I was delighted to find this lovely (and cheap!) copy of a book I have wanted to add to my collection for some time now. The AA Book of British Villages was first published in 1980 by The Reader’s Digest Association with contributions from numerous authors, artists and photographers including W.G. Hoskins.

The AA (Automobile Association) along with Shell sponsored a number of guides to Britain and British life throughout the sixties onwards and this book champions that most British of institutions, the village. This A-Z guide of all of the villages across every county highlights the importance of the village and the sense of community they share which is quite unlike anywhere else.

These villages would also become, to a large extent, the last bastion of traditional crafts associated with working life and this book showcases wheelwrights, millers, stone masons, bakers, thatchers, blacksmiths and farriers, carpenters and weavers to name a few.

The church, understandably, features in most entries as these were so important to rural communities for centuries and many villages still boast fine examples of Norman architecture from this period.

Driving through a village it is very easy to miss much of its hidden history and books like these help to remind us of that and how our ancestors crafted the land through hard work and innovation. We may build modern today but aesthetically we have become poorer for it. A thatched house is infinitely more beautiful and appealing than the sardine can houses thrown together on the modern estate.

Whilst this book is now forty five years old most of it, thankfully, still stands up today. For despite the huge changes that have taken place over the last four decades in the UK the rural village has remained largely unchanged and intact and I, for one, celebrate that.

See also:

The Shell Book of Rural Britain

The Shell Book of Country Crafts

Curious Britain

Sea and Seashore