During the mid-1800s rural England underwent its own revolution. This book looks at how things changed, using as a prime example the small Sussex town of Battle. Because of the importance of the urban industrial revolution little has been written about the enormous changes that also hit market towns in the mid-nineteenth century.

Here is an account of the rural revolution in English rural towns without big industries, when by 1870 the poor law, the police, transport, illness prevention, education and politics were barely recognisable from what they had been in 1830, and religious dissent had blossomed.

It concentrates on one historic Sussex town as its main exemplar, with references to another in Suffolk. Both remain small, each with a major ancient building – one an abbey and the other a castle – and each preserves a strong sense of identity.

 

 

 

216 pages Crown Quarto   ISBN 978-1-903099-07-0

 

£20.00 (25% discount to members of BDHS when bought directly from the Society)

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