Front Page, history

A Purely Agricultural Parish
David Pracy

This book paints a vivid picture of a west Essex country village in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. In 1900 and again in 1912, Nazeing Parish Council described it as ‘a purely agricultural parish’, and the book asks how true this statement was. Almost half of Nazeing people were born in the village, and almost half of those who worked had jobs related to the land. Yet in 1908 a new housing development and the building of an important new road began the changes that were to transform Nazeing in the twentieth century. A wide range of sources includes censuses, the Lloyd George land survey of 1909-12, trade directories, newspapers, and reminiscences of older people who were children in Nazeing before the Great War. There are short biographies of the thirty-three men who died in that war and the names of the 155 who served. Over a hundred buildings are described, most of them accompanied by photographs, and there is an unusual and refreshing emphasis on ‘ordinary’ working families. The book will interest anyone who lives or has family roots in Nazeing, and also the general reader and the specialist historian. Nazeing History Workshop was founded in 1993 to discover, record and share the long and rich history of this west Essex village. David Pracy is a retired librarian who has an MA in Local and Regional Studies from the University of Essex. Jacky Cooper is a retired therapist whose family roots in Nazeing go back 200 years. The cover images were painted by Kate Henty, who lived in Nazeing from 1872 to 1886.
Published: May 2018
Extent: 392 pages
Paperback: £10.00
ISBN: 9-781911-175889
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Nazeing History Workshop was founded in 1993 to discover, record and share the long and rich history of this west Essex village. David Pracy is a retired librarian who has an MA in Local and Regional Studies from the University of Essex. Jacky Cooper is a retired therapist whose family roots in Nazeing go back 200 years. The cover images were painted by Kate Henty, who lived in Nazeing from 1872 to 1886.
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