Bloody Marsh

A Seventeenth-Century Village in Crisis

Peter Warner

This table gives the books price, published date, ISBN reference and other details
Price:	£17.00
Published:	20 September 2000
ISBN:	0-9538630-1-8
Details:	PB, 246 x 185 mm, 42 black and white illustrations

Synopsis

In April 1644, with the English Civil War at its height, a man walked into the coastal town of Walberswick in Suffolk, got into a fight with some locals, and was killed. The local Justice of the Peace, Robert Brooke, exacted swift retribution, and the three perpetrators were hanged. Thereafter, the event become known as 'The Battle of Bloody Marsh'.

Why did this 'battle' happen, and what does it tell us about what life was really like in an English rural community in the seventeenth century? Peter Warner reconstructs the causes and consequences of this violent episode. He unravels a tale of crisis in a social landscape - a story of rising poverty, enclosure, accusations of rape, and the brutal confrontation of the landed and the dispossessed.

Like Le Roi Ladurie's Montaillou and Gough's History of Myddle, the story of Bloody Marsh explores in microcosm great historical events, and shows how they transformed the lives of real people. Nick Catling's photographs also show how the story is grounded in a real place, where the visitor can sense in an almost visceral way the presence of the past.

Reviews

'A thoroughly worthwhile book, beautifully produced.' English Historical Review 'A deeply moving unpicking of the elements of the story. Peter Warner's tale is made all the more powerful by Nick Catling's stunning photographs. It is a book which uses a single intense beam to light up a whole age. It is a gem.' BBC History Magazine