Favourite books on 19th century rural England??

[kitschwitch]

Good morning everyone! I'm putting together a book list - does anyone have any really good reads they can recommend? Fiction or non-fiction. Something to flesh out life in all those villages we collect!!

[Gadget]

Hi
One book that I've recently acquired is Tom Quinn's Tales of Old Country Farmers,pub - David & Charles  ISBN: 13:978-0-7153-2418-9
It was first published in 1995 but has just come out in Paperback at £12.99
Quinn interviewed a number of old farmers mostly in their 90s about the old methods and farming/rural life - covers a broad spread - Norfolk, Warwick, Devon, Kent, Cleveland, Denbighshire, Humberside, Sussex and North Yorks.
It is beautifully illustrated.

Gadget

[kitschwitch]

Thanks Gadget...that sounds perfect. As I live in Spain, I can't browse the libraries. I'd like to have a book list for when I go back in the summer!

[Gadget]

I got mine from a certain online bookstore that has a name similar to a South American River  - it's worth browsing their website for others. I'll take a butchers later at my other sources and see if I can find you some more.

Gadget

[Gadget]

Hi again

I've been thinking and doing a bit of looking for other books for you

The main problem is that the 19th century references are mainly concerned with the transformation of England/UK from a mainly rural, agrarian society to an urban industrial one. Many of the Soc/Econ History refs of the period will have a chapter on 'Agriculture' but not too much on rurality as such. Your best bet is likely to be to select a locality and concentrate on its local history. My own books are mainly concerned with parts of rural Wales/Shropshire and Scotland.

Here are a few general ones that might be worth looking at:

E J T Collins The Agrarian History of England and Wales
Volume 7, 1850–1914 (Cambridge) - thorough but probably a bit intense

Richard Heath The English Peasant (1893 ?) - might be able to get a copy second hand

and the classic:

William Cobbett Rural Rides (1830 ?)

An expert contact has suggested the following:

Mark Freeman Social Investigation and Rural England, 1870-1914
http://www.boydell.co.uk/61932579.htm

Nicola Verdon Rural Women Workers in 19th Century England
http://www.history.ac.uk/ihr/Focus/Gender/sayer.html

Mark Freeman (ed) The English Rural Poor, 1850–1914 - 5 volumes
 http://www.pickeringchatto.com/ruralpoor.htm

Geoffrey Best  Mid-Victorian Britain 1851-75 - for overview of movement to the cities from the countryside.


Also worth reading are the many classics - Gaskill (North and South , for e.g.) and Thomas Hardy amongst others.

Gadget



PS - you might try googling to find more

[kitschwitch]

  Stupendously helpful!! Thank you for all that. It's such a fascinating subject, I can't wait to start.

[Tjapaltjarri]

One of my favourites - and one that got me started in pestering my grandparents for their stories was 'Where Beards Wag All' by George Ewert-Evans. These are wonderfully detailed collections of oral history collected at the begining of the 20th century about village jobs - wheelwright, ploughman etc. and really helped me get a feeling for the skills and knowledgebase of the 'Ag Lab' !

Howdie

[kitschwitch]

Thanks Howdie. I shall be looking for that one! 

[Biker]

Hiya

Speaking of the venerable Ag Lab, as you do!  I remembered a rather interesting thread which has some very interesting comments as well as some useful links on  agricultural/rural culture and society which you might find helpful in addition to the other great suggestions you've already been given http://www.rootschat.com/forum/index.php/topic,29570.0.html

Happy reading
Biker