An Oxfordshire Market Gardener: The Diary of Joseph Turrill of Garsington, 1863-67 (Biography, Letters & Diaries S.)

The village of Garsington in Oxfordshire became well known in the early years of this century for the Manor House, where Lady Ottoline Morrell entertained the literary giants of the day, but what of the everyday life of the village?The discovery of a diary, written in now faded ink on the pages of two old rate books, has shed much light on the story of Garsington, its rural life-style and its community. The diary covers the years 1863-67, and was written by Joseph Turrill, a young man in his twenties, who worked as a market gardener supplying produce to the city. Joseph also assisted his mother, who was licensee of the Red Lion. Later he became a pioneer photographer and some of his work has been used to illustrate the book.Many important events, local, national and international, are mentioned in the diaries, including the smallpox epidemic, the assassination of President Lincoln and the arrival of the railway, although the progress of a row of beans seems equally as important to the diarist as the detection of a fearful crime or the gathering clouds of war. Joseph also amusingly chronicles his fluctuating courtship with his future wife, Ann Harper.Illustrated with over 20 photographs and maps, Joseph's diaries offer an insight not only into the life of a small village community but also into the events of the nineteenth-century world outside Garsington.