The Victoria History of Sussex is part of the national series called the Victoria County History (VCH). This was planned around the time of Queen Victoria's Diamond Jubilee in 1897 to create a comprehensive encyclopaedia of English local history.
For each of the 39 historic English counties there exists, or is planned, a set of volumes containing a separate history of each town and rural parish, as well as covering some general topics for the county as a whole. Over 230 volumes have been published and work is still in progress on 23 counties.
The set of VCH volumes planned for Sussex, as for other counties, contains articles of two kinds:
- general articles - cover aspects of the county's history as a whole
- topographical articles - cover the separate histories of towns and rural parishes place by place.
Twelve volumes of the Sussex VCH have now been published. Some of the titles are available at British History Online, or copies can be viewed in the Record Office searchroom.