Great Grandfather’s Country: The 1899 Diary of William Sorrell

‘Tinman’ William Sorrell’s diary entries for 1899 provide an entertaining and intriguing view of the past, every day recording history as it’s happening. They reveal an English village at the turn of the 19th century; as the everyday lives and work of his household, shopkeepers, craftsmen, agricultural workers and members of the village community come to life. Their seasonal activities, contemporary recipes and a miscellany of memories and reminiscences of home and family, with anecdotes, stories, a fund of folklore, traditional sayings and weather lore, reveal that the world of 1899, familiar to my Great-grandfather, has changed forever. The recreated Diary was inspired by William’s lifetime reminiscences, family anecdotes and family memories with added detail from research into the period.