Interwoven Strands 1660-1947: A History of a Country Town and the Role of Solicitors in Developing its Institutions

Solicitor, ironmonger and agent for the Guardian Insurance Company. That proud 19th century boast is not one many solicitors could make nowadays, but for the three who are the subject of this book it would have seemed a very ordinary one. Those solicitors '“ Titus Bourne, Frederick Rhodes and SB Carnley '“ were all principals in the same firm in Alford, Lincolnshire, and they were extremely versatile. Their working lives spanned much of the last two centuries and they made a huge contribution not only to the life of their town, but also to its governance.

Before the Second World War, Westminster and Whitehall had little to do with local affairs, and country solicitors often filled the gap. From time to time, Bourne, Rhodes and Carnley were stewards of the manorial court and its indirect successor, the court of requests. They were clerks to the local magistrates, and also to the enclosure commissioners, the burial board, the governors of the grammar school, the court of sewers, the drainage board, the commissioners of property tax, the local board of health and the bull fair. The men were also key participants in the vestry meeting, which ran the town's affairs from the time of Good Queen Bess, and when, in 1894, the Local Government Act introduced an urban district council, one of them became clerk to that, too.

The men acted for institutions central to the life and development of the town, including the canal, railway and tramway companies, the corn exchange, any number of friendly and insurance societies, and, perhaps most importantly of all, the local traders' and farmers' association. They were bankers and insurance agents, and they often acted as political agents, at least after the 1832 Reform Act extended the franchise to a fifth of adult males. This was usually a simple business arrangement, conducted without regard to personal allegiance (though it seems mid-19th century Alford had its own 'poor man's lawyer').

Though short, this book is well written and copiously illustrated. It provides a concise, 'bottom-up' history not just of a particular country town, but also of one form of local government in England. For the most part, the big events of history happen offstage, but the book provides ample evidence of how they played themselves out in the lives of ordinary people. And it shows how flexible, forward-thinking and downright ingenious solicitors can be. Between them, Bourne, Rhodes and Carnley lived through enclosure and the coming of turnpikes, canals and then railways; through the Napoleonic wars and the Corn Laws; and through the so-called Age of Improvement and the birth of the welfare state. Peter Criddle's excellent book shows how they reacted to that change, and how they occasionally effected it and, let's not be coy, quite often profited from it.