Clive Aslet, editor of Country Life, describes Great Tew as “one of the prettiest villages in England". No surprises there then. But his book, Villages of Britain (Bloomsbury, £30) is far from being a cute gazetteer for buyers of expensive homes. It is an attempt to tell the history of rural Britain through the stories of its villages — not an account that reflects well on the rich landowners who have helped to ruin the countryside.
Yes, Aslet is nostalgic for a lost way of life, but not sentimental about the hardships endured by past generations who spent their lives in one place.
He is, in the end, optimistic about the future, believing that the spread of broadband could lead to villages once more becoming vibrant places of work, rather than picturesque retirement homes or commuter dormitories.
Oxfordshire is placed, rather surprisingly, in the ‘Home Counties’ chapter and Aslet uses its villages to make various points: the pub at Kingham apparently serves snails on toast, which prompts a polemic about the loss of village ‘locals’. As for Great Tew, according to Aslet, it is a monument to an attempt by a journalist called John Claudius Loudon to introduce ‘Scotch’ farming, pressing ‘scientific’ innovation on unwilling villagers. Loudon’s expensive ideas included ‘waving a Tudoresque wand’ over the village, says Aslet.
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