The Bousfield Diaries: A Middle-Class Family in Late Victorian Bedford (Publications Bedfordshire Hist Rec Soc) (Volume 86) - Softcover

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0851550754 ISBN 13: 9780851550756

Publisher: Bedfordshire Historical Record Society, 2009

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.

About this title

Review:

This book will be a boon to local historians and is fascinating reading for anyone --Bedfordshire on Sunday

A useful addition to local history and many other fields of nineteenth-century studies. --The Local Historian

About this edition

• Publisher: Bedfordshire Historical Record Society
• Publication date: 2009
• ISBN 10: 0851550754
• ISBN 13: 9780851550756
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 282
• Editor: Smart Richard