Uttoxeter in the Civil War

About the book:-

Dave Cooper’s interesting and fact filled book is the result of years of skillful research and interpretation of surviving manuscripts and other sources in relation to Uttoxeter. The ultra-rare church wardens’ and parish constables’ Civil War period financial account extracts, combined with other contemporary manuscripts, provide rich evidence of the impact of the conflict and its aftermath on the town.

In the past many Civil War historians have suggested most of the population in England was unaffected and that the conflict only affected commanders, politicians, battles and the politics in London. In fact recent local studies have revealed that the daily lives of ordinary civilians were actually profoundly troubled and disrupted, trade and local economies too were severely affected and local communities were damaged and traumatized by the conflict.

This book sets out to determine what disruptions were true for Uttoxeter and the extent to which the English Civil War intruded into the daily lives of the local community. The effect of local garrisons and marching armies on the town’s economy including trade and excise, taxation, free-quarter, the appropriation of horses and even baptism, marriage and burials. The research details Uttoxeter’s religious life, including damage to St Mary’s church, religious controversy and revolutionary doctrines; and the social effect of the conflict on the local inhabitants in terms of widows, maimed soldiers, petitions for compensation, displaced persons/ homelessness, country fairs, wakes and fetes.

If you are interested in the social effects and impact of the English Civil War in general and more specifically, the traumatic and often bewildering events on the population of a quiet rural market town such as Uttoxeter in this case, this book will be an invaluable resource. Furthermore, if you want to research your local town, this book will help show you where to find factual information.

About the author:- 

Although Dave Cooper has worked in construction management and estimation for many years, he has had a life-long interest in history, particularly in relation to the English Civil War and the military history of his home county of Staffordshire.

Dave has extensively researched these subjects before, during and since his studies at Keele University, with a number of books to his credit as a result. Not only are his interests academic, but practical as well, with memberships of several local military history interest groups, a leading light in the raising of several commemorative monuments in Staffordshire, regular stalling out at military interest collectors fairs in the Midlands and an active membership of Sir John Gell’s Regiment of the Sealed Knot English Civil War re-enactment Society.

He is therefore ideally situated to write this book that will be of interest not only to the local residents of Uttoxeter past and present, but also to all those intrigued by what it would have been like to have been a resident in a Midland’s market town such as Uttoxeter during the turbulent English Civil War years.