New ORS Publication

An Historical Atlas for Oxfordshire

Volume 68 of the Oxfordshire Record Society series is devoted to the foremost associational form of the late-eighteenth and nineteenth centuries for the working man. Almost every village and town had their own friendly society with their unique characteristics and an abundance of interesting stories. This book explodes the myth that the rural counties of southern England were a backwater in the development of friendly societies and presents a full calendar of 755 societies of pre-1974 Oxfordshire. The valuable appendices include a summary of 188 cases involving friendly societies and the courts, and a record of 266 brass and other bands that played at club days.