Victorian & Edwardian

The North Riding of Yorkshire is a fortunate land - favoured by some of the most magnificent scenery in England and with a number of the country's most attractive towns. A century ago this remote and sparsely populated area stubbornly maintained a distinctive way of life. For most, that life was a struggle against ferocious winters and unforgiving agricultural land. And although the county was spared the worst brutalities of the Industrial Revolution, lead-miners, woolknitters, quarrymen and others led a daily existence that was harsh, narrow and inescapable. But there were compensations. When working life was so punitive, entertainment of any kind was savoured to the full. Weddings, fairs, markets, brass bands and travelling showmen were enjoyed with a special intensity. For the more affluent members of society this was truly a 'Golden Age'. Labour was cheap, the sun was always shining on some domain of the British Empire and (almost) everyone knew his place. Their leisured lifestyle contrasts painfully with the stark conditions endured by their less fortunate neighbours. But what emerges most powerfully from this fascinating compilation of photographs and words is the mutual respect and tolerance that flourished among the people of this time, one that must have seemed indestructible. This collection comprises about one hundred and fifty old photographs, reproduced to an exceptional standard, complemented by contemporary accounts of life a century ago. Together they record a lively community of strong-minded personalities, linked by closely shared interests and concerns, and offer the reader an insight into the lives of those who are separated from the modern world by only a few generations.

Suffolk is still very much a rural county, but in Victorian & Edwardian times almost the whole population lived and worked on the land. Many of those living in the coastal villages and towns worked as fishermen or in related industries. This book captures in words and superbly reproduced sepia photographs what these people looked like and what they did. On the farms we see the famous Suffolk horses, bred to provide the power for the machinery and to haul the loads, and also the Suffolk sheep that were a famous breed. The beauty of the landscape was enhanced, not only by the wealth of timber-framed houses for which Suffolk is still famous, but also by scores of windmills, surely the most picturesque item of industrial architecture. We see people at work, at home and at play in the larger towns, such as Ipswich and Bury St Edmunds, and in scores of small villages. The book contains over one hundred and fifty photographs matched to contemporary descriptions taken from diaries, letters, biographical accounts and newspapers. The combination of word and photograph bring vividly to life glimpses of a period in Suffolk's history that is only just beyond living memory.

Somerset, one of England's most rural counties, has for centuries depended on agriculture for much of its income. At the time these photographs were taken much of the county was suffering a downturn in agricultural output. A series of disastrous harvests in the 1880s and the loss of the corn laws. The poverty and hardship on the land forced many to see alternative employment in the town. This book looks at this county as it was a century ago. Some of the best old photographs available have been collected together and reproduced here, in sepia, with an accompanying text made up of extracts gathered from contemporary writing from all over the county. Thus some evocative sights of old Somerset, from the seaside at Weston Super Mare to the elegance of Georgian Bath, are brought to life in these pages.

Victorian & Edwardian Oxfordshire illustrates through words and pictures the county in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. It was a time of change for all levels of society. In the countryside, agriculture was becoming increasingly mechanized and there were bitter struggles over agricultural wages. In Oxford, significant social changes were taking place, the first colleges for women opened in 1879, religious tests in the universities were abolished in 1871 and in 1877 dons acquired the permission to marry. By 1912 William Morris had made his first car in Oxford and begun a process of industrialization and employment opportunity hitherto undreamt of. The area covered by this book is that of the old county, before 1974 and the reorganization of county boundaries. The photographs, printed here in sepia, depict the farmer and his labourer in the countryside, the traditional industries and the interaction of the city and the university in Oxford. The home life of rich and poor, sports and pastimes, traditional country customs, religious life and education are all depicted in this collection. The text, composed of a series of extracts gathered from a variety of contemporary sources, helps to bring alive these glimpses of life in the county of a time that is only just outside living memory.

In industrial Lancashire, as in few other English communities, the turn of the twentieth century could be seen as modern times dressed in bowler hats and moustaches. Photographs of street scenes taken in Manchester and Burnley, Oldham and Accrington in the 1890s take us to a world that had been disciplined and regimented by factory work for a century or more. Already, by then, the best cafes and restaurants in town were suggesting that customers book a table by telephone. Highly organized public transport by road, rail and sea was tempting more and more factory workers to widen their horizons, and in the pubs the talk would be of the prospects of Liverpool, Blackburn Rovers and, from 1902, Manchester United. This, then, is a world we would recognize instantly. But there are aspects of it that would seem alien to us - the poverty, the filth, the insularity of Communities -and we would soon appreciate that for all its museums and swimming baths, art galleries and Gothic town halls, this was a society still only half 'grown up' in comparison with today's. That is what makes this time just beyond living memory so intriguing and fascinating. More than one hundred and fifty superbly reproduced photographs are included here, matched with contemporary descriptions from the years spanning the turn of the century. The emphasis is on working lives, and the ways in which our forefathers fought on, with the grim good humour for which Lancashire is famous, at a hard time when they could claim with some truth that what they were doing today, the world would do tomorrow.

At the turn of the twentieth century, Kent was predominantly an agricultural county. The attractive villages, small market towns, coastal resorts and two cities - Rochester and Canterbury - were set in a county of contrasts, from the Weald to the coastal marshes, from the North Downs to the industrial development at Chatham and Sheerness. Over one hundred and fifty high-quality sepia photographs are complemented by well-chosen extracts from poetry and prose, fact and fiction. Everyone who knows Kent will be fascinated by this beautiful and evocative tapestry of a way of life which is now long gone.

Surrey, one of England's smallest counties, has for centuries embodied contrasts in style and appearance. In the north where its boundary is the Thames, there is industrial and, more recently, suburban London, and further South, are the more rural areas of the Downs and Weald, which were the playground for 'Londoners' for centuries. This book looks at these dual areas as they were a century ago. Some of the best old photographs available have been collected together and reproduced here, in sepia, with an accompanying text made up of extracts gathered from contemporary writing from all over the county. Thus some evocative sights of old Surrey, from the tanneries of Southwark to the elegance of Victorian Epsom, are brought to life in these pages.

Over one hundred and fifty of the best photographic images from the turn of the twentieth century are reproduced here together with contemporary descriptions of Sussex folk and their lives. The textual images are complemented by the high-quality sepia photographs which combine to present the essence of the past lives of ordinary men and women in a county epitomized by the long line of the Downs, the dense woodland of the Weald, and the ever-changing coastline. The harmonious blend of pictures and voices creates a rich and evocative tapestry of life in Sussex. This is a book to fascinate and delight everyone who knows this historic land of the South Saxons. There could be no better expression of this bygone era for those, who like Rudyard Kipling, have a love of Sussex. God gives all men all earth to love, But since man's heart is small, Ordains for each one spot shall prove Beloved over all. Each to his choice, and I rejoice The lot has fallen to me In a fair ground - in a fair ground - Yea, Sussex by the sea!

Dorset in Victorian and Edwardian times was (as now) a predominantly rural county, but one suffering from the agricultural depression. Rider Haggard reports (1901) on a long expedition across country meeting just four other vehicles. 'Three of them were brewers' drays, and the fourth was a timberdrag.' The 'decay of agriculture' was accompanied by the steady, century-long exodus from the country to the town, though by modern standards the streets of Victorian towns were relatively quiet and uncrowded (except on market-day, of course). Photographs of the period suggest a slowness of life and an emptiness which can seem attractive in our rather more hectic century. If land is one half of the Dorset equation, the sea is the other half. Dorset boasts the most interesting section of the south coast, with such extraordinary features as Stair Hole, Durdle Door and Lulworth Cove, and the pebble barrier of Chesil Beach. More orthodox geology created a string of beaches for the growing Victorian tourist trade, which flourished alongside the immemorial fishing industry. Portland was home to the naval dockyards, and also several hundred prisoners whose exertions in the stone quarries were thought to be a fit subject for an astonishing variety of picture postcards. Further round the coast, the Swanage quarrymen hauled their huge 'bankers' out of the bowels of the Isle of Purbeck, supplying the most durable stone for pavements and palaces as far away as London. The Dorset coast, so rich in fossils, provided another source of income, Lyme Regis in particular being a notable centre. It goes without saying that the sea, though the basis of much of Dorset's economic activity, was no less treacherous than elsewhere, and the annals of the county include many a catastrophic shipwreck. Here is a selection of a hundred and fifty photographs from that golden - or sepia - age, complemented by a variety of contemporary accounts drawn from a wide range of writers, from Dorset's most famous man of letters, Thomas Hardy, to the anonymous journalist on the Wareham & Isle of Purbeck Advertiser.

In Victorian and Edwardian times Hampshire, like most counties of England, was a largely rural county, depending on agriculture for much of its income. Across its varied landscape, from the chalk downs to the New Forest and along the valleys of the Itchen, its farms were suffering the fate of most of British agriculture at the time. Farmers were experiencing a serious loss of markets as cheap foreign wheat flowed into the country, following the loss of the protective Corn Laws which, although repealed much earlier in the century, were now having a delayed, and often, terminal effect on many farms that were also suffering from the disastrous harvests of the late 1880s. The poverty and hardship on the land that was the inevitable result of these changes brought about a social revolution that pushed many into seeking alternative employment in the towns. In Hampshire some of them must have looked, perhaps, towards the cathedral city of Winchester and others to the coastal regions, where new industries were flourishing, like the brickworks at Fareham, or to the traditional maritime industries of Portsmouth and Southampton. Using some of the best photographs of the period this book shows Hampshire and its people at work and play, matched with a text made up of extracts from a variety of contemporary sources, including diaries, newspaper cuttings and other Hampshire writing of the time. This attractive combination of word and picture brings vividly to life a glimpse of a period that is only just outside living memory.