Book puts the spotlight on Cotswold ham (From Wilts and Gloucestershire Standard)

Book puts the spotlight on Cotswold ham

A MICROCOSM of the history of the Cotswolds spanning 150 million years is presented in a recently published book about a tiny hamlet perched high on the slopes of the Slad Valley.

Entitled All about Elcombe: The intimate history of a Cotswold hamlet, by writer, editor and former Elcombe resident, Robin Sharp who starts by recounting the geological origins of the place, where the first known human being was buried 4,000 years ago.

Then came the Romans, Anglo-Saxons and Vikings before the settlement of Elcombe was founded as an outpost of Bisley under the Normans.

After covering the hamlet's first 700 years up to 1900, including the building of many farms and mills in the valley and the passage of King Charles I with his army in August 1643, most of the book's 12 chapters are devoted to modern times.

They chart the dramatic social and economic changes that have transformed Elcombe from a community of impoverished agricultural labourers, firstly to skilled tradesmen and then to prosperous middle-class professionals and artists.

The book tells the stories of several old Elcombe families - the Bartletts, the Kings and stonemason Bill Tuck whose first wife's drowning was described (with a little poetic licence) in Laurie Lee's Cider with Rosie.

There are also chapters on former residents Professor R H Tawney, the outstanding radical thinker and teacher of his generation, and the Rev John Papworth, who founded the magazine Resurgence and has been a fierce campaigner on many social issues not always appreciated by his ecclesiastical superiors.

The book concludes with a little tongue cheek fantasy of what life in the Slad Valley could conceivably be like in 200 years time.

This is an attractive and informative book with a lot of interesting illustrations, showing another side to a part of the world first made famous by another writer who lived on the opposite side of the Slad Valley.

All About Elcombe is produced by Wygesty Publishing of 5 Harrowby Court, Harrowby Street, London W1H 5FA, and priced at £11.99.