Two academic books which discuss rural life in the early 1800s are: * 'The Village Labourer 1760-1832' by JL & Barbara Hammond (1911); dated style, not specifically Sussex but v informative. * 'Captain Swing' by Eric Hobsbaum & George Rudé (1969); the rural problems following the Napoleonic Wars, poor harvests, Corn Laws, mechanisation of farming (thus unemployment for labourers), and the Enclosure Acts, leading up to the ag labs' uprising known as the Swing Riots in early 1830s across S England. Part 1 describes agricultural and village life leading up to the riots. The book 'That Near and Distant Place' (which I already mentioned) has a chapter called 'Reaching Out: 1830-1838' which is fictional but portrays the way of life and events of the time. Also recommend Thomas Hardy novels and short stories - Dorset's not so far away! I felt that the life of my Sussex shepherd ancestors was brought to life by his story 'The Three Strangers'. Happy reading! Barbara Sanders >I have been following the suggestions given to Rod with a great deal >of interest because I have a similar gaol. My g grandfather was a >tenant farmer on various properties in the country to the north of >Lewes in the early 1800's until, we are told, the repeal of the >Corn Laws forced him to emigrate to New Zealand where he could, and >did, purchase land of his own. But what was life like for him and >his family in rural Sussex in the early part of Victoria's reign? >Many of the titles suggested appear to be general to England rather >than to Sussex or cover earlier days. Could I have some suggestions >please. Bryan Pannett 11480

The Village Labourer is on-line at: http://socserv.mcmaster.ca/econ/ugcm/3ll3/hammond/village.html I'm not sure it's that easy to read it all on-line and it would take a lot of paper to print out all 11 chapters! I tried looking at it on-line years ago and didn't get far. Julie ----- Original Message ----- From: "Barbara Sanders" <bsandbed@tiscali.co.uk> To: "SFHG Rootsweb Mailing List" <SFHG-L@rootsweb.com> Sent: Saturday, March 01, 2008 7:30 PM Subject: [SFHG] More books Two academic books which discuss rural life in the early 1800s are: * 'The Village Labourer 1760-1832' by JL & Barbara Hammond (1911); dated style, not specifically Sussex but v informative. * 'Captain Swing' by Eric Hobsbaum & George Rudé (1969); the rural problems following the Napoleonic Wars, poor harvests, Corn Laws, mechanisation of farming (thus unemployment for labourers), and the Enclosure Acts, leading up to the ag labs' uprising known as the Swing Riots in early 1830s across S England. Part 1 describes agricultural and village life leading up to the riots. The book 'That Near and Distant Place' (which I already mentioned) has a chapter called 'Reaching Out: 1830-1838' which is fictional but portrays the way of life and events of the time. Also recommend Thomas Hardy novels and short stories - Dorset's not so far away! I felt that the life of my Sussex shepherd ancestors was brought to life by his story 'The Three Strangers'. Happy reading! Barbara Sanders >I have been following the suggestions given to Rod with a great deal >of interest because I have a similar gaol. My g grandfather was a >tenant farmer on various properties in the country to the north of >Lewes in the early 1800's until, we are told, the repeal of the >Corn Laws forced him to emigrate to New Zealand where he could, and >did, purchase land of his own. But what was life like for him and >his family in rural Sussex in the early part of Victoria's reign? >Many of the titles suggested appear to be general to England rather >than to Sussex or cover earlier days. Could I have some suggestions >please. Bryan Pannett 11480 ------------------------------- To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to SFHG-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message