239pp, published Ludlow 2004

ISBN 1-874200-14-9 (softback)

The years of Queen Victoria's reign have previously attracted little attention from the historians of Ludlow. In this book the Ludlow Historical Research Group has brought together a series of studies by its members which begin to fill this gap in the town's story. Although it is not intended to be a comprehensive history, the range of subjects covered has been chosen in order to reflect, in this local context, some of the major social and political issues which dominated Victorian England and, in so doing, to throw light upon the key elements of the life of the town during those years. The book includes chapters on the economic and social characteristics of the town, its tradesmen, the place of servants in society, the growth of the town's suburbs, parliamentary elections, the development of local government, education, the Poor Law and the role of the Anglican Church. Its pages are filled with the people of the town, the forebears of many who live here today, walking the streets and seeing the sights which are still familiar a hundred years later.