The Grass Roots of English History: Local Societies in England before the Industrial Revolution

[First paragraph] Professor David Hey died in February 2016, and this book is thus sadly published posthumously by Bloomsbury. It is a strange sensation to handle a book that its own author cannot feel, see and be gratified by, yet it does him great credit that he was able to finish this work. It bears witness to his dedication, expertise and wide knowledge. The book is extremely well written, strongly engaging, by an author whose work in regional history, on the Sheffield region (‘Hallamshire’) and Yorkshire, on surnames, roads and carriers, on Richard’s Gough’s Myddle, on family history and so many other topics is well known and highly respected. David Hey’s personality and intellectual persona shine through everywhere, just as they did in his gregarious and companionable life. I expected to be much interested and informed by this book on the ‘grass roots’ and basis of English society in the early modern period, and I was.