In this blog post, VCH Essex Trustee Ben Cowell looks at links between the VCH and the village of Newport, which was the subject of the very first ‘Short’ volume published by the Trust.
The VCH Red Book volumes for Essex have yet to reach Uttlesford in the north-west of the county. Nevertheless, Newport in Uttlesford is one of three contributions that Essex has made to the VCH Shorts series (the other two being Harwich, Dovercourt and Parkestone in the 19th century and, more recently, Southend).
How did Newport become the subject of one of the very first of the VCH Shorts? Much of the answer derives from the mutually supportive relationship between the village and the VCH over the last half-century.
Perhaps because of its nucleated centre, there has always been a close-knit community feel to life in Newport. For centuries, village life here has revolved around three things: the parish church (the present-day form of which started to take shape 800 years ago, in the first half of the 13th century), the school (formerly the Free Grammar founded by a bequest of 1588 and now the Joyce Frankland Academy), and the village’s shops, which fulfill the function today formerly served by Newport’s market place, located on land to the east of the church sloping down to the waters of the river Cam.
The strength of Newport’s sense of community has been greatly enhanced since 1974 by its biannual village magazine, Newport News. Originally an A5-sized newsletter prepared using a typewriter and an overheated mimeographic copying machine, Newport News is now a glossy full-colour and highly professional production. All 104 (and counting) issues are available to view on the Newport News website.
From the outset, Newport News aimed to be a record of local history. Its founding editorial made clear that one of the purposes of the publication was to cover ‘the history of the village with contributions from senior citizens,’ in order to throw ‘a fascinating light on the past which disappears so quickly’ (NN 1, p. 3).
As early as June 1977, the magazine advertised a call for volunteer researchers into village history to support the work of the Victoria County History in Essex. A history group was formed at around this time under the leadership of Denis Archer (editor of Jane’s Infantry Weapons), and then, after Denis’s untimely death, Bernard Nurse, a published historian who became librarian to the Society of Antiquaries. (The history of Newport’s history group is covered in the latest edition of the Saffron Walden Historical Journal.)
The extensive researches undertaken by Bernard Nurse and the other members of the history group meant that sufficient material had been assembled to form the basis of a detailed and fully illustrated book, A Village in Time, published by Newport News, which won the 1996 Essex Book Award for Best Local Society Published Book.
The two subsequent chairs of Newport’s history group (Prof Anthony Tuck, and then myself) both had close links with Prof John Beckett, who was chair of the VCH nationally at the time the VCH Short series first got up and running.
Anthony Tuck, a retired professor of medieval history, reinvigorated Newport’s history group on his arrival in the village. A team was assembled under Anthony’s leadership to develop work on a new history of the village in the form of the Newport VCH Short.
Newport’s Short was published in 2015. As well as meeting fully the exacting historical standards set by the VCH, the Short served as a showcase for some of the detailed research that had been undertaken in the village by individuals such as David Evans, Newport’s local history Recorder.
Given that the VCH was the spur for the foundation of Newport’s Local History Group in 1977, it is fitting that the village has had its history produced as one of the Shorts.
The ongoing existence of the village magazine, founded by John Gordon in 1974, has been an important factor in keeping the flame of local historical investigation alive. In 1988, the then VCH county editor for Essex, Janet Cooper, declared that a half of all the material on Newport’s history held at the VCH’s offices in Chelmsford derived from Newport News (NN30, p.11).
As I am now both the chair of the Newport Local History Group, and a trustee of the VCH in Essex, I hope I am able to do my bit to promote the long-standing and mutually supportive relationship between the village and the VCH.
Ben Cowell
The Newport Short is available to purchase at Hart’s Books and the Tourist Information Centre in Saffron Walden.
We also have copies of the book available for sale at a cost per copy of £16 including United Kingdom P&P from VCH Essex, c/o Essex Record, Wharf Road, Chelmsford, CM2 6YT
Cheques should be made payable to Victoria County History of Essex Trust.
Overseas purchasers please contact us for additional postage costs.
Victoria County History of Essex 