Volunteer Groups

Our volunteers have raised the profile of VCH Essex and helped us reach a wider audience.

Volunteers make many essential direct contributions to our big red books, ensuring the series continues. Their work enhances and improves the VCH.

Volunteer groups have researched and written VCH ‘Shorts’ and our high sales of these paperbacks demonstrates popular demand for the VCH.

Our volunteers have positive experience of group working and gain skills and working with them is very uplifting for our professional researchers.

We have three volunteer groups in Newport, Clacton and Southend. If you would like to join these groups or start a new group in your area then please get in touch!

Newport

Five strong group, that published paperback “Short” in 2015. It was the third VCH “Short” to be published nationally. Model village history, very popular and now almost out of print. New emphasis on integrating images/text and the use of colour. Showed way VCH could develop.

Clacton

Launched in 2002 with six people researching ‘Clacton at War’. Mentored by Shirley Durgan, then Chris Thornton and Fred Nash. Subsequent projects have included surveys of WW2 coastal defences; reconstructing the Gunfleet estuary; Harwich Port Books. Group now about 20 strong and has just celebrated its 20th anniversary.

Southend

Our Southend group is led by Ken Crowe, the Trust’s current chairman. The group has been collaborating to produce a VCH paperback ‘Short’ on the history of Southend in the nineteenth century.