Illustrated by: Charles Bannister
A detailed and profusely illustrated description of everyday life in Witham in Tudor and Stuart times, including families, the plague, building, roads and bridges, the post, manors, farms, meadows, woods, shopkeepers, blacksmiths, the cloth industry, and much more.
Many other towns must have been like this, so the book will help to give the flavour of your own town. And the copies of original manuscripts, with accompanying transcripts, will help you learn to read documents which relate to your own family and parish.
This book and ‘Public Spirit’ were written in my 17th century phase. This was inspired by John Walter (now Professor) at a W.E.A. Week of Study. He taught so well, and made everything so fascinating, that I devoted several years to tracking down the relevant people in Witham, and producing these two rather large books about them. Thank you, John.
Out of print, though Amazon claim to sell it.
It would be nice to see it reprinted, together with its companion volume ‘Public Spirit. Dissent in Witham and Essex, 1500-1700’. But it would be quite difficult, because of the antiquity of the ‘techniques’ by which it was produced and stored.