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Victoria County History of Cumbria
Kirkoswald and Renwick
Richard Brockington and with Sarah Rose
University of London Press, 2019
Kirkoswald and Renwick is the first parish history to be produced by the Cumbria County History Trust in collaboration with Lancaster University for the Victoria County History of Cumbria. Covering 30 square miles of agricultural land and moorland, the modern civil parish of Kirkoswald lies between the river Eden and the Pennine heights, on the western edge of the North Pennine Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. Kirkoswald township, anciently a market and small industrial centre, lies nine miles north east of Penrith. Until 1566 Kirkoswald Castle was the principal seat of the powerful Barons Dacre of the North whose massive landholdings extended over six counties. In 1523 Lord Thomas Dacre translated St Oswald’s church, a pre-conquest foundation for which the village is named, to collegiate status, and after the Reformation the college became a gentleman's residence, acquired in 1611 by the Fetherstonhaugh family whose home it still is after 400 years and 11 generations of descent. The economy, largely dependent on agriculture, benefited for 600 years from Kirkoswald's role as a market and business centre, with some manufacturing (textiles, paper and timber) powered by the waters of the Raven Beck. From 1631 to about 1850 there was coal mining on the Pennine Edge (with associated lime-burning). In the 21st century the parish remains an unspoilt and beautiful corner of England, home to some 30 farms specialising in animal husbandry, and many retired people and commuters to Penrith and Carlisle. 
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The Victoria County History of Herefordshire
Bosbury
Janet Cooper
University of London Press, 2016
Bosbury is the second parish history to be produced by the Trust for the Victoria County History of Herefordshire, following the history of Eastnor published in 2013. Like Eastnor, Bosbury is an agricultural parish, near the market town of Ledbury. It covers a relatively large area below the western slopes of the Malvern Hills. In the Middle Ages Bosbury was the site of one of the favourite residences of the bishops of Hereford; in the western part of the parish, called Upleadon, was an estate belonging first to the Knights Templar and then to the Hospitallers. From the 16th century onwards both estates passed into the hands of tenants, leaving the parish without a major resident landowner until John Stedman and Edward Higgins successively developed the Bosbury House estate in the late 18th and the 19th century. Much of that estate was given after the First World War to create the Bosbury Farm Settlement for former soldiers. The economy of the parish has always been agricultural, mixed farming being practised. Orchards have been important, particularly on the higher ground in the northern part of the parish, and hops have been grown since the 17th century. By the late 19th century the lack of industry, and indeed of any major roads, made the parish appear an oasis of rural peace. The many timber-framed buildings, particularly those along the village street, and the parish church with its detached bell tower, attracted visitors and some new residents, but the parish avoided any large-scale 20th-century development.
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