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The Common Stream: Two Thousand Years of the English Village
This is the story of the village of Foxton, in Cambridgeshire. The author studied archaeological excavations, oral tradition, manor court rolls, land tax returns, wills, bishops' registers and many other records, in order to build up a picture of the life, work, clothes, food and pastimes of the villagers, from the first traces of human settlement two thousand years ago, to the present day.
- GenresHistoryNonfiction
252 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2005
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Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews
August 14, 2019
This book was fascinating with enough relevant details in a narrative describing how English villages evolved over the last two thousand years. I love seeing UK villages, being in them and reading about them. Also love the villages of Wales, Scotland, Ireland and New England. This book gave insights to how ordinary people, villagers, made their own decisions about the design, construction, and functions of their homes and villages over the centuries. After the “pestilence” (bubonic plague of 1349) in the Middle Ages (ending in 1485) the population, social systems and land ownership changed dramatically. Villagers and outsiders, between 1550 to 1620, rebuilt and preserved homes and entire villages throughout England, giving us the foundation of what we cherish today. But the way of life in villages and towns didn’t become truly modern until after the two World Wars. It was a surprise to me to find how recent was the rural and agricultural life we now value.
December 11, 2021
Textbook for a university history course, but I was enjoying it so much that I read unassigned as well as assigned chapters. I find history all the more fascinating when one particular place is followed through time, and I don't think I've seen such a close examination span such a long time with such intimate detail. I actually laughed at times at the quirkiness of these villagers, and even came close to tears when "village life" and the faithful Brook started to vanish. I really enjoyed it.
June 8, 2024
To think this book was compiled practically as a hobby of a teacher who was inspired by the then current (late 1960's) dredging of The Brook that once flowed through the village of Foxton.
May 7, 2025
Interesting
May 29, 2020
I bought this book with my pocket money when it first came out. The excitement of ordering it, or pre-ordering as people now seem to say, from the local bookshop! I felt so grown up. I was beginning to be very interested in this kind of history (having a father who had a special interest in hisorical geography helped, no doubt! He was the one who found out about the book and thought it would appeal to me).
It is the story of a village in the Cambridgeshire Fens, Foxton, which I have never visited (although part of my family comes from Over which is not that far away). It looks mainly at the lives of the ordinary people through the ages, as well as the history of the older houses. Like many small English settlements it was largely an agricultural community, and life was basic and harsh for many. The author was not a professional academic historian and I believe came in for some rather disparaging comments at the time, but it is full of thoroughly researched material based on original sources such as churchwardens' accounts, court records and maps. The unifying thread running through the book is the stream which ran through the village but of course there is another meaning, the common story of humanity. The author writes in a very personal, some would say idiosyncratic, style, with lots of dry humour and warm sympathy for "the short and simple annals of the poor". I found it very inspiring at the age of 14 and enjoyed rereading it somewhat later in the day.
It is the story of a village in the Cambridgeshire Fens, Foxton, which I have never visited (although part of my family comes from Over which is not that far away). It looks mainly at the lives of the ordinary people through the ages, as well as the history of the older houses. Like many small English settlements it was largely an agricultural community, and life was basic and harsh for many. The author was not a professional academic historian and I believe came in for some rather disparaging comments at the time, but it is full of thoroughly researched material based on original sources such as churchwardens' accounts, court records and maps. The unifying thread running through the book is the stream which ran through the village but of course there is another meaning, the common story of humanity. The author writes in a very personal, some would say idiosyncratic, style, with lots of dry humour and warm sympathy for "the short and simple annals of the poor". I found it very inspiring at the age of 14 and enjoyed rereading it somewhat later in the day.
December 12, 2011
This is a book for anyone with an interest in English social history.
Choosing an actual location , the author has researched the history of this site, checking up on the archeology and the official records of who lived here since records were kept.
The artefacts and official records bring people who may be long forgotten to light. Through them, we can piece together what life was like for these ordinary folk who may have lived in Victorian England, or lived through the turbulent Middle Ages or even those who saw the Romans come to Britain.
But rather than the mere details, the author looks beyond the figures and the entries to the people behind them.
He reflects, for instance, on the fact that one elderly woman was paid a few pence for picking stones from a farmers field one January and asks us to consider what this meant in real terms- the fact that this elderly woman was willing to work for hours in the freezing cold, rather than face the humiliation of having to beg for money off of the Parish workhouse. he considers the implications of so many children who died before the age of five in the village and compares it with the death rates in rural England today.
This is history as you are unlikely to read it anywhere else. A real eye opener as to what life was really like in bygone England for most of the population.
Choosing an actual location , the author has researched the history of this site, checking up on the archeology and the official records of who lived here since records were kept.
The artefacts and official records bring people who may be long forgotten to light. Through them, we can piece together what life was like for these ordinary folk who may have lived in Victorian England, or lived through the turbulent Middle Ages or even those who saw the Romans come to Britain.
But rather than the mere details, the author looks beyond the figures and the entries to the people behind them.
He reflects, for instance, on the fact that one elderly woman was paid a few pence for picking stones from a farmers field one January and asks us to consider what this meant in real terms- the fact that this elderly woman was willing to work for hours in the freezing cold, rather than face the humiliation of having to beg for money off of the Parish workhouse. he considers the implications of so many children who died before the age of five in the village and compares it with the death rates in rural England today.
This is history as you are unlikely to read it anywhere else. A real eye opener as to what life was really like in bygone England for most of the population.
June 12, 2020
The Common Stream is a wonderful oddity that I'm glad I stumbled upon.
It is exactly what the title says it is, two thousand years of history of an English village. Specifically Foxton and the area immediately around it.
It's not so much a continuous story as it is a series of interesting facts, tidbits, and stories as move through different time periods. For example in the earlier chapters he covers an uprising that saw a Roman villa burnt to the ground and its owners murdered. This story is set snug between a discussion of different building materials used are the time.
I couldn't read it all in once sitting as its a lot of matter of fact information but I would still recommend it to anyone with an interest in history.
It is exactly what the title says it is, two thousand years of history of an English village. Specifically Foxton and the area immediately around it.
It's not so much a continuous story as it is a series of interesting facts, tidbits, and stories as move through different time periods. For example in the earlier chapters he covers an uprising that saw a Roman villa burnt to the ground and its owners murdered. This story is set snug between a discussion of different building materials used are the time.
I couldn't read it all in once sitting as its a lot of matter of fact information but I would still recommend it to anyone with an interest in history.
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February 16, 2017This book was part of a Medieval History course that I dropped once upon a time -- but I couldn't quite bring myself to part with the book before reading it. That took me over 15 years to do. The thing is, this book is interesting enough that I wanted to read it, but dry enough in parts that it was difficult to power through sometimes.
I'm glad I read it, though, and I feel like I learned a lot from it.
I'm glad I read it, though, and I feel like I learned a lot from it.
January 9, 2022
A great insight into the evolution of a typical English village told through the written records of it’s people. Just enough speculation on the reasons for many of the events as imagined by reading between the often brief lines noted in the documents. A book of interest to the history-curious or the writer trying to write an authentic background to a story. Well worth delving into.
January 4, 2017
Book written in the 1970s by a teacher who retires to a Cambridgeshire village (Foxton) – setting out the history of the village (and the brook/stream that runs through it) for around 2000 years through a mix of archaeological discoveries, archival research, detective work and imagination.
Particularly impressive when covering the Roman period when his painstaking archaeological discoveries combine with his historically informed knowledge to strongly suggest the course of events thousands of years previously, perhaps weakest when listing wills or parish records (although even there he tries to bring the driest lists to life).
The book unashamedly concentrates on the life of the common man in the village, but while Parker makes no attempt to disguise his pastoral, left wing and nostalgic leanings he is also realistic that historical life was often brutal, the villagers often self-centred and lazy and that the passage of time has clearly improved and even transformed the life of the readers.
Overall a really lovely book.
Particularly impressive when covering the Roman period when his painstaking archaeological discoveries combine with his historically informed knowledge to strongly suggest the course of events thousands of years previously, perhaps weakest when listing wills or parish records (although even there he tries to bring the driest lists to life).
The book unashamedly concentrates on the life of the common man in the village, but while Parker makes no attempt to disguise his pastoral, left wing and nostalgic leanings he is also realistic that historical life was often brutal, the villagers often self-centred and lazy and that the passage of time has clearly improved and even transformed the life of the readers.
Overall a really lovely book.
June 1, 2014
PP 154: "It was almost inevitable that sooner or later Valentine Phipps should find himself involved in an unholy rumpus. It came in 1638 when, under the influence of drink, he addressed one of the church wardens, George Wells, as 'a base rogue, a base rascall and a whoaremasterly Rogue'...When told he would be reported to the Archdeacon, he answered...'I care not a turde for Dr Eden and his court'. No right-minded person would condone the behaviour of a drunkard who 'did fall off the bed, most beastly spew, defile and bewray himself'. But it soon became evident that many people in the village shared Phipps views on ecclesiastical authority."
LOL!
LOL!
July 29, 2014
A very interesting and entertaining book, as the author likes to add various asides and comments to the story. He has done the work, which means there are lots of quotes, in the second half at least, from manorial rolls etc. Pretty entertaining in themselves, but vastly improved by the author's care with them, and thoughts about them. Recommended.
February 8, 2010
A little dry at times, but some great little tidbits from from medieval court records, etc.
February 22, 2018
Love history written this way! I learned so much about the ordinary lives of people in rural England.
April 8, 2017
My edition is not listed on Goodreads. It had the subtitle "Portrait of an English Village Through 2,000 Years" and 278 pages, plus a different cover. In any event, this story of Foxton in East Anglia (south of Cambridge) is constructed through archeology, written records, conjecture, and detective work. Very interesting and very evocative of the area -- I traveled throughout the area a few years before reading this, and it all seems very familiar!
Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews