Contrasting Communities : English Villages in the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries (Paperback)

List of maps and graphs; List of tables; List of abbreviations; Acknowledgements; Introduction; Part I. People, Families and Land: 1. The peopling of a county; 2. The problem: the disappearance of the small landowner; 3. The reality: the small landholder on the chalk: Chippenham; 4. The reality: the small landholder on the clay: Orwell; 5. The reality: the small landholder in the fens: Willingham; Part II. The Schooling of the Peasantry: 6. A general view of schools and schoolmasters; 7. The elementary ability to write: Willingham and Orwell; 8. The importance of reading in the village community; Part III. Parishioners and their Religion: 9. Dissent before and after the commonwealth; 10. A general view of the laity in the diocese of Ely; 11. Fragmentation and the growth of sects; 12. The possible determinants of dissent; 13. The reality of religion for the villager; Conclusion; Appendices; Index of contemporary names; General index.