Book recommendation - 18th/19th century agriculture

Plymley's agricultural survey of Shropshire published in 1813 would be a good place to start.

Peter

 You may wish to inspect the S.F.H.S. Reference Library that has just been added to Online Databases within this site.

Graham

Thanks Peter

I've looked for this on Amazon and Google. There seems to be a problem in that is print on demand - but the book that gets printed and sent out is actually a book on the agriculture of Monmouthshire! Some sort of coding error when Google did the original scanning.  No doubt it's a very fine book in its own right but not what I want. Thanks for the pointer though, I'll keep looking for an older copy.

Regards

Mike

Thanks Graham - good idea

There is a book on that list that might be a good starter,

The Farmer Feeds us All - A Short History of Shropshire Agriculture

I've now found a cheap copy on Amazon, so thanks for the pointer.

Mike

This is really the Shropshire one

http://books.google.co.uk/books/about/General_view_of_the_agriculture_of_Shrop.html?id=q0Y7AAAAcAAJ

Peter

From our Books for sale:

THE DIARY OF A SHROPSHIRE FARMER – A Young Yeoman’s Life & Travels 1835-37 Peter Davis edited by Martin Davis
This unique book will be of interest, to anyone with an interest in country life in pre-industrial times.   Martin, the editor, is the 2 x gt.grandson of the Peter, the diarist, who in June 1835 at the age of 23, set out from his home in the Teme Valley to venture northwards through Liverpool to Edinburgh.  The diary of Peter’s travels, before the coming of the railway, combined  with his description of the day-to-day events of life on his father’s farm in Burford - have allowed Martin to flesh out the family’s history while providing a snapshot of the changes that were taking place in the landscape at the time.   A keen conservationist Martin compares these changes with those we face today.
Price £16.99 + £2.60 p & p

Or Peter Davis's books - Mare's Milk & Honey and A Shropshire Boyhood  - but they're restricted to the 20th Century.

One of our posters on the old Message Board was transcribing a diary of her ancestor - a John Jones, I think - who worked as a farm bailiff on the Attingham (Atcham and Berrington) and, later, Woodhouse (West Felton) estates in mid 19th century. I may have retained e-mails. If so I will draw her attention to this current thread.

On a broader view, a classic is perhaps William Cobbet's "Rural Rides" in early 19th century.

To put rural communities in the context of their economic structure there is the highly readable and definitive "English Landed Society in the Nineteenth Century", by F M L Thompson 1962 (before ISBNs).

Excellent, that's a great list. Many thanks to all.

Loggerheads - I've now got an e-copy of the Plymley book, thanks for the pointer.

Martyn - I'm several chapters into the "English Landed Society" book and you're right, it's a good read. I already have a copy of Cobbet (how could I have forgotten that one?)

I'd be very interested in making contact with the person who was transcribing her ancestor's diary. My 3G grandfather, Richard Jones, was a sawyer at West Felton on the 1851 census, so any information about the Woodhouse Estate would be invaluable.

Regards

Mike