The Villages of England

by Richard Muir

Traces the history and development of the English village, and describes the culture, traditions, and architecture of specific villages

224 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1992

About the author

Richard Muir is Senior Lecturer in Geography in the University College of Ripon and York St John. He is one of Britain's most widely published and respected landscape historians. Two of his bestselling books on British landscape have won the Yorkshire Arts Literary Prize.

Reviews

[Catherine Mason · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not an academic book but draws on academic sources. Beautiful photographs of English Villages are included. It covers villages from prehistoric to modern times, but the modern part is one very short chapter that summarises the current state of villages. Most of the information is on the villages of the Middle Ages. I found it all interesting, but the C18 - C20th parts were more compelling to me since they included more quotes from historical sources and more political discussion. I didn't like that the author still seemed to think that Anglo-Saxons sometimes lived in holes in the ground - this was out of date thinking when I was an archaeology student in the early 1980s. I also thought he overdid the 'hovels' descriptive - how do we know how clean and tidy early people were even if they lived in very basic structures? But I did like how he looked at villages unsentimentally. A great point he made is that there never has been a 'perfect', idyllic, unchanging or typical English village. I found his final paragraph very moving.

[Gwen · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book serves as an antidote to the romanticization of the English village. Muir tells us what we don't really want to admit about the struggles of village people and the long, slow, inevitable decline of villages as the result of the enclosure of agricultural fields and the end of the cooperative village-based system. Muir's photographs of villages throughout England illustrate the themes explored in each chapter. I read it while reading William Cobbett's Rural Rides, and they go well together. Cobbett, writing in the 1820's, rails against the landed gentry and the precarious situation of most rural people.

[Sophie · Rating 5 out of 5]

I enjoyed the information in this book. The pictures were lovely.