From Hellgill to Bridge End: Aspects of Economic and Social Change in the Upper Eden Valley Circa 1840-1895 (Studies in Regional and Local History) - Hardcover

The is a comparative study of the effects of local, regional and national change on nine parishes in the Upper Eden Valley in north Westmorland during the Victorian years. It is based on a study of the entire population of the parishes of Appleby, Brough and Kirkby Stephen, and six surrounding parishes over six censuses from 1841 plus Marriage and Burial Registers. The analysis of a database of 65,000 records from these sources has given a rare insight into a series of rural parishes and has allowed the exploration of themes of continuity and change within and between parishes, setting them in context within regional and national changes during the Victorian years. Migration is an important theme and includes in-, intra- and out-migration. Destinations of out-migrants have been identified and analysed. The book explores culture and social life including religion, education and leisure, transport, education, the local economy, agriculture and migration. In each topic introductory sections cover the wider Cumbrian region and, although it is a study of a local area, the whole work is set firmly in this context. Differences and similarities are clear even within such a small geographical area and emphasise the problems that can arise if typicality is assumed from a single parish or community study. Very little work exists about this part of Cumbria and such detailed analysis of a series of parishes in any region is rare and important.

Margaret Shepherd is a historical geographer who has spent many years in the Eden Valley. She was born and educated in Penrith in Cumberland, later in Edinburgh. After teaching in Carlisle she married and moved to Church Brough in the Upper Eden Valley. While bringing up two children she served as both a County Councillor and a District Councillor. She graduated with honours in Music, History and Art History from the Open University in 1980. Since 1985 Margaret Shepherd has been a member of Wolfson College, Cambridge and graduated with 1st Class Honours in Geography in 1987 followed by a Ph.D. in 1992. Subsequently Margaret Shepherd has continued her research into the changes that occurred in the Upper Eden Valley during the Victorian years. She was elected to a Junior Research Fellowship in Wolfson College in 1993 but then became Tutor and Fellow for seven years before resuming the Research Fellowship in 2001.