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Open Country

Factual: Science & Nature: Nature & Environment

Countryside magazine featuring the people and wildlife that shape the landscape of Britain

Countryside magazine featuring the people and wildlife that shape the landscape of the British Isles

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Open Country: Four Hundred Years of Parish Life

Factual: History

02/05/2009

Four Hundred Years of Parish Life

BBC Radio 4 - Open Country, Four Hundred Years of Parish Life

Helen Mark joins historian Peter Edwards to visit the Worcestershire village of Rushock.

Helen Mark joins historian Peter Edwards as he visits the Worcestershire village of Rushock to chart the highs and lows of farming in the last 400 years.

Countryside magazine. The extensive survival of historical records for the Worcestershire village of Rushock enabled historian Peter Edwards to complete his first research project in the early 1970s. Helen Mark joins Peter as he revisits the village and people and charts the highs and lows of farming in the last 400 years.

In 1972, Peter found a treasure trove of historical documents outlining the farming history of the small rural parish of Rushock. When he matched the dusty maps and land agents' reports to the fields and farms of the village, a new interest in social history was born. He spent many months traipsing the fields of the parish looking for agricultural clues to the past and getting to know the people who worked the land. What changes will Peter see on his return, and will he find the people who helped his research all those years ago?

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