Browse Items (47 total)

The intention of the thesis is to examine, through the returns to the Victorian censuses of 1841 to 1901, how a microcosm of England – the small market town of Oakham in England’s smallest county, rural Rutland – shared in the immense changes of the…

Many local studies have looked at the application of poor relief at parish level. This thesis is unique in considering how the rural agricultural parish of Quainton responded to the dearth of 1799-1801. It considers how flexible Quainton`s relief…

The terms ‘community’ and ‘local’ carry with them a host of preconceived ideas and positive connotations which are often taken as self-evident. This study re-examines the two ideas in the context of a farming community in Yorkshire in the early part…

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…

This thesis focuses on one north Derbyshire township and its response to industrialization. Wire-drawing was just one of the crafts practiced in the Hope valley but chance played a part in the development of needle-making factories and workshops in…

The geography and geology, of the parish of Fletton, attracted the railways and brickyards. To enable these industries to grow and develop workers were needed. Using Ravenstein’s Laws as an initial starting point, this thesis will initially explore…

This thesis examines the New Poor Law between c.1900 and 1930, the last three decades of its operation before boards of guardians were abolished by the 1929 Local Government Act. The poor law during this period has been widely neglected by historians…

Map of Cheshire Waterways. From Iredale's thesis 'Canal Settlement', p.20.

Plan of a canal side smithy in Barnton, Cheshire c.1837. From Iredale's thesis 'Canal Settlement', pp.84-85.