A Downland Village

The story of a Hampshire parish in the 1850s

Philip Sheail

The past hundred years have witnessed a revolution in country life – the drift of young people to the towns, the disappearance of rural craftsmen, the mechanisation of farming, the advent of the motor car, bus, wireless and television. A Downland Village looks at life in one Hampshire parish before that revolution took place. Preston Candover in the 1850s was a typical Victorian rural community. The land was largely divided between two wealthy gentlemen who lived in fine houses and were tended by large staffs of servants. The clergy, farmers and shopkeepers played a central role in village affairs while the craftsmen catered for most of the villagers' needs. And finally there were the labouring poor who lived in cramped mean cottages and endured a life of hard work on the land, living always in the shadow the workhouse.

A Downland Village, based on careful research, tells this story without sentiment but with a lively sensitivity for its principal characters.

A Downland Village is published in softback,
92 pages, 6 maps, 22 drawings and 23 b&w photographs

Molewood Hawthorn Publishing
ISBN 978-0-9555684-1-1
April 2008

£5.00

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