From BAHS member Margaret Bird, 20 March 2023:
A 32-page booklet, Georgian Holt at Work and Play, will be published by the Holt Society on 3 April 2023. Written by Margaret Bird, it features social and commercial life in Holt and the surrounding area in the period 1780-1810 when Mary Hardy was writing her daily diary at Letheringsett Hall.

The diarist gives us unrivalled insight into the lives of Holt’s men, women and children. Her manuscript, together with other contemporary sources, vividly portrays the pressures on them. These ranged from debt and bankruptcy to the threat of invasion by the French and the effects of parliamentary enclosure.

Holt served as the focus for much of the economic and social activity in the Glaven Valley villages. Merchants and manufacturers from Cley and Blakeney and farmers from across a wide area would attend the town’s sample market in grain every Saturday. The young Blakeney merchant Henry Smith drowned in Cley Watering while returning from the market in the small hours, as described in the second image accompanying this news item. (The page margins have been cropped for uploading.)

The chapters are entitled: Holt’s claims to prominence, The town at work, The town at prayer, Women to the fore, Children’s schooldays, The town in wartime and The town at play. The 46 illustrations are mostly in full colour.

This highly readable booklet is available in the shops from 3 April at £5.00; post and packing are extra if ordering remotely.

You can read more about the new work on the Holt Society website, together with guidance on ordering:
http://theholtsociety.org/newbook.php
The Burnham Press website contains further details here.