The Local Historian Volume 8 Number 7 August 1969
Contents
Some uses of apprenticeships in local studiesm Show more
By Ashworth, G.J.
A study of smaller rural industries as exemplified by the surviving evidence of apprenticeship records, using the material from 18th century mid-Surrey as a case study. The evidence from primary sources suggests that the following were the main types of craft industry in the district: i) carpenters, who had many general functions, and others in the 'service' crafts such as glaziers; ii) the cordwainers and other related trades which covered a diversity of skills in leatherworking; iii) retailing crafts and trades such as butchers, bakers, haberdashers and cheesemongers; and iv) crafts such as blacksmithing. The majority of apprentice masters and apprentices were found in the larger towns in the area, especially Guildford and Dorking, but the extent of movement between rural parishes is relatively small. Ashworth concludes that the movement of apprentices implies that there was significant rural-urban migration, only low levels of intra-rural mobility, and that migration from or to other districts was very limited.
English religious history Show more
By Owen, Dorothy M.
A review of contemporary studies in English religious history, in which Dr Owen suggests that the expansion of religious studies reflects the wider availability and greater accessibility of ecclesiastical records and church archives. She categorises recent trends and notes that the following have been of particular importance or popularity in the 1960s: i) investigations into the post-Restoration period and the religious upheavals of the later 17th century; ii) monastic studies; iii) an approach which she terms 'gleanings from the archives'; iv) reference to, and publication of, primary materials as they become more readily available; v) biographical studies; vi) studies of ecclesiastical administration, especially looking at the social and economic position of the clergy; vii) sociological studies; viii) post-Reformation Catholic histories; ix) nonconformist studies; and x) diocesan surveys of the 17th and 18th centuries.
The novelist and social comment: George Eliot Show more
By Williams, A.R.
An article which argues that Victorian literature can be relevant to the work of local historians, since not only were there many regional novels, but many novelists were deeply concerned about contemporary issues and social reform, subjects which were often completely unknown to people in other areas or from other classes of society until they read these works. Williams analyses the novels of Nuneaton-born George Eliot in this context, showing how she portrays the problems of rural England and describes the forces of social and economic change which were affecting the agricultural poor.
