EDITORIAL NOTE

Like the sixteen earlier volumes of the Victoria History of Wiltshire, this volume has been prepared under the supervision of the Wiltshire Victoria County History Committee. The origin and early constitution of that Committee are described in the Editorial Note to Volume VII, the first to be published. New arrangements introduced in 1975 are outlined in the Editorial Note to Volume XI, and further modifications in 1990 and 1993 are described in the Editorial Notes to Volumes XIV and XV respectively. The Local Authorities retaining representation on the Committee in 1998 were Wiltshire County Council and the District Councils of Kennet, Salisbury, North Wiltshire, and West Wiltshire. To them the University of London again offers its profound thanks for their continued support of the Wiltshire V.C.H. Committee, whose collaboration in the enterprise is once more warmly acknowledged. In 1998 the Wiltshire Victoria County History Appeal, under the patronage of the Lord Lieutenant, Sir Maurice Johnston, was launched to seek supplementary funding for the Committee's work.

In 1997 Mr. M. O. Holder resigned as Honorary Secretary of the Wiltshire V.C.H. Committee, and Mr. S. P. Milton succeeded him in 1998. Grateful thanks are owed to Mr. Holder for his five years' service to the Committee. Also in 1997 Miss Janet Stevenson retired, and in 1998 Dr. Jane Freeman resigned, as assistant editors after 32 and 20 years' service respectively. The extent of their contribution is reflected in the table of contents of this, as of earlier, volumes. In January 1999 Dr. Carrie Smith took up the post of Assistant Editor.

Thanks are also offered to the many people who have helped in the compilation of this volume by granting access to documents and buildings in their ownership or care, by providing information, or by giving advice. Most of them are named in the footnotes to the articles with which they helped. Special mention must be made of the assistance given by the staff of the Wiltshire and Swindon Record Office and by the Trowbridge Reference and County Local Studies Librarian of Wiltshire County Council (Mr. M. J. Marshman) and his assistants. Special thanks are also due to Mr. R. A. Canham, County Archaeologist for Wiltshire, for his help in preparing maps, and to Mr. P. Williams, Mr. M. Hesketh-Roberts, and Mr. J. O. Davies, all of the Royal Commission on the Historical Monuments of England, for their work as photographers.

The General Introduction to the Victoria County History, published in 1970, and its Supplement published in 1990 give an outline of the structure and aims of the series as a whole, with an account of its progress.