This is one of my favourite reference books; gloriously outdated, it is a reminder, not that I need one of what has been lost in Britain. Written by Keith Mossman and first published by The Alden Press in 1978 it was one in a number of guides sponsored by Shell UK.
What this book demonstrates above all else is that village life in Britain operated on cohesion and most especially at harvest time. All of the individual skills from wheelwrights and blacksmiths to the farmers and threshers would come together to ensure a successful crop and harvest. The countryside was wholly dependent on the craftsmen and women who built and maintained the mechanical machinery and tools as well as look after the horses which provided the ‘engines’, and skilled they were. It is quite remarkable what they accomplished with the tools they had and the sheer physical strength to work the land.
Life would have been far from easy and there is no doubt that mechanisation had many benefits to offer but like most advances there comes loses in other ways. This book showcases the country crafts of the people who worked their land for generations using tools built to last. Their skill sets set out in this book are quite remarkable, nothing was wasted and I wonder what happened to that mindset? Everything is disposable yet plastic, excess food thrown away, crops doused in chemicals then laced with salt and e-numbers. I cannot imagine what that generation would make of it all today.
There is a real sense of pride in the faces of those featured in the book, their quality of work mattered and their livelihood depended on it. Mossman peppers the book with examples of their craftsmanship and how each component part was vital to working the land. This was a time when the seasons dictated everything and a year was built around the sewing and the harvesting with each season celebrated with a festival.
In a world where Net Zero is the latest buzz word it’s easy to forget how long the call for conservation and proper land management has been going on for. Reading books like this from the sixties and seventies serves as a reminder of the warnings being given about modernisation for modernisation’s sake. The cost, both human, animal and environmental has been huge and much can be learnt from what we have lost.
Shell UK sponsored these books for a reason which probably wasn’t based entirely on goodwill but regardless of that these books provide an important additional dimension to the recording of British history. These books walk that line between study and accessibility and pictorially they provide a reminder of just how drastically times have changed in such a relatively short period.
Further reading:
The Shell Book of Country Crafts
Categories: British History and Folklore, The Reading Room
retroculturati 