Memories of the Vale: Life in the countryside before the railway came (Paperback) (ISBN-13: 9798385861521)

This little compendium includes two works of remarkable interest to social historians and residents of the Vale of White Horse, an area once in Berkshire and now re- classified as Oxfordshire. At a time of rapid change in the English countryside, local curate Reverend Lewin G. Maine sought to record for posterity rural people's recollections of a lost way of life. Part one, "A Berkshire Village: its history and antiquities" (1866), is his collection of memories and true tales from the villages of the Vale which has charmed generations of readers.

Part two, "The Scouring of the White Horse" (1859), is author Thomas Hughes' way of recording the very last "Pastime", the festival accompanying the 1857 ceremony of cleaning the ancient chalk horse depicted in the turf at Uffington. As well as giving a full account of the history and sports of the Pastime, Hughes' novel also records a time when cows were milked by hand, cheeses made on the farm, and the journey to market was by pony and trap.

Part three contains a wealth of information for family-history researchers.