The Real History Show:
A Victorian wedding
Find out more
Websites
The Costumer's Manifesto
www.costumes.org
An American site with a list of costume museums in the UK, a book
list and a good deal of information on the subject of historical costume.
English Folk Dance & Song Society
www.efdss.org
The society aims to encourage, document and develop folk music, dance
and song traditions within England.
The Gallery of English Costume
www.u-net.com/set/mcag/costume.html
A site giving details of the Gallery of Costume at Platt Hall Museum
in Manchester.
Hard Times: British society 1815-1902
www.dur.ac.uk/a.j.olechnowicz/hardtimes.htm
For those who want to investigate the period in depth, here is a course
outline and an extensive reading list from Durham University.
The Living Tradition
www.folkmusic.net/
Website of the magazine of the same name, covering mainly the folk
and traditional music of the British Isles. A number of the magazine's
articles are online.
Musical Traditions
www.mustrad.org.uk
An online magazine with articles on traditional music worldwide, record
and CD reviews, news and comment.
National Centre for English Cultural Tradition
www.shef.ac.uk/english/natcect
The National Centre for English Cultural Tradition (NATCECT) is a
research institution based at the University of Sheffield, and is the
national repository for material on all aspects of English folklore. There
is a museum open to the public by prior appointment.
old-maps.co.uk
www.old-maps.co.uk
Check out what your own area looked like in the 19th century with
a free online map.
Thomas Hardy
http://pages.ripco.net/~mws/hardy.html
An enthusiast's site devoted to the eminent author of novels about
19th-century rural life, with online fiction and poetry, a biography and
photographs.
The Victorian Web
http://65.107.211.206/victorian/victov.html
A vast number of links to all things Victorian, including political
and social history, gender matters, religion, art, design and literature,
written by leading scholars in the field.
The Yorkshire Dialect Society
www.clanvis.com/loc/dialect/home.htm
A scholarly society that publishes books of original dialect writing
as well as works about the subject. Records and cassettes are available.
Books
The Age of Improvement, 1783-1867 by Asa Briggs (Longman, 1999)
£16.99
First published in 1959, this book established itself as a classic of
modern historical writing. This edition stresses both the underlying unity
and the rich variety of the age.
The Cambridge Historical Encyclopedia of Great Britain and Ireland
edited by Christopher Haigh (Cambridge University Press, 1990) £20.95
A history covering every major aspect of British life, with full coverage
of England, Scotland, Wales and Ireland, contributions from 60 major scholars,
an 840-entry biographical who's who and 930 ready-reference entries on
key dates and events.
The Dictionary of 19th-century History edited by John Belchem
and Richard Price (Penguin, 2001) £6.99
This dictionary covers historical events, themes and personalities. Containing
over 800 entries written by experts, it gives global coverage of political,
diplomatic, military, social and economic history, as well as providing
overviews of the artistic and cultural history of the age.
The Experienced English Housekeeper by Elizabeth Raffald, introduced
by Roy Shipperbottom (Southover Press, 1997) £18.95
This is an unabridged reprint of the rare first edition from 1769. A successful
entrepreneur who operated a confectioner's shop, a catering business and
a cooking school for young ladies, Mrs Raffald had been housekeeper for
15 years at Arley Hall, Cheshire. Her book remained in print well into
the 19th century and went through 13 genuine and at least 23 spurious
editions. It includes recipes appropriate for simple family meals as well
as some for grand dinners, and is also informative on the social history
of the 18th century.
Food in England by Dorothy Hartley (Little, Brown, 1999) £14.99
First published in 1954, this book is full of traditional recipes, historical
information, regional kitchen lore, personal reminiscences, household
hints, gardening tips and brewing instructions.
Francis Frith's Victorian and Edwardian Yorkshire (Frith Book
Company, 2000) £14.99
This volume features around 150 photographs of Yorkshire during the Victorian
and Edwardian eras, with extended captions to the pictures and an introduction.
Popular Music in England, 1840-1914 by Dave Russell (Manchester
University Press, 1997) £13.99
This study explores a wide range of Victorian and Edwardian musical life
including brass bands, choral societies, music hall and popular concerts,
and analyses the way in which popular cultural practice was shaped by,
and in turn helped to shape, social and economic structures.
Reshaping Rural England: A social history, 1850-1929 by Alun Howkins
(Routledge, 1991) £7.99
This book covers the crucial period of English rural history from the
high point of Britain's agricultural power in the 1850s and 1860s to the
grim years of the inter-war period. Uncovering many of the myths of an
idyllic rural England, Howkins looks in detail at the role of women, the
workplace, the family and religion.
Robert Surtees and Early Victorian Society by Norman Gash (Oxford
University Press, 1993) £52.50
Describing the life and work of the once-popular and now-neglected 19th-century
novelist Robert Surtees, this book is also a study of Victorian social
history. Through the views of an unorthodox and sceptical early-Victorian
writer, Gash examines a familiar landscape from an unfamiliar angle, illuminating
the conservative world of the countryside, small provincial towns and
the seedier side of London.
Rural Life in Victorian England by G E Mingay (Sutton, 1998) £10.99
During Victoria's reign, the English countryside saw more rapid and far-reaching
changes than had been experienced in perhaps all the preceding centuries.
Professor Mingay provides an account of how the lives of landowners, farmers,
labourers, industrial workers and professional people were affected as
technological, economic and social change brought about deep and permanent
changes to rural communities.
A Social History of England by Asa Briggs (Penguin, new ed 2000)
£9.99
A landmark study of English social history from the Ice Age to the close
of the 20th century, Briggs' account traces the political, economic and
cultural factors – including language, literature, architecture,
art and music – that have shaped the English way of life through
the centuries.
Victorian Diaries, edited by Heather Creaton (Mitchell Beazley,
2001) £14.99
The author provides a record of the everyday lives of ordinary Victorians
through a selection of their diary entries, including their family concerns,
medical conditions, childbirth and education. Diary entries are taken
from a cross-section of classes and lifestyles, including a Shakespearean
actor, a schoolboy, a countess and an engraver.
Victorian Families in Fact and Fiction by Penny Kane (Palgrave,
1997) £15.99
The 19th-century transition to a small family size in the Western world
was unprecedented, and the reasons why people began to have fewer children
are still not clear. Using contemporary novels, letters, biographies and
poetry, this book allows the voices of the past to give their own comments
and views on a wide range of issues that may have influenced that decision.
Real and fictional individuals discuss families, love and marriage, as
well as childbearing, child survival and what children meant to them.
Their perspectives on education, religion and the ideas and controversies
of the period, as well as on social mobility and social change, provide
personal notes to the historical background against which their voices
are heard.
