Published June 2018 by Matador. Paperback, £19.99. Available to purchase online here Or available from Waterstones (Stratford on Avon), Preston on Stour shop, or to order from all good bookstores.
Warfare has redefined our world over the past century. Even the smallest communities have cheered their men as they marched away, and laid wreaths for those who didn’t return. The villages which formed the Alscot Estate in Warwickshire are no different. Their men lie in graves in France, India, Iraq, Burma, South Africa and many other places besides. Some are remembered in perpetuity. Others are not.
None of those touched by war returned home the same. Physically and emotionally, their lives were changed forever, for better or for worse. The cost to them, their families and their communities was great. The Second World War in particular redefined life for those on the home front. As conflict brings out the worst in people, it also brings out the best. This book tells stories of incredible feats of bravery. Humour amidst intolerable hardships. Dedication, sacrifice, camaraderie lasting decades. Men, women and children striving to do their best for their country. People simply getting on with things, because they had to be done. This is their tribute.
The Warwickshire village of Preston on Stour has a long and unique history. From a Romano-British settlement grew a thriving community which even today retains its historic character, unusually untainted by the modern world.
This book tells the stories of powerful noblemen who tried to overthrow the royal government; humble but charitable labourers; innovative farmers; mischief-loving children; craftsmen whose livelihoods crumbled beneath the relentless tides of progress. It bears testimony to the start of an agricultural revolution which even today shows no sign of ending, and portrays a 20th century culture which is now only fondly held childhood memories.
This book blends national, social and agricultural history with the memories of past and present residents and the tales revealed by our buildings, landscape, language and lifestyle to tell the fascinating story behind a rural way of life.
Why Preston on Stour? Every person, every place, has a unique story to tell. And each has an impact on the world around them, in a small or a large way. Preston is only a small village, but it has hosted thousands of lives since the first settlers called it their home. Each generation has helped to shape the village and its landscape, both for themselves and for the future. And the village in turn helped shape its people and their lives. These people, and the small communities in which they lived, are often neglected by history. This book, as well as telling the stories of wealthy manor-lords with considerable influence on national affairs, focusses on those individuals who made no impact on the wider world. Those who may never have even left their village in their lives, who are now forgotten by time, but nonetheless helped forge a community, a family, a way of life, and so helped create history in their own small way. The story of Preston on Stour has parallels across Britain – in every village where fields were tilled, where boys trudged behind the plough, where laundresses toiled in scorching soapy water to provide a scant meal for their families. Where men reaped and threshed and dug, children played, and people helped out their neighbours in whatever way they could. The story of one village is a mirror of the history of rural Britain.