3 - LESSER SOLIDARITIES

Summary

The larger units in the social geography of the Northwest provided the frameworks within which the wealthier and more mobile sections of the population operated. The social horizons of other groups and classes were necessarily far more closely circumscribed. While peasants from all over the region shared common dialect-forms, cultural traditions and economic conditions, and while villagers from different parts of the shire doubtless felt some degree of solidarity, to a large extent their lives were lived out within far smaller units. In the following sections it is intended to identify, and to assess the significance of, some of these lesser communities in the Northwest.

Even for the gentry class involvement in communities of the size of the shire could never have been total. For many local lineages the towns of Chester and Lancaster were a hard day's ride from their homes, and frequent intercourse with neighbours of similar rank tended to be the pattern. Such observations have even greater relevance for the lower orders, and not merely the peasantry. Despite their attendance at the county courts and their occasional involvement in the wider community, the social worlds of the lesser gentry and yeomanry could be surprisingly small. Marriage alliances and other relationships were often confined to the immediate locality, and contact with the county community mediated through a more powerful neighbour.