The Villages of England Book

Richard Muir draws upon a deep personal understanding of the patterns of rural life to present an authoritative yet engaging history of the English village. He explores how these communities began, how they acquired their names, how they developed their characteristic forms, how they grew, and how they sometimes died. He reveals the realities of rustic existence from the earliest times to the Victorian era: how life was tied to the farming year, and how the relationship between peasant families and masters evolved over the centuries. The traditional village home and landscape—church, green, cross, stocks, inn, and school—are likewise explored and explained.Richard Muir has published more than a dozen books on the landscape and rural life of England. A notable photographer in his own right, he provided most of the pictures that illustrate his exuberant and learned text. Muir's fascinating study reveals how the English village was a more vital, fragile, yet spirited place than it has sometimes seemed. 155 illustrations, 73 in color.