Thanks for all the input at the beginning of December. We've now got a collection of books from those suggested ... Kept quiet as gave several to my wife as Christmas presents and she reads the list emails too. For a serious review of academic research as of 1995 there is "Agriculture in depression 1870 -1940" by Richard Perren ISBN 0-521-55768-2 My interest is the dramatic change in fortunes of the family of James and Henrietta GARDNER who started farming in Dumfries after their marriage in 1869. In 1881 they are at Acton Farm Felton farming 308 acres. RG11/5120 folio 25 page 11 Hey appear to move to Newcastle in 1882 and describe themselves as farmers in 1881. This may have been in the Shield field area. By 1891 the family is scattered and the younger 4 are in institutions. Parents not yet found. Son Henry Gardner ( a farm carter) describes his father James as a farmer when he marries at Christchurch Shieldfield in 1893. The venture in Dumfries seems to have coincided with rent rises on the back of good years just as prices collapsed. It would appear that the crisis in farming finally caught up with them some 20 years later and by 1901 James and Henrietta are in the poorer parts of Gateshead where he is a labourer. Robin