Patterns In Local History: Five case studies
Trevor James
Punished 2026 Lichfield Press
ISBN 978-1-7396 237-5-3
108 pages, soft back
14 × 21.5cm
Reviewed for Volume 4 Issue 2 Spring 2026
The Review
Trevor James’ latest book is, like his earlier volumes, a distillation of his knowledge and wisdom acquired over 60 years of interest in local history; begun when a schoolboy it was further inspired by Professor W.E. Hoskins while Trevor was a student at Leicester University. Studying local and regional landscapes, he argues that local history is ‘an activity that can be shared by everyone.’ The development of his ideas illustrates this clearly and gives us insights into the lives of ordinary people.
His five case studies for patterns to be discerned involve local, regional and national examinations of different themes using a variety of sources for evidence. There is an Irish village with a strong religious tradition, followed by the deadboards found in churchyards in many south-east counties of England, and then what can be gleaned from shrines and church dedications in the wide midland region of the Trent valley. The last two chapters widen out nationally to show what we can learn historically from inn names and the economic significance of the variety of town fairs.
In analysing the southern Irish village of Ardmore he illustrates that attention to visual evidence can partly make up for lack of written records and shows how the comparatively little-known early fifth century St Declan exercised considerable influence in the area. The author points to the continuing local celebration of Declan on his feast day and goes on to urge us all to look for signs of ancient religious traditions and activities in our own communities, a theme he will maintain for the rest of the book.
Trevor James first spotted deadboards – or graveboards – as a schoolboy in Croydon where they were found in his local parish church. He examines the reasons for using them (rather than the conventional tombstone), location, materials, and attempts at conservation of these revealing memorials. While individual examples are fascinating it is the overall analysis which is of particular value with a careful examination of the specifications of the boards revealing the type of wood used.
In his chapter concerning the saintly landscape of the Trent valley, he looks at the shrines of St Chad, St Editha and others and then how church dedications to a particular saint can gives clues as to possible medieval pilgrim routes; how Saxon tribes on the move brought their preferred saints’ dedications with them and how some dedications are linked to economic activity.
When examining inn names all over the country the author says this was difficult to research because of changes of name, function and status of inns over the last few hundred years with ‘linguistic distortions’ and ‘widely adopted nicknames’. But he is able to show that his approach of looking at the origins of inn names rather than their design can yield historically significant results.
In the final chapter with its nationwide analysis of fairs, both commodity (cheese, walnuts, cherries and many others) and livestock (including pigs and geese) he has shown how we can learn more about their economic significance to a particular area until 19th Century transport improvements rendered many redundant.
Trevor James has not merely given us an interesting and wide-ranging description of local history phenomena but has shown us how in many cases that by adopting his overall approach we can all find meaning and significance in the evidence of local history dotted all around us.
Review by
David Paterson
