Coming Into Line - Local Government in Clayworth 1674-1714, by Alan Rogers

Published by the Centre for Local History (University of Nottingham), no date given but probably published in the late 1970s, 178 pages. A4 rectangular paperpback (A29LWSO)

From the preface: The work for this book was undertaken over a year during a university extra-mural class in Nottingham, 1978-9. Members of the group transcribed, checked, edited, typed and indexed the text of the Town Book; they wrote first drafts of most of the sections in the Introduction and discussed subsequent versions at length. My task has been to lead the group through all these stages, to draw the material together within the book and to see the publication through its various stages.

The material here is of national importance - not just as a case study but, combined with the edited Rector's Book and the published wills and inventories for Clayworth, recently edited by Elizabeth Perkins and published by the Centre for Local History in the University of Nottingham, as adding to the unique documentation in print of one very ordinary English village in the late seventeenth century. It provides a case study both of local government and of social life at this period.

My thanks must go to the Department of Adult Education of the University of Nottingham for all their help in the production of this text; to the Nottinghamshire County Record Office who hold the manuscript; to the incumbent and parochial church council of Clayworth for allowing us to publish this book; to Pat AlIen and Sue Daines who typed the text; and above all to my colleagues and friends who worked so hard on this material: Dorothy Boden, Frank Clegg, Ida Coulthard, Pat Fairweather, Norah Latham, Doreen Piggott and Janet Young. They deserve the credits.

The condition of the book is generally a little poor. The covers are tatty and worn, with lots of scuffs, blemishes and creases (including a deep crease running diagonally across the front cover), and creasing and wear along the edges and corners, but the spine is intact and all pages are intact, unblemished and bound. There is foxing to the outside page leaves and the binding has become brittle in places.