BRITAIN'S biggest county history project has been secured for another five years, thanks to a new partnership launched last week.

Councils from across Wiltshire joined the University of the West of England to fund the next stage of the Wiltshire Victoria County History.

The project, which was dedicated to Queen Victoria, was established in the late 19th century as a definitive history of English counties. The Wiltshire volumes were started in 1948 and the 17th volume, covering Calne, was published in 2002.

Committee chairman Chris-topher Newbury said: "We already have the longest and best county history, in 17 volumes, and five more are foreseen, to cover the whole of Wiltshire. I hope this agreement will give us at least three of them."

The next five years of funding will pay for a new paperback history of Codford and for the next volume in the series, volume 18, which will include Cricklade, Ashton Keynes, Minety, Purton and several other parishes.

The funding will also pay for work to begin on a volume covering Heytesbury and the surrounding area, and to develop and expand the website, www.wiltshirepast.net