In this episode, Dr Hailwood (University of Bristol) examines whether rural villages were really as cut off from the outside world as is often assumed. The evidence of court records not only shows that people often travelled quite far as part of their work, but also that surprisingly high levels of migration took place in and out of villages – some of it from overseas.

This four-part series explores a simple question: what would it have been like to live in an English village 400 years ago? 

The challenge here is that the ordinary women and men who lived in rural villages four centuries ago have left few written accounts of their own experiences. But there is one type of source that can reveal a great deal about their day-to-day lives: witness statements that they provided in court cases. When they were asked to give their version of events relating to a crime or offence they had seen, they often included a wealth of incidental detail about what they were doing at the time that sheds light on their everyday activities.

In these podcasts, Dr Hailwood draws on this material to examine living conditions, people’s working lives, the extent to which villages were isolated and insular, and what the relationship between neighbours was like. In the process, he suggests that many of our long-held ideas about ‘peasant life’ in the past need to be revised.

If you would like to comment on any of the episodes, or ask any follow-up questions, you can do so by visiting Dr Hailwood’s history blog, the many-headed monster.

1. 17th Century English Village Episode 3: Introduction.
2. Travelling for Work.
3. Moving Villages.
4. International migration.
5. Conclusion.

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