Regency Cheshire - Hardcover

Sue Wilkes

4.17

6 ratings by Goodreads

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0709085303 ISBN 13: 9780709085300

Publisher: RBJT6, 2009

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It was an age of unique style and elegance; the era of Trafalgar and Waterloo. Regency Cheshire explores the scandals, sports and pastimes of the great county families such as the Grosvenors of Eaton Hall. Their glittering lifestyle is contrasted with conditions for humble farmers and factory workers. The gentry and mill owners created elegant new villas and beautiful gardens while workers huddled together in slums with inadequate sanitation. The Prince Regent and his cronies danced and feasted while cotton and silk workers starved. Cheshire's rural tranquility was under siege; smoke belched out over the textile and salt towns. Stage coaches rattled through the streets; packet boats and barges sailed down the canals. The author traces the changes in the county's transport system and the effect on its chief industries: silk, cotton, salt and cheese. Reform and revolution threatened the old social order. Blood was spilt on city streets during election fever and in the struggle for democracy. Napoleon's forces were poised to invade - but Cheshire troops battled their own countrymen instead of marauding Frenchmen. Balls and bear-baiting; highwaymen and hangings; riots and reform: Regency Cheshire tells the story of county life during the age of Beau Brummell, Walter Scott and Jane Austen.

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Product Description:

At the end of the 18th century, Cheshire, like other counties of England, boasted a wealthy and elegant elite whose lifestyle stood in stark contrast to estate and factory workers living in increasingly poor conditions. This history reviews the changing times in Cheshire for all strata of society as the Industrial Revolution gathered pace and rioters and reformers threatened the social order, canal and railway builders transformed the landscape and the Napoleonic wars threatened Britain's place in the world.

About the Author:

Sue Wilkes was born in Lancashire; she has lived in Cheshire since 1981. Sue read Physics at Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford. She is a member of the Society of Authors. Her first book Narrow Windows, Narrow Lives (History Press, 2008), recreated everyday life for working families in Victorian Lancashire during the Industrial Revolution. A creative writing tutor specialising in non-fiction, Sue has contributed regularly to magazines in the UK and USA. She is married, with two children.

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