Contributing Editor

Job Description

Location: Remote working with trips to Hampshire and London Archives

Fee: Contract for one year initially with the possibility of extension into a second year on satisfactory completion of work. Part-time. £25,000 per year. To be paid on the completion of each parish. Further £10,000 possible in third year for response to peer review.

Closes: 5pm 1^st October 2026 

Details:

The Hampshire County History Trust is responsible for funding and commissioning the research and writing of the Victoria County History (VCH) series for the historic county of Hampshire. The series, which is edited and published by the Institute of Historical Research of the University of London, is recognised for its scholarly standards and is widely consulted by students, academics, archivists, local historians, and many others.    

The work is to review and edit completed histories of parishes around Basingstoke. The contractor’s tasks will include:

• Review and complete research and writing of several small parishes in the same area.
• Prepare a volume introduction, compile volume figures, and prepare the volume for publication in collaboration with volume contributors and central editorial staff.

This work is for Hampshire New Series 1 and will need to be completed to agreed VCH standards. 

The study area is a band of parishes south of Basingstoke.

The project is estimated as a 24-month task (part-time) for which the Trust offers a contract fee of £50,000 divided into packages of 12 months subject to work being completed to a suitable standard to start as soon as possible.

The successful appointee will  

• have experience of editorial work
• be familiar with VCH work
• have a relevant record of postgraduate research and publication in English history  
• be willing and able to work with knowledgeable local volunteers 
• be competent in medieval, early modern and later palaeography 

The Trust seeks a well-organised self-starter, sufficiently resourceful to deal with the scattered location of relevant sources, which will be found in archives in Hampshire, London and Oxford. Experience of working on the VCH in its current form is highly desirable.

Work will be carried out to the established standards of the VCH. On publication all original research and editorial work will be credited to the appointee.

The appointee will act as an independent contractor and not as the employee of the Trust, and will bear exclusive responsibility for the payment of national insurance contributions and income tax as a self-employed person. The fee quoted is inclusive of any VAT charged by the editor and any expenses involved in visiting archives or obtaining copies of documents for study at home. 

How to apply: email Jean Morrin via the 'Apply' button above (E: jean.morrin@sas.ac.uk) attaching a CV, 1-page covering letter, and contact details of two academic referees. Please include ‘VCH Hampshire’ in the subject line. Shortlisting will take place within two weeks of the closing date, with online interviews as soon as possible thereafter. The appointment panel will include representatives from VCH Hampshire and the VCH central team at the Institute of Historical Research.

Further info: for background on the Trust, and on the Victoria County History in Hampshire, see https://www.history.ac.uk/research/victoria-county-history/counties-z/hampshire and: https://vchhampshire.org/

Applicants are strongly encouraged to contact Jean Morrin, VCHH Project Leader, for informal discussion of the post (jean.morrin@sas.ac.uk).

Advert information