by Tom Fort
Hartley, Marie, and Ingilby, Joan, Yorkshire Village, J. M. Dent, 1953.
Hey, David, An English Rural Community: Myddle under the Tudors and Stuarts, Leicester University Press, 1974.
Hill, Constance, Mary Russell Mitford and her Surroundings, John Lane, 1920.
Hindle, Steve, The State and Social Change in Early Modern England c.1550–1640, Cambridge University Press, 2002.
Hinton, James, The Mass Observers: A History, 1937–1949, Oxford University Press, 2013.
Hobsbawm, Eric, and Rudé, George, Captain Swing, Lawrence and Wishart, 1970.
Hordon, Kathryn, and Wright, Alan, Coal, Community and Conflict: A History of Chopwell, Hickory Tree Press, 1995.
Hoskins, W. G., The Making of the English Landscape, Hodder & Stoughton, 1954.
Howat, Gerald, Village Cricket, David & Charles, 1980.
Jefferies, Richard, Hodge and his Masters, Smith, Elder & Co., 1880.
Keith, W. J., The Rural Tradition: William Cobbett, Gilbert White and other Non-fiction Prose Writers of the English Countryside, Harvester Press, 1975.
—— Regions of the Imagination: The Development of British Rural Fiction, University of Toronto Press, 1988.
Kitchen, Fred, Brother to the Ox: The Autobiography of a Farm Labourer, J. M. Dent, 1940.
Lane, Margaret, Flora Thompson, John Murray, 1976.
Laslett, Peter, The World We Have Lost, Methuen, 1971.
Lee, Laurie, Cider with Rosie, Hogarth Press, 1959.
Lord, Graham, James Herriot: The Life of a Country Vet, Headline, 1998.
Mabey, Richard, Dreams of the Good Life: The Life of Flora Thompson and the Creation of Lark Rise to Candleford, Allen Lane, 2014.
Manley, E. R., A Descriptive Account of East Hendred, self-published, 1969.
Marshall, J. D., Old Lakeland: Some Cumbrian Social History, David & Charles, 1971.
Martin, E. W., The Secret People: English Village Life after 1750, Phoenix, 1954.
—— The Book of the Village, George Allen & Unwin, 1963.
—— (Ed.) Country Life in England, Macdonald, 1966.
Massingham, H. J., The English Countryman: A Study of the English Tradition, Batsford, 1942.
Matless, David, ‘Doing the English Village’, from Reconstituting Rurality, ed. Terry Marsden and Jonathan Murdoch, UCL Press, 1994.
Mitford, Mary Russell, Our Village (ed. Anne Thackeray Ritchie) available online from www.archive.org
Morton, H. V., In Search of England, Methuen, 1927.
Muir, Richard, The English Village, Thames & Hudson, 1980.
— The Villages of England, Thames & Hudson, 1992.
Newby, Howard, Green and Pleasant Land? Social Change in Rural England, Penguin, 1980.
Page, Robin, The Decline of an English Village, Davis-Poynter, 1974.
Parker, Rowland, The Common Stream, Eland, 2015.
Patton, Julia, The English Village: A Literary Study, 1750–1850, Macmillan, 1919.
Peake, Harold, The English Village: The Origin and Decay of its Community, Benn, 1922.
‘Miss Read’, Chronicles of Fairacre, Penguin, 1982.
— Early Days, Michael Joseph, 1995.
Roberts, Brian, The Making of the English Village: A Study in Historical Geography, Longman, 1987.
Scott, J. Robertson, England’s Green and Pleasant Land, Jonathan Cape, 1925.
Scott, S. H., A Westmorland Village: The Story of the Old Homesteads and ‘Statesman’ Families in Troutbeck by Windermere, Archibald Constable, 1904.
Sharp, Thomas, The Anatomy of the Village, Penguin, 1946.
Short, Brian (Ed.), The English Rural Community: Image and Analysis, Cambridge University Press, 1992.
Sturt, George, Change in the Village, available from www.archive.org
Taylor, Christopher, Village and Farmstead: A History of Rural Settlement in England, George Philip, 1983.
Thompson, Flora, Lark Rise to Candleford (with introduction by Richard Mabey), Penguin, 2008.
Turner, W. J., Exmoor Village: A General Account Based on Factual Information from Mass Observation, Harrap, 1947.
Waddilove, Lewis, One Man’s Vision: The Story of the Joseph Rowntree Village Trust, Allen and Unwin, 1954.
Warren, C. Henry, England is a Village, Eyre & Spottiswoode, 1940.
Whitlock, Ralph, A Family and a Village, J. Baker, 1969.
—— The Lost Village: Rural Life between the Wars, Robert Hale, 1989.
—— A Victorian Village, Robert Hale, 1990.
Wild, Trevor, Village England: A Social History of the Countryside, I. B. Tauris, 2004.
Williams, Raymond, The Country and the City, Oxford University Press, 1973.
Wymer, Norman, Village Life, Harrap, 1951.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
I would like to thank the following for generously taking the trouble to make their photographs available without charge: Eric Rowlands, Patrick Hellicar, Philip Lane, Jason Hawkes, Alan Franklin, Brian Liddell, Gerry Wise, Gordon Baxter, Martin Greenwood, Michael MacLeod, the Dales Countryside Museum.
I owe particular debts of gratitude to Iain MacGregor and Jo Whitford at Simon & Schuster for taking so close and supportive an interest in my work; to my priceless agent, Caroline Dawnay; to my copy editor, Sally Partington, whose attention to detail and great knowledge of history and literature has saved me from many egregious errors; and to my wife Helen, for making it possible for me to pursue my version of a writer’s life.
PICTURE CREDITS
Twyford: here, image © The Twyford & Ruscombe Local History Society; here, image © The Francis Frith Collection.
Goltho: here, image © The Churches Conservation Trust.
East Hendred: here, image © The Francis Frith Collection.
Lower Bourne: here, image © The Francis Frith Collection.
Foxton: here, images courtesy of Gordon Baxter.
Bibury: here, image © The Francis Frith Collection.
Robin Hood’s Bay: here, image © Jason Hawkes.
Chelsfield: here, images courtesy of Philip Lane.
Eversley: here, image © The Francis Frith Collection.
North Moreton: here, image © The Francis Frith Collection.
Askrigg: here, image courtesy of The Dales Countryside Museum.
Slad: here, image © The Francis Frith Collection.
Chopwell: here, image © Historic England.
Luccombe: here, image courtesy of Eric Rowlands.
New Earswick: here, image y58_new5757_ b © Explore York Libraries and Archives / City of York Council, 2016.
Bar Hill: here, image © Jason Hawkes.
Pitton: here, image © Museum of English Rural Life, University of Reading.
Troutbeck: here, image courtesy of Brian Liddell; image © The Francis Frith Collection.
Three Mile Cross: here, image © Museum of English Rural Life, University of Reading.
Sonning Common: here, image © Museum of English Rural Life, University of Reading; here, image courtesy of Michael Macleod.
INDEX
A note about the index: The pages referenced in this index refer to the page numbers in the print edition. Clicking on a page number will take you to the ebook location that corresponds to the beginning of that page in the print edition. For a comprehensive list of locations of any word or phrase, use your reading system’s search function.
Ablington, Gloucestershire:
Manor, 92
J. A. Gibbs, 92–5
villagers, 93
myth-making, 94
Accrington, Lancashire, 135
Acherley family, Myddle, 171–2
Acland, Sir Arthur, 253
Acland, Sir Thomas (7th baronet), 252–3
Acland, Sir Thomas (11th baronet), 253
Acland, Sir Richard:
MP for Barnstaple, 253
co-founder of Common Wealth, 254
member of CND, 254
hands Luccombe to National Trust, 254
wish to preserv
e stag-hunting, 260
Addison, Joseph, essayist, 49
Akenfield: Portrait of an English Village, book by Ronald Blythe, 152–3
All Creatures Great and Small, television series:
Darrowby, 180
TV phenomenon, 182
strengths, 182–3
brand, 184
barmaid at Drovers’ Arms, 185
pilgrims, 190
Allingham, Helen, Victorian painter, 201–2
Ambleside, Cumbria, 302
Ambridge, fictional village in The Archers:
rooted in reality, 191
pre-Archers past, 192
link with Inkberrow, 192
Amis, Kingsley, author of Lucky Jim, 94
Anatomy of a Village, The, book by Thomas Sharp, 149
Angler’s Moon, book by Leo Walmsley, 112
Antiquities and Memoirs of the Parish of Myddle, book by Richard Gough:
rival to Pepys, 169
Acherley family, 171–2
vicious lives, 172
crime, 173
drink, 174
community, 175
Archers, The, radio soap opera:
longevity, 190
trick, 191
real-life twin, 192
origin, 193–4
Ambridge by proxy, 194
Arlington Row, Bibury, Gloucestershire:
UK passport, 84
tourists, 87
As I Walked Out One Midsummer Morning, book by Laurie Lee, 217
Askrigg, North Yorkshire:
doubles as Darrowby, 180
layout, 184
people 184–5
real village, 186
life in, 186–7
change in, 188–9
commercial life, 189
pilgrims, 190
Askwith, Richard, author of The Lost Village, 155–6
Augustine, Saint, 28
Aulus Plautius, Roman general, 22
Avon, river, 292
Badger’s Green, play by R. C. Sherriff, 161–2
Balcombe, Sussex, 61
Baldwin, Stanley, British prime minister, 86
Barff, Rev. William, vicar of North Moreton, 158–9
Bar Hill, Cambridgeshire:
design, 272
planning consent, 273
bad publicity, 273–4
victim market forces, 274
chaos and cynicism, 276
Tesco, 275–7
now, 277–8
amenities, 278–9
a village?, 280
Barron, Hester, author of The 1926 Lockout, 235
Baseley, Godfrey, creator of The Archers:
as BBC producer, 193
visits Lincolnshire, 193–4
commissions The Archers, 194
lunches at The Bull in Rippingdale, 195
Batsford, publishers of guides to England, 65, 66
BBC:
myth-making power, 180
All Creatures Great and Small, 180–6
first episode of The Archers, 190
The Archers, 190–4
perceptions of rural life, 196
Miss Marple, 196
Vicar of Dibley, 197
Lark Rise to Candleford, 197–9
Cider with Rosie, 215–16
Bear at Home, The, pub in North Moreton, 159, 163
Bellway, housebuilders at Three Mile Cross, 313–14, 316
Beresford, Guy, archaeologist at Goltho, 19
Bibury, Gloucestershire:
Arlington Row, 84
sentimental image of village, 86
Bat Field, 87
cricket, 88–89, 102
Swan Inn, 89–90
Catherine Wheel, 90
commentators, 97
tourist invasion, 98
Trout Farm, 99
too perfect, 99
new building, 100–1
Annual Parish Meeting, 101–2
Bibury Court:
built, 90
sold, 91
attempted rebranding, 92
Black Death, 3, 35
Blunden, Edmund, poet and cricket-lover, 369
Blythe, Ronald, author of Akenfield, 152–3, 156
Bonham-Carter, Isabella, Sonning Common benefactor, 330
Bournes, The, group of villages near Farnham, Surrey, 51
Bourneville, model village, 266, 270
Bovis, housebuilders, 314
Brave New World, novel by Aldous Huxley, 315
Britten, Benjamin, composer, 63
Broadway, Gloucestershire, 97
Brother to the Ox: Autobiography of a Farm Labourer, by Fred Kitchen, 67
Brown, Lancelot ‘Capability’, park designer, 265
Browne, George (various), of Troutbeck, 301, 303, 309
Bryant, Sir Arthur, historian, 369
Bull, The, pub:
The Archers, 192
Rippingdale, 195
Burney, Fanny, diarist, 265
Burtt, Henry, Lincolnshire farmer:
suggests farming Dick Barton on radio, 193
invites Godfrey Baseley to farm, 194
Cadbury, George, confectioner and philanthropist, 266, 270
Cambridge Evening News, newspaper, 276
Cambridgeshire:
housing pressure, 271
‘new’ villages, 272, 280
County Council, 273
Captain Swing riots:
description of, 44–5
and Miss Mitford, 321
Casual Vacancy, The, fiction by J. K. Rowling, 129
Chadwick, Dan, artist and owner of The Woolpack in Slad, 220–1
Change in the Village, book by George Bourne:
crucial text, 6–7
describes life in Lower Bourne, 53–6
Chaucer, Geoffrey, poet, 141
Chelsfield, Greater London:
location, 120
cut in half, 122
station, 123
‘Miss Read’, 124, 131
school 125–6
in fiction, 127
timeless, 128
Village Hall AGM, 134
Ladies’ Group, 135–6
Chelsfield Park:
built, 123
stratospheric house prices, 131
community spirit, 133–4
Chilterns Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, 331, 340
Chippenham, Cambridgeshire, 264
Chopwell, Tyne and Wear:
Durham coalfield, 230
mining, 231
growth, 231–2
strike, 232
reputation, 233
miners and womenfolk, 234
pit closure, 235–6
lack of work, 236
social problems, 237–8
fishing tackle business, 240
fishing in River Derwent, 241
Chopwell Wood, 230
Cinder Track, cycle path between Scarborough and Whitby, 103–4, 118
Civil War, 169, 174
Clapham, Richard, sportsman and authority on Lakeland hunting:
elected Hunting Mayor of Troutbeck, 303
voluminous writer, 304
leaves village, 305
Clare, John, poet, 5
Clarendon Forest, 282–3, 292
Clarendon Palace, 283–4, 291
Clarke, Sir Orme, owner of Bibury Court, 90
Clarke, Sir Humphrey, owner of Bibury Court, 91
Clarke, Sir Toby, owner of Bibury Court, 91
Clayworth, Northants, 39
Cobbett, William, social reformer:
tragedy of enclosure, 45
and Miss Mitford, 321
Cogenhoe, Northants, 39
Coleridge, Samuel Taylor, poet:
walks through Troutbeck with Wordsworth, 296
denounces whitewashed walls, 297
Coln Rogers, Gloucestershire, 95
Coln St Dennis, Gloucestershire, 95
Cotswolds:
and J. A. Gibbs, 92–5
&n
bsp; people, 93
myths, 94–5
perfection, 95–6
Cottisford, Oxfordshire:
neighbour to Juniper Hill, 204, 208
as ‘mother village’ in Lark Rise to Candleford, 209
church, 209–10
Council for the Protection of Rural England, 65, 155
Country and the City, The, book by Raymond Williams:
on Richard Jefferies, 6
enclosure, 42
myth of timeless village, 150
Coverley, Sir Roger de, fictional squire created by Addison, 49
Dales Brewing Company, 189
Dales Countryside Museum, 187
Damer, Joseph, 1st Earl of Dorchester, 264
Decline of an English Village, The, book by Robin Page, 151–2
Denman, Trudie, first President of the National Federation of Women’s Institutes, 61
Derwent, river, tributary of the Tyne:
valley below Chopwell, 230
trout and grayling, 232
fishing 241
rebirth 242
Deserted Village, The, poem by Oliver Goldsmith, 4–5, 265
Dick Barton, radio series, 193–4
Ditchfield, Rev. P. H., author of Old Village Life, 48
Domesday, 27
‘Dorsetshire Labourer, The’, article by Thomas Hardy, 6
Downton Abbey, television soap opera, 196
Dreams of the Good Life: The Life of Flora Thompson, book by Richard Mabey, 199
Dunkery Beacon, 243
Dunkery Hill, 243
Durham County Council, 236
East Hendred, Oxfordshire:
location, 33
enclosure, 33–4, 46
pre-enclosure, 46
church, 47
conservation, 353
Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard, poem by Thomas Gray, 4
Elliott, Ebenezer, poet and radical, 45
Ellis, H. F., literary editor of Punch, 126
Elmstone Hardwicke, Gloucestershire, enclosure, 35
Elsecar, model village, 265
Enclosure:
transition from feudalism to capitalism, 3–4
in East Hendred, 33–4
extent nationally, 35
effect on the village, 42–5
England is a Village, book by C. Henry Warren, 369
England’s Green and Pleasant Land, book by J. Robertson Scott, 66
English Community, An: Myddle Under the Tudors and Stuarts, book by David Hey, 174
English Village, The: The Origin and Decay of its Community, book by Harold Peake, 148
Eton College, 206
Eversley, Hampshire:
topography, 137
in nineteenth century, 138–40
Charles Kingsley as rector, 138–41
Exmoor Village, book by W. J. Turner:
published, 248
perspective, 249