Flora Thompson was born in 1874 and Lark Rise tells of life in a small Oxfordshire hamlet in the 1880's. The book she wrote about rural life in the 1880's is so special on a number of levels. It describes social history for the agricultural class, by someone who was a keen observer of the little things. It is written in a wistful, but not sentimental fashion, and is VERY readable. The turn of the seasons and the traditions (including the slaughter of the pig every year) are very well documented also.
Flora is 'Laura' in the book (I named my eldest Laura - I wanted Flora but husband said she was not to be called after a spread!) Her beloved brother Edwin became Edmund. Flora I believe had a somewhat melancholy life, Edwin was lost during WW1 and her son Peter in WW2, she never got over Peters death and her heart failed in 1947.
My collections consists of the Royal Grafton commerative plates, various books (here is a sample) and the Lark Rise Portfolio of 12 prints. Caverswall did various thimbles and china pieces which I am on the look out for, and there is also a series of houses (The End House, The Post Office) which are a bit like Lilliput Lane houses - haven't got any of those either (yet).
Here is an extract. I read Lark Rise for the first time at around 14 years of age, and being an old fashioned country girl myself this inspired me to be one of those skillful women!
In nearly all the cottages there was but one room downstairs, and many of these were poor and bare, with only a table and a few chairs and stools for furniture and a superannuated potato-sack thrown down by way of heathrug. Other rooms were bright and cosy, with dressers of crockery, cushioned chairs, pictures on the walls and brightly coloured hand-made rugs on the floor. In these there would be pots of geraniums, fuchsias, and old fashioned sweet-smelling musk on the windowsills.
The interiors varied, according to the number of mouths to be fed and the thrift and skill of the housewife, or the lack of those qualities, but the income in all was precisely the same, for ten shillings a week was the standard wage of the farm labourer at that time in that district.
And just to leave you with a crafty finish - I am still Trollen, it's getting longer, I don't know exactly how long she needs it, so will just carry on till the end of the skeins!
