Research Plan Summer 2011 to 2012 Announced (2 June 2011)

Following a meeting of CCHT Volunteers, research plans for the next twelve months have been announced

Six individuals have volunteered to act as ‘drafters’, forming the nuclei of research groups working on articles for the following individual townships: Papcastle, Brough-under-Stainmore areaa, Skelsmergh, Kirkby Lonsdale area, Crosby Garrett and Houghton (near Carlisle)

Cells have already begun to form for the Brough area (centred on members of the Upper Eden History Society) and for Houghton. Volunteers are being invited to join a research cell to help work on one of the townships listed above, each cell being led by the ‘drafter’.

Volunteers who do not wish to join one of the research groups may contribute to the project in one of the following ways:

1. Continue to work on ‘Task 1’ from the ‘Making a Start’ programme, with the aim of completing the collection of census data for the whole of Cumberland and Westmorland in the next few months

OR  2. Work as an individual or group towards preparing a future VCH article by (a) researching (aspects of) the history of a particular township(b) focusing on specific primary sources for a group of townships, ideally those which are planned to be covered by a ‘red book’ (e.g. Hearth Tax returns; visitation records) (c) researching a particular theme at a volume or county level (e.g. coal mining in West Cumbria) 

The first in a series of meetings for ‘drafters’ will be held in early July.  At this meeting, drafters will be given a checklist of primary sources to be consulted in association with the VCH guidelines on ‘Writing a Parish History’ as each research group makes a start on researching their township.  The checklist and other guidance notes will be posted on the password-protected section of the CCHT website, so that they are available to all volunteers.