Labouring Life in the Victorian Countryside

by Pamela Horn

The Victorian era saw agriculture finally displaced as Britain's biggest single employer of labour. Labouring Life in the Victorian Countryside shows how deeply the labouring classes in rural areas were affected in their ordinary lives by the great changes taking place around them.

The drawbacks and limitations of life as experienced by the Victorian rural community emerge with appalling clarity: their overcrowded, low-amenity cottage dwellings; their long working hours and low earnings; the minimal provision for sickness or old age and the severe penalties for even the most minor crimes.

Labouring Life in the Victorian Countryside also covers the lighter side of rural life, and describes the compensations of the open spaces and relative cleanliness of rural Britain. The book shows how, towards the end of the nineteenth century, the ubiquitous bicycle broke down some of the isolation of village life.

The author, Dr. Pamela Horn, discusses such important themes as the influence of religion, growing political awareness and the deficiencies of the Poor Law. Much of her treatment of these subjects is illustrated from contemporary writings. Comparisons are drawn with Victorian urban life, and Dr. Horn's study of agrarian trade unionism and rural crafts breaks new ground.

Dr. Horn's description of the daily life of rural Britain, at a time of advancing industrialisation is complemented by numerous contemporary photographs.

Genres: History, Nonfiction

200 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1976

About the author

Pamela Horn is an historian specialising in Victorian social history. The author of acclaimed books on rural life, servant lives and childhood, she lectured on economic and social history at Oxford Polytechnic, now Oxford Brookes University, for over twenty years.

Reviews

[Bill38silver · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a well researched slice of Victorian social history, well written in a non-academic style. It has chapters on specific topics, for example, home life, school, wages, influence of religion, sickness, and crime. It states facts and draws from both local records and recollections of the impact of the decline in the number of people engaged in agriculture (once the largest single employer of labour).

Life in rural Victorian England was clearly no bed of roses. It was a harsh grind for most people living on and off the produce of the land, poorly paid and poorly housed with few attractions. This is a useful book to read about days, and a way of life, long gone.

[Louise · Rating 4 out of 5]

A great deal of information new to me. Having lived in rural Oxfordshire this filled huge gaps in my knowledge.