Aspects of History through the eyes of a small English village

We would welcome your comments about our book

 

Interview with Jan on a very windy village fete day

More about The Idyll in the Middyl   This lovely souvenir book of North Stifford Village comprises 112 large pages printed in full colour with over 200 pictures.  It tells the story of this little English village through the ages and how some of the notable historical events of old England would have affected day-to-day life in the village. If you love old buildings and thatched cottages and tales of the past, you will love 'The Idyll in the Middyl.'  This is a story book, a picture book, a history book and a local history book - and we even throw in a few poems by The Local Yokel.

Read about thatched cottages, old buildings and  manor houses, past and present,  St. Mary's church, and the surrounding countryside of Davy Down, the Mardyke River Valley and The Field of Peace.

Read about witches,  the village ghost,  stagecoaches,  pilgrims,  the stocks,  war time,  Ardale Approved School,  and the village's connection to The Reformation and The Domesday Book. 

Then there is wife selling,  climbing boys,  dong farmers,  The Broderers,  the chalk pits,   early local enterprise,  and much, much more about life in a bygone age.

This historical treasury tells the story of the heart of an old English village as it has survived against all the odds in the middle of Thurrock's ever expanding urban landscape, and also gives a fascinating snapshot of this little village into the 21st century.

Also featured: Stifford Lodge (now The Park Inn),  Coppid Hall,  The Stepney Children's Home,  Ford Place,  The Dog and Partridge pub (formerly 'Lovelands' and then 'The Clockhouse'),  Belhus Cricket Club, The Whitmores,  and how wig powder was taxed to buy gunpowder.

Cliff and Jan Cowin, the authors, designers and publishers of 'The Idyll in the Middyl' have lived in the little village of North Stifford since 1984. They have spent three years researching and writing this book in their spare time. They  hope that this 21st century book about North Stifford will help to secure the future of the village and protect it from further development by explaining how important it is to preserve the few precious remaining treasures of the past that still remain, hanging on by their teeth, in the middle of this industrialised and highly populated area of southeast England. 

All enquiries book@northstiffordvillage.co.uk

© This website and its content including photographs are the copyright of Cliff and Jan Cowin and parts have been based on extracts from their book ‘The Idyll in the Middyl’. Any redistribution or reproduction of part or all of the contents in any form is prohibited. You may not, except with our express written permission, distribute or commercially exploit the content. Nor may you transmit it or store it in any other website or other form of electronic retrieval system. 2006 - 2012