Agricultural History Review, Volume 68 Part 2 (2020), p. 309

This remarkably illuminating, deep-time, microhistory of one 30-square-mile parish, Kirkoswald, reminds us what we lose when we analyse a whole county or even a country. It builds an increasingly vivid sense of place as it takes the reader from the late Stone Age through to recent times, analysing in impressive depth buildings, streets and many of the people who lived, worked and played on them. The book will undoubtedly be of immense value to local historians of Cumbria, but it should also serve to remind academic historians of the fruits of exhaustive, detailed analysis in relatively small case-study areas that boast similarly voluminous archival records.

This edition is very good value, bristling with insightful colour images within a logical and easy-to-follow layout. It comprises a helpful glossary of specialist terms and some explanatory notes on the sources. The book is based on a great deal of original research at several archive holdings, reminding us of the wealth of historically important, qualitative records in local as well as national record offices. Inevitably, at times, its thoroughness contributes to an overly descriptive narrative, which leads the reader to ponder the wider significance of relatively minor local events, land transfers and changes in work practices. But ultimately, this is a price worth paying in return for such a thorough local history. It inspired me to want to read more local histories of Cumbrian parishes and to compare their stories in detail.

While this book does exactly what it promises, providing an excellent analysis of one parish, as I progressed through the chapters, I would have appreciated more information about how unusual the case study is in its county and national context. Kirkoswald’s story is fascinating and in many respects lively and noteworthy, but how similar and how different were the experiences of those living in other Cumbrian and in other English villages? The book reminded me very much of Michael Wood’s The story of England (2011), which seeks to unpack the major national events of English history as they were experienced by one Leicestershire village, Kibworth. Whereas Wood superimposes a national framework on local history through one village’s eyes, Brockington and Rose seem to do the opposite by explaining Kirkoswald’s local particularisms first and foremost and how they fitted into national history secondarily. Both approaches work well, but further comparison with other villages would have boosted the work’s significance and reach academically.

After explaining the parish’s main characteristics, and its landownership frameworks, the succession of thematic chapters works very well indeed, focusing on particular sub-disciplines of history (economic, social and religious), before explaining manorial, vestry and local governance in depth. The book explains a great deal about infrastructural communication networks, especially roads and bridges, and it is fully contextualized in its natural environment topographically, with the exception of flooding. I was surprized to find no references to the manufacture and installation of the tiled drainage tunnels that coursed through the Cumbrian landscape well into the nineteenth century. It could have elaborated on the history of flooding and drainage management to provide valuable information about lessons learned in the past in order to inform the present and future. It might also have said more about the social and economic connections between Kirkoswald and Carlisle. For example, how important were Carlisle’s weekly Saturday markets (general, horse and cattle) to the villagers, as sellers or buyers? I was shocked to find no index reference for markets or droving, as long-established droving routes passed near to Kirkoswald until well into the nineteenth century. Of course, the archival record limits the extent to which researchers can write about women and about the poor, but this volume is a particularly male-dominated history with a disproportionate focus on elite society. The ‘Welfare’ section (pp. 63–6) provides a brief overview of the major legislative changes and their impact in this particular parish, but the social history of these changes could have been much more widely contextualized. Further research might have drawn out more detailed analysis of particular women’s lives and of the families who claimed poor relief. Architecturally, the book showcases some fantastic images of relatively modest buildings (e.g. the general stores building on p. 46), but it remains silent on the quintessential character of Cumbrian architecture and how it shaped this parish, especially in relation to other plebeian architecture. For example, were ‘clay dabbins’ built in this particular part of Cumberland or were they limited to the Solway Plain and how extensively was slate used as a building material?

Nevertheless, this is a fine and remarkably detailed parish history, which will undoubtedly be useful and important for local communities, historians and other researchers for the foreseeable future. It reconnects us to the minute and the micro- developments in one parish, and to its people’s reactions to national legislation, and to local governance. By zooming in on Kirkoswald and Renwick, by reading this remarkable example of one parish’s historical geography, we can better understand regional and national historical geography.