KILSBY VILLAGE

The Read family lived in Kilsby during the 1700s and 1800s, one of the many Kilsby families associated with the cottage-based local weaving trade.

They were literate folk, and managed to keep up a steady correspondence with friends and family living outside Kilsby. Through their letters – which are often moving and poignant despite the homely language in which they are written – we receive a very clear impression of the misery and hardship of the period between about 1790 and 1810.

1800: "We never saw such times before – everything is changing, we sometimes think the world is turned upside down."

It was a time in which many Kilsby families were driven into abject poverty by the triple blows of Napoleonic War, the Industrial Revolution, and the Enclosure of the open fields and common land. The few wealthy folk hung on to their wealth, while ordinary villagers slid into sad decay – food was scarce, and even the present of a couple of apples from a relative might provide the means of staying alive for one more day.

1801: "People can scarce live here. The young ones go for soldiers and the old ones starve at home."