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Rural: The Lives of the Working Class Countryside
Work in the countryside ties you, soul and salary, to the land, but often those who labour in nature have the least control over what happens there.
Starting with Rebecca Smith’s own family history – foresters in Cumbria, miners in Derbyshire, millworkers in Nottinghamshire, builders of reservoirs and the Manchester Ship Canal – Rural is an exploration of our green and pleasant land, and the people whose labour has shaped it.
Beautifully observed, these are the stories of professions and communities that often go overlooked. Smith shows the precarity for those whose lives are entangled in the natural landscape. And she traces how these rural working-class worlds have changed. As industry has transformed – mines closing, country estates shrinking, farmers struggling to make profit on a pint of milk, holiday lets increasing so relentlessly that local people can no longer live where they were born – we are led to question the legacy of the countryside in all our lives.
This is a book for anyone who loves and longs for the countryside, whose family owes something to a bygone trade, or who is interested in the future of rural Britain.
Starting with Rebecca Smith’s own family history – foresters in Cumbria, miners in Derbyshire, millworkers in Nottinghamshire, builders of reservoirs and the Manchester Ship Canal – Rural is an exploration of our green and pleasant land, and the people whose labour has shaped it.
Beautifully observed, these are the stories of professions and communities that often go overlooked. Smith shows the precarity for those whose lives are entangled in the natural landscape. And she traces how these rural working-class worlds have changed. As industry has transformed – mines closing, country estates shrinking, farmers struggling to make profit on a pint of milk, holiday lets increasing so relentlessly that local people can no longer live where they were born – we are led to question the legacy of the countryside in all our lives.
This is a book for anyone who loves and longs for the countryside, whose family owes something to a bygone trade, or who is interested in the future of rural Britain.
240 pages, Hardcover
First published June 8, 2023
21 people are currently reading
606 people want to read
About the author
Rebecca Smith
2 booksRebecca Smith is an English author based in the Central Belt of Scotland.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 37 reviews
June 8, 2023
Rural is hybrid biography and exploration of Britain's most lucrative rural working-class industries over the centuries through to present day, how exactly these fit into the British cultural landscape and the type of people who underpin them. As someone who grew up in a small town in Northumberland and who remains there to this day - albeit after a detour through a variety of more heavily populated areas such as Newcastle - this book sounded appealing to me, and as other country bumpkins will know, living your formative years in a rural location makes it difficult to ever live, or more importantly be happy, in a city. Interspersing her own family history between chapters dedicated to Land; Wood; Coal; Water; Food; Slate; Textiles; Tourism; Development; Business; and Our Land, Smith explores each industry from its inception and early days and its evolution through to today.
She manages to pack a lot of meticulous research into the short book illustrating the belonging, ownership and the changing landscapes of rural working-class life and then relates this to her own life and experiences growing up in a tied house, and her family’s continued relationship with land and forestry, which are interwoven with the histories and experiences of coal and slate miners, foresters, textile workers, and reservoir builders across communities in Scotland, Wales and England. Rural impeccably reveals a part of society that has been largely forgotten. It becomes tiresome to read stories about landowners, lairds, the Big House and rich people who always seem to get their own way or of reading a tourist’s view of the countryside.
Tourists often forget that the beauty they flock to see is a working environment. People actually live and work there. This book tells the stories of the families who are making a living within this natural world and have done so for generations. It tells the stories of tenants whose lives went unrecorded. Smith has written a compelling, accurate and original paean to working-class British workers from the countryside who have for too long been neglected; within these pages is well-deserved recognition of the industries they propped up almost singlehandedly and the subsequent decline of some of said industries e.g. coal. An interesting and informative read.
She manages to pack a lot of meticulous research into the short book illustrating the belonging, ownership and the changing landscapes of rural working-class life and then relates this to her own life and experiences growing up in a tied house, and her family’s continued relationship with land and forestry, which are interwoven with the histories and experiences of coal and slate miners, foresters, textile workers, and reservoir builders across communities in Scotland, Wales and England. Rural impeccably reveals a part of society that has been largely forgotten. It becomes tiresome to read stories about landowners, lairds, the Big House and rich people who always seem to get their own way or of reading a tourist’s view of the countryside.
Tourists often forget that the beauty they flock to see is a working environment. People actually live and work there. This book tells the stories of the families who are making a living within this natural world and have done so for generations. It tells the stories of tenants whose lives went unrecorded. Smith has written a compelling, accurate and original paean to working-class British workers from the countryside who have for too long been neglected; within these pages is well-deserved recognition of the industries they propped up almost singlehandedly and the subsequent decline of some of said industries e.g. coal. An interesting and informative read.
February 21, 2025
Finished this book. Learned lots about my local history in South Yorkshire- whilst also feeling like this protest book for the importance of keeping and saving rural communities. Enjoyed it but wouldn’t recommend it to everyone
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April 21, 2025Loved this book, obviously inspired by the overwhelmingly urban perception of working class life. From the top it addresses why this may be: the face that the countryside in popular imagination is a place ‘away’ from real life, that it’s bucolic and green, leaves little space for the reality: that it is a site of industry and lability. Also, the inability of many to grasp that living rurally or near estates does not beget or indicate personal wealth.
Really interesting to learn about community right to buy on island of egg and other crofter landholdings in Scotland as a model for overcoming plight of landlords and second homes-caused inflation. The book is essentially about the socioeconomic culture that arises when rural workers do not own their own home. Ownership is the theme, and tied houses, ie, cheap rent but an obligation to a certain job, was and is the commonplace. It was the case in some mining villages that two generations were owed to the pits, and that farming tenancies were owned for three generations. Precariousness, and vulnerability to the whims of aristocratic landlords, is built into rural working.
The fact that farming communities are not inherently inimical to sustainability drives, but instead to ‘green lairds/lords’ removing working folks from long held lands, coupled with the implication of archaic and damaging practices. Particularly with BNG and rewilding, the backdrop of draining rural jobs and inflated house prices, it can feel like enclosure again. There’s a lovely line where Smith reminds us that the foresters who plant and maintain and cut the trees have little to gain themselves for anti ecological measures.
‘Crofting’ is farming and commons grazing by land parcel in Scotland.
In some rural or semi rural places, air b n b homes account for 25% of the stock. Some councils have local occupancy clauses to preferentially treat local folks, but this clearly needs to be strengthened.
Really interesting to learn about community right to buy on island of egg and other crofter landholdings in Scotland as a model for overcoming plight of landlords and second homes-caused inflation. The book is essentially about the socioeconomic culture that arises when rural workers do not own their own home. Ownership is the theme, and tied houses, ie, cheap rent but an obligation to a certain job, was and is the commonplace. It was the case in some mining villages that two generations were owed to the pits, and that farming tenancies were owned for three generations. Precariousness, and vulnerability to the whims of aristocratic landlords, is built into rural working.
The fact that farming communities are not inherently inimical to sustainability drives, but instead to ‘green lairds/lords’ removing working folks from long held lands, coupled with the implication of archaic and damaging practices. Particularly with BNG and rewilding, the backdrop of draining rural jobs and inflated house prices, it can feel like enclosure again. There’s a lovely line where Smith reminds us that the foresters who plant and maintain and cut the trees have little to gain themselves for anti ecological measures.
‘Crofting’ is farming and commons grazing by land parcel in Scotland.
In some rural or semi rural places, air b n b homes account for 25% of the stock. Some councils have local occupancy clauses to preferentially treat local folks, but this clearly needs to be strengthened.
July 10, 2025
its really interesting and gives me a lot to think about but it drags in places. its a side of being rural that i’d never considered as someone from a commuter town. the politics of the british countryside is actually a lot more complex than that of the irish and i think the author explains this quite fluently even if there are whole paragraphs i have to skip through because none of the lords and dukes and ladies of blah blah blah means anything to me. it really surprised me that there was even so much difference between the treatment of working class in all of these different industries and how this could even have some people regardless as quasi-gentry, totally not what i would have expected.
August 1, 2023
This book combines aspects of Rebecca's life [she is the daughter and sister of foresters and was pregnant while writing much of it] with references to historic and contemporary issues [Highland Clearances, absentee landlords, second homes and Airbnb effects]. All the time she is concerned more with the ordinary, working people and how they are impacted by bigger social and political movements. The chapters divide the book into areas of work - farming, mining, forestry, etc., some are more powerful than others. She compares English, Scottish and Welsh experiences seeing similar patterns in the Lakes, Highlands and Snowdonia. She has researched impeccably [almost too many stats at times] but balances the facts with her experiences, whether living on an estate, viewing the end of a huge power station chimney stack, interviewing friends or cycling on Eigg, so that the personal makes the research more understandable.
One example is the analysis of the thorny problem of housing: the desperate need for more housing, yet the fear of spoiling rural communities by building estates on the edge of villages - and what does "affordable" housing mean in practice? The dichotomy of selling off council houses turning renters into happy homeowners versus the resulting lack of social housing for new renters Rebecca also covers succinctly, always with local people in mind. But, having described the national problem, she then immediately interviews someone affected so we have the personal, human interest angle as well.
She is also clearly full of respect and admiration, as well as love, for her brother, Tom, who manages an area of forestry that he has bought. Living off selling firewood and carvings seems precarious but Tom achieves this and so provides his sister with excellent material as well as a location for recuperation and celebration.
I confess to being rather proud that I was once Rebecca's English teacher, not that my lessons all those years ago will have resulted in her success, but it does make my review a tiny bit biased. I will counter this by adding a single criticism: I do wish the photographs were as clear as the text!
One example is the analysis of the thorny problem of housing: the desperate need for more housing, yet the fear of spoiling rural communities by building estates on the edge of villages - and what does "affordable" housing mean in practice? The dichotomy of selling off council houses turning renters into happy homeowners versus the resulting lack of social housing for new renters Rebecca also covers succinctly, always with local people in mind. But, having described the national problem, she then immediately interviews someone affected so we have the personal, human interest angle as well.
She is also clearly full of respect and admiration, as well as love, for her brother, Tom, who manages an area of forestry that he has bought. Living off selling firewood and carvings seems precarious but Tom achieves this and so provides his sister with excellent material as well as a location for recuperation and celebration.
I confess to being rather proud that I was once Rebecca's English teacher, not that my lessons all those years ago will have resulted in her success, but it does make my review a tiny bit biased. I will counter this by adding a single criticism: I do wish the photographs were as clear as the text!
September 22, 2024
"I think I am rooted in some places whether we own them or not, whether I am still there or not. Maybe it's like being a dandelion."
A beautifully written and well researched book intimately detailing not just family history but wider histories from around the countryside of the United Kingdom. Smith writes effortlessly of the nature she grew up in and the places she visited in the writing of this book.
I read this in two sittings, the perfect book for the Autumn and Winter period, sitting inside all cosy with a cup of tea and reading about the harsh winters people did not long ago endure without any central heating. The perfect book for nature enthusiasts, history lovers and keen hikers.
A beautifully written and well researched book intimately detailing not just family history but wider histories from around the countryside of the United Kingdom. Smith writes effortlessly of the nature she grew up in and the places she visited in the writing of this book.
I read this in two sittings, the perfect book for the Autumn and Winter period, sitting inside all cosy with a cup of tea and reading about the harsh winters people did not long ago endure without any central heating. The perfect book for nature enthusiasts, history lovers and keen hikers.
November 14, 2023
Fairly enjoyable, quite humourless in parts. Meaning I think it took itself too seriously. But good to be transported to rural Scotland mountains.
February 27, 2025
Rebecca’s father was the forester on a big estate in Cumbria, and she and her brother grew up roaming the grounds of the Big House, building dens, walking. The author spins off from her own story to talk of the history and current position of tied housing in farming, mining and a whole range of professions, the constant worry about the future, the helplessness in the face of poor and neglectful land lords. She shares her researches, her thought and her own story with us, and it is riveting. I absolutely loved this book!
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September 4, 2025Half-baked. Had potential but just felt like a list of some local history - needed more analysis, narrative, or memoir
June 11, 2025
A perfect weaving of memoir, anecdotal stories and research on the lives of working class people and communities in the rural north of britain. Really beautiful.
July 22, 2025
I spent about 2 months reading it and forgot to ever do an update on it!! Good book, I did really enjoy it and I did cry at the speech she made at the end of the book. I didn't love the pacing and it did feel a bit choppy at points, but it was a nice read and I learned from it and I would recommend it :) didn't change my life but like it's a solid read
September 21, 2023
There are three things I love about this book.
The first thing is the voice. Somehow the author has honed her prose to make it both precise and personal. She speaks directly to the reader with a clarity that is completely unaffected, but recognisably individual. She’s an honest observer, but each anecdote is diffracted through a lens of personal experience, often brimming with mischief.
The second thing I enjoyed, was the travelogue, the way it evoked clear memories of my own childhood in rural Scotland and national parks in the North of England. Although I lived in the city of Edinburgh, many weekends and all school holidays were spent in the countryside where we were given immense freedom. A little too much sometimes. My brother, sister and I had the bright idea of excavating a cave inside the hay bales then lighting our den with a paraffin lamp. Fortunately, the furious farmer found us before we incinerated ourselves.
The third thing I admire is the synthesis, the recognition that manual workers the world over - be they miners or farmers – and their families - are required to live in remote place and often have little agency or control over their surroundings. It's never heavy handed or pompous, presented with a light and personal touch. The author’s family travel with her to many of the places she visits; her own pregnancy making her especially sensitive to the often-undocumented challenges experienced by women in rural areas.
Despite a clear-eyed appreciation of the harsh reality of rural working-class life, this is – at its heart – a joyful book. One I’m glad to have read and would heartily recommend.
The first thing is the voice. Somehow the author has honed her prose to make it both precise and personal. She speaks directly to the reader with a clarity that is completely unaffected, but recognisably individual. She’s an honest observer, but each anecdote is diffracted through a lens of personal experience, often brimming with mischief.
The second thing I enjoyed, was the travelogue, the way it evoked clear memories of my own childhood in rural Scotland and national parks in the North of England. Although I lived in the city of Edinburgh, many weekends and all school holidays were spent in the countryside where we were given immense freedom. A little too much sometimes. My brother, sister and I had the bright idea of excavating a cave inside the hay bales then lighting our den with a paraffin lamp. Fortunately, the furious farmer found us before we incinerated ourselves.
The third thing I admire is the synthesis, the recognition that manual workers the world over - be they miners or farmers – and their families - are required to live in remote place and often have little agency or control over their surroundings. It's never heavy handed or pompous, presented with a light and personal touch. The author’s family travel with her to many of the places she visits; her own pregnancy making her especially sensitive to the often-undocumented challenges experienced by women in rural areas.
Despite a clear-eyed appreciation of the harsh reality of rural working-class life, this is – at its heart – a joyful book. One I’m glad to have read and would heartily recommend.
July 2, 2023
Thanks to William Collins & Harper Collins for the advanced reading copy.
The author grew up on a country estate where her Dad was the forester and she tells of the divide between 'the big house' where they were allowed to go for a Christmas party once a year but otherwise kept their distance.
She then tours around the northern parts of the UK to look at some of the industries that provide work and income for the local residents and what happens to their communities when those industries change or leave.
I found the history, both of rural life and of her family fascinating and there are some astounding facts and statistics. I was less enamoured with how she tried to weave in her current family situation and felt the book would have been better without that.
It's heart warming and hopeful to hear about the community land ownership projects in Assynt and Eigg and let's hope it becomes more prolific across the country.
If you enjoyed The Book of Trespass by Nick Hayes and Field Work by Bella Bathurst this will sit nicely in the middle.
The author grew up on a country estate where her Dad was the forester and she tells of the divide between 'the big house' where they were allowed to go for a Christmas party once a year but otherwise kept their distance.
She then tours around the northern parts of the UK to look at some of the industries that provide work and income for the local residents and what happens to their communities when those industries change or leave.
I found the history, both of rural life and of her family fascinating and there are some astounding facts and statistics. I was less enamoured with how she tried to weave in her current family situation and felt the book would have been better without that.
It's heart warming and hopeful to hear about the community land ownership projects in Assynt and Eigg and let's hope it becomes more prolific across the country.
If you enjoyed The Book of Trespass by Nick Hayes and Field Work by Bella Bathurst this will sit nicely in the middle.
July 12, 2023
I loved it.
It is part memoir, part history, part travelogue, based around the people who work the land and live by it. My only, minor, complaint is that it was heavily influenced by the Lake District and Scotland, but in a way that was good as it opened my eyes to some areas of Britain I don’t know that well.
I personally enjoyed the interweaving of her family’s lives with her exploration of rural life, though I can understand why some people would not be interested by this. I thought it added an extra dimension to the stories, the author having lived the life she was describing.
I live in a market town, which is usually described as being rural, but based on this book I don’t feel it is - we have all our basic needs, and more, covered in the town but are surrounded by beautiful countryside and wooded hillsides, so I definitely have the best of both worlds.
It is part memoir, part history, part travelogue, based around the people who work the land and live by it. My only, minor, complaint is that it was heavily influenced by the Lake District and Scotland, but in a way that was good as it opened my eyes to some areas of Britain I don’t know that well.
I personally enjoyed the interweaving of her family’s lives with her exploration of rural life, though I can understand why some people would not be interested by this. I thought it added an extra dimension to the stories, the author having lived the life she was describing.
I live in a market town, which is usually described as being rural, but based on this book I don’t feel it is - we have all our basic needs, and more, covered in the town but are surrounded by beautiful countryside and wooded hillsides, so I definitely have the best of both worlds.
January 7, 2024
a really validating book on the rural working class experience. i too grew up in rural cumbria, and how class and landscape interweave has always made me feel that my class experience is false. i loved the connection to memoir and writers personal experience which connected to fact and wider experience. i admired how she connected to the dirty undergrowth and foundation of rural wealth, serfdom and slavery. as well as the danger and the disabling environments of production.
the main message i get from this book is ban rural second houses. which isn’t the writers whole intention, she makes compelling points about how destructive they are, and the damage it does. people and place are one thing united. how community and landscape are inextricably linked.
would recommend to anyone.
the main message i get from this book is ban rural second houses. which isn’t the writers whole intention, she makes compelling points about how destructive they are, and the damage it does. people and place are one thing united. how community and landscape are inextricably linked.
would recommend to anyone.
January 28, 2025
I listened to this as an audiobook. I didn't really understand why the personal stories of the author's trips were mixed in with the historical descriptions. I also felt that the ancecdotes from people she knew were not particularly valuable. The book did make me reflect on the lives of people who built infrastructure in the days when so much more was done by hand, but I don't think there was anything very original or thought-provoking in what was said about the hard lives of the working class in other industries, and the class divide. It was written well enough but is almost best suited to a young audience who know almost nothing about the subjects discussed.
February 22, 2025
this book was completely absorbing. it was a perfect mix of biography, family history and research.
i found the whole book incredibly interesting, a huge amount of research has evidently gone into this work but the writing never felt stilted or heavy with it.
each topic is written about with care and compassion, as well as understanding. the writing style keeps the book quite light. i loved how the biographical elements were throughout and linking.
the inclusion of photos was particularly welcome, as it brought some scenes / situations to life for me.
also plenty of notes in the back of the book for me to research the aspects that most interested me further.
i found the whole book incredibly interesting, a huge amount of research has evidently gone into this work but the writing never felt stilted or heavy with it.
each topic is written about with care and compassion, as well as understanding. the writing style keeps the book quite light. i loved how the biographical elements were throughout and linking.
the inclusion of photos was particularly welcome, as it brought some scenes / situations to life for me.
also plenty of notes in the back of the book for me to research the aspects that most interested me further.
May 18, 2023
Really interesting memoir/history book by an author who grew up on a country estate because her father worked there as a forrester. Each chapter focuses on a specific industry, such as coal, wood, wool, etc and traces the history of different regions around these. A lot of intelligent and interesting comments on housing, and on Airbnb in recent times. I found it enjoyable for the history side, the memoir was a mixed bag - stories of her childhood were interesting, stories about her three children... less so.
3.5 rounded down.
Free ARC sent by Netgalley.
3.5 rounded down.
Free ARC sent by Netgalley.
December 17, 2024
An excellent book, for those with an interest in social history and the current state of our countryside. It is written engagingly for anyone who cares about the people who live beyond the boundaries of our towns and cities, a place where many work, not just in farming, as we who live in the town are inclined to think. Rebecca Smith uses her personal experience of growing up and living in a range of countryside contexts to talk about the lives of foresters, mill workers, miners, navvies, farmers and pub owners to create a vivid picture of the rural working class.
February 11, 2025
Took me awhile to get into but after the first or second chapter, I was captivated by the stories of the rural working classes in the UK. Really interesting perspectives on place and purpose and passion. Having recently read Ducks, it also made me reflect on examples of tied housing closer to home- the similarities and differences between the camps in Fort Mac and the communities of workers tied to different industries throughout the 19th and 20th centuries in the UK. Makes me very excited to visit Scotland in the summer!
December 18, 2023
I really enjoyed it. A fascinating history of the lives and livelihoods tangled up in rural Britain through a lens I hadn't really thought of before. Takes you through the history of rural working class jobs from slate, to food and clothing, to all that's in between and it turns out that author Rebecca Smith usually always has a familial connection or some kind of history tied up in each of the sectors discussed.
February 24, 2024
A frustrating read. An interesting premise for a book but it needed stronger editing. Part anecdote, part history it could have worked but there was too much extraneous detail and asides about people drinking tea or looking out of windows. There was also repetition of personal details which complicated and confused me. There is a great book to be written about rural working classes and this book almost reaches that, but not quite.
August 13, 2025
This was a nice book, narrated by the author, exploring the lives of the working class in rural areas. It is an often overlooked community and has changed over time. I think I would have found it more interesting if it had just focused on one family, rather than trying to cover so many different industries, as it loses the person feel. The beginning was definitely better than the second half, which looses steam a bit. but it was still an insightful topic and very engaging.
August 24, 2024
Roots, if you are lucky enough to have them, still have an influence on the way you respond. That landscape, which I knew so closely, predisposed me to feel a connection with certain landscapes later on. This isn't an unusual trait, this almost animal response to a new place. Do you feel comfortable here? Could you be sustained by this view? (Smith quoting Pavord, p.217)
August 25, 2025
Very interesting, especially for those who grew up in the countryside. But it becomes very Scotland-centric and ignores the lives of people living in post-industrial villages, while extensively covering modern life on the Isle of Eigg. I rate the book, but it should really be called Rural Scotland.
Brownie points for some early mentions of Nottinghamshire.
Brownie points for some early mentions of Nottinghamshire.
May 20, 2023
It was fascinating and informative. It talks about a personal story but also about different industries and way of living.
Highly recommended.
Many thanks to the publisher for this arc, all opinions are mine
Highly recommended.
Many thanks to the publisher for this arc, all opinions are mine
September 1, 2023
A real and sometimes surprising account of the 'working' countryside, something many visitors are unaware of. For me the underlying importance of issues of community, rewilding and land ownership stood out. Well worth a read.
August 6, 2024
The world as it is seen through the eyes of a renter. Rebecca Smith grew up on an estate managed by her father but owned by somebody else. As she progresses through pregnancy she travels over the North, investigating places that are community owned.
October 21, 2024
Part memoir, part social history, part reportage, this is an exploration of the past, present and future of those who work in manual and working-class occupations in rural communities, often in precarious circumstances subject to the whims of landowners or technologic development.
December 12, 2024
Fascinating. When I finished I wanted to start again at the beginning because it was just so saturated with facts and interesting information. I also liked how her own story was woven throughout, with a really beautiful ending.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 37 reviews