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‘There wasn’t all that much to do … at least not here’: Memories of growing up in rural South West England in the early twentieth century

Harrison, Laura

‘There wasn’t all that much to do … at least not here’: Memories of growing up in rural South West England in the early twentieth century Thumbnail


Authors

Laura Harrison Laura2.Harrison@uwe.ac.uk
Associate Professor of Modern History



Abstract

Stan was born in 1911 in a small village near the north Somerset coast. When recalling his life in the countryside, he felt that ‘there wasn’t much to do in the evenings … at least not here’. Drawing upon evidence from personal accounts of growing up in the south west of England in the early twentieth century, this article examines memories of youth in the countryside, with a particular focus on the leisure lives of young people and their experiences of rural space and place. In addition to adding to our knowledge on the lives of rural youth, this study also provides new insights into the complex relationship between people and their environment, and has implications for our understandings of the early formation of a distinct youthful identity in England. The countryside was not simply a backdrop in these recollections; rather, it was formative in how those that grew up in rural communities understood their experience of being young.

Journal Article Type Article
Acceptance Date Jul 20, 2020
Online Publication Date Oct 23, 2020
Publication Date Oct 23, 2020
Deposit Date Sep 14, 2020
Publicly Available Date Oct 26, 2020
Journal Rural History
Print ISSN 0956-7933
Electronic ISSN 1474-0656
Publisher Cambridge University Press (CUP)
Peer Reviewed Peer Reviewed
Volume 31
Issue 2
Pages 165-180
DOI https://doi.org/10.1017/S0956793320000199
Keywords youth; rural; growing up; memory; leisure; space; place
Public URL https://uwe-repository.worktribe.com/output/6684830

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