Peter Davis

Published: 2011
Format: paperback
Pages: 224
RRP: £17.00
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Status: Available

The Diary of a Shropshire Farmer: A Young Yeoman's Life and Travels 1835-37 is a fascinating record of rural English life in the nineteenth century.  Not many young farmers in the early nineteenth century left diaries that have come down to us intact today, still fewer from Shropshire, at a time when country life continued much as it had since long before the Industrial Revolution.

In June 1835, the twenty-three year old Peter Davis set out from his home in the Teme Valley on a mini grand tour.  As befitted a son of the soil, his eye lighted first upon the current agricultural scene.  Not surprisingly, however it was the great cities of London and Edinburgh that came to take more of his attention.  The young man's travel diary represents a vivid snapshot of his experiences in passing through the north of England and southern Scotland during the reign of King William IV.

It is complemented by Peter Davis' longer narrative, describing the day-to-day events of his life at home during the years 1836 & 1837.  Before the railways came to Shropshire, Worcestershire and Herefordshire, every journey from Peter's home in Burford was significant.

The diaries have been edited by one of the author's great great grandsons, Martin Davis, whose photographs illustrate the text.