The village labourer, 1760-1832

This volume turns the spotlight on the ordinary people who toiled in England’s countryside between the mid‑eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. By piecing together parish records, Home Office papers and contemporary accounts, the authors reveal how parliamentary enclosure reshaped villages, stripping away common fields and altering generations of laborers’ lives. Their narrative shows the daily hardships, the precariousness of wages, and the growing sense of injustice that simmered among those left out of the political process.

The book also follows the pivotal unrest of 1830, when village workers rose to demand better conditions and a voice in their own destiny. Readers are taken through the organization of the protests, the authorities’ responses, and the broader social currents that set the stage for later reforms. Through clear, scholarly storytelling, the work offers a vivid portrait of a community caught between tradition and the forces of a rapidly changing nation.