The Bousfield Diaries: A Middle-class Family in Late Victorian Bedford (Bedfordshire Historical Record Society) (Publications Bedfordshire Hist Rec Soc) - Hardcover

Smart, Richard

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 085155072X ISBN 13: 9780851550725

Publisher: Bedfordshire Historical Record Society, 2007

Synopsis

Rare Book

About this title

Review

A useful addition to local history and many other fields of nineteenth-century studies. THE LOCAL HISTORIAN
This book will be a boon to local historians and is fascinating reading for anyone. BEDFORDSHIRE ON SUNDAY

Synopsis

The diaries of Charlotte Bousfield, extending from 1878 to 1896, paint a vivid picture of the activities of a multi-talented Bedford family, led by a strong-minded matriarch. They were prominent in local life: Charlotte's husband Edward was an influential figure in developing agricultural machinery at the Britannia Iron Works, Bedford's successful exemplar of a modern iron foundry, and important as a factor in the town's growth, while Will, the ablest of the children, became a QC and Conservative MP, whose election campaigns are described in lively detail. Charlotte, meanwhile, was also active, both in the town and further afield: her concern for the underprivileged in the town, a practical expression of her fervent Methodist beliefs, emerges clearly in her lifelong work for the temperance cause, locally and nationally. She founded a home for 'inebriate women', which was ground-breaking for the time, and whose work she describes in fascinating detail. She was also a Poor Law Guardian, and a leading figure in the Bedford Workhouse scandal of the 1890s.

Throughout, the diaries bring out some aspects of Victorian social life which are not always obvious: the dependence of the family on their servants; the ease of travelling using railways and horse-drawn transport; the frequency with which family members would spend time staying with friends and relatives. Edited here with notes and introduction, they bring the past vividly to life.

Edition details

• Publisher: Bedfordshire Historical Record Society
• Publication date: 2007
• ISBN 10: 085155072X
• ISBN 13: 9780851550725
• Binding: Hardcover
• Language: English
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 288