Browse Items (47 total)

  • Collection: Modern

The 'Bury-al Board': Poverty, politics and poor relief in the Brixworth Union, Northamptonshire, c1870-1900

The crusade against outrelief, which was promoted by the Local Government Board in the late-Victorian era, is a neglected topic of nineteenth century poor law studies. This thesis examines the crusade against outrelief that was implemented in the…

The governance of Wolverhampton, 1848-1888

The concept of governance is used to construct an urban biography of Wolverhampton between incorporation in 1848 and achievement of County Borough status in 1888. Intensive manufacturing is shown to have generated a sharp polarisation between eastern…

The Growth of Gloucester, 1820-1851: Tradition and innovation in a county town

This study examines the extent to which innovative forces altered Gloucester's character in the period 1820-1851, a time of accelerating change. The analysis is developed at three inter-related levels: the town itself, its regional functions and its…

The Holland Fen: Social and topographical changes in a Fenland environment, 1750-1945

Although much has been written about the consequences of drainage work carried out in peat fens, the result of eighteenth-century drainage and parliamentary enclosures in Lincolnshire silt fens has received little attention other than at a general…

The making of the civic community: Newcastle-upon-Tyne, 1850-1900

This thesis explores a cultural history of Newcastle-upon-Tyne in the second half of the nineteenth century. Particularly, I focus on a group of provincial liberal citizens, who dealt with the problems of growing urban society and in that process…

The Microhistory of a Lincolnshire Parish: Humberston, 1750-1850

This is an account of everyday life in a single village (Humberston in Lincolnshire) in the century after 1750. However, this study is more than a local history, for it uses the experience of Humberston to examine and test some major issues of…

The politics of sudden death: the office and role of the coroner in England and Wales, 1726-1888

The office of coroner has attracted little attention from academic historians. This thesis presents the first comprehensive study of the role across England and Wales between 1726 and 1888. It engages with, and throws new light on, some of the major…

The rise of suburban Exeter and the naming of its streets and houses, c1801-1907

This is a study of the rise of the suburbs of Exeter, the county town of Devon, between the years 1801-1907. The dates chosen coincide with the publication of the first detailed Census Return (1801) and the completion of the first Local Authority…

The social and economic history of Banbury between 1830 and 1880

The period between the Reform Bill and the Agricultural Depression was one of the 'golden ages' of the English market town. Some towns enjoyed at this time a new lease of prosperity, and at the same time gained an unusual degree of freedom from…

The suburbs of Victorian Oxford: growth in a pre-industrial city

This study examines the origins, growth and subsequent character of the Victorian suburbs of Oxford, a small provincial city with no industrial base. Major sources include newspapers, census enumerators' returns, deposited plans, and plan registers,…