Ashton Hayes in 'Villages of Britain'

Country Life editor, Clive Aslet, has added Ashton Hayes to his latest book of the villages that make Britain. Here's what the Book People say.

"Villages of Britain" is the history of the countryside, told through five hundred of its most noteworthy settlements. Many of Britain's villages are known for their loveliness, of course, but their role in shaping the nation over the centuries is relatively untold, drowned out by the metropolitan bias of history. A consummate storyteller, Clive Aslet deftly weaves the worlds of agriculture, politics, the arts, industry, folklore, science, ecology, fashion and religion into one irresistible volume. It covers: the Bedfordshire works that a century ago manufactured half a billion bricks a year; the Cheshire municipality, striving to become the country's first carbon-neutral community; the Derbyshire estate where the cottages represent the gamut of European architecture; the Gloucestershire community founded by Tolstoyans...(more on website)... All these are places that have made a unique contribution to the narrative of this country. Follow Clive Aslet in visiting all five hundred villages, and you will have experienced the history of these islands from a uniquely rural perspective.