mr. B. A. Price, respectively last Chairman and last Secretary of the Staffordshire Committee, and to Professor B. E. F. Fender, C.M.G., and Mr. J. H. Y. Briggs, respectively Vice-Chancellor of the University of Keele and Head of the Department of History, for their part in establishing the new partnership.

Thanks are also offered to the many people who have helped in the compilation of the volume. Most are named in the lists of plates and of figures on pp. ix-xiii and in the footnotes to the articles on which their help was given. More general help has been received from Mr. Dudley Fowkes, Staffordshire County Archivist and William Salt Librarian, and his staff, especially the late Mrs. Jane Hampartumian, archivist at the Lichfield Joint Record Office, and her successor, Mr. Mark Dorrington, Dr. Margaret O'Sullivan, Derbyshire County Archivist, and her staff, Dr. A. D. M. Phillips, head of the Geography Department at Keele University, and the staff at Staffordshire County Library Headquarters, Stafford, and at Leek Library. Thanks are also owed to Professor C. R. Elrington, who after his retirement as General Editor of the Victoria History in 1994 continued to help with the editing of the volume.

The structure, aims, and progress of the Victoria History as a whole are described in the General Introduction (1970) and its Supplement (1990).