Contrasting Communities: English Villages in the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries Book

A complete history of the economic, educational and religious life of three contrasting communities in Cambridgeshire from 1525 to 1700. This 'picture in the round' of all aspects of village life is the first to appear in English. The three villages concerned, Chippenham, Orwell and Willingham, had very difference economic settings. The economic section of the book traces the way in which the pattern of landholding changed over this period and the general and particular reasons for the changes which took place. The study also covers the educational opportunities open to the villagers, and examines religious affairs, the effect on peasant communities of the Reformation and the disturbance in the devotional life of the ordinary villager which often culminated in dissent and disruption under the Commonwealth. Dr Spufford has penetrated into the social life of the English village at all levels, and with fascinating detail has created a whole social universe around her villagers. The book will be invaluable to economic, social, and ecclesiastical historians of England in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, as well as historians of Britain generally, and those with a special interest in Cambridgeshire.