n By Keith Hatch


Rural living and the working class


Writer and producer Rebecca Smith works for the BBC producing content and researching. But it was her experience of growing up in rural Cumbria that inspired her to write her first book, which explores the lives of working people in today’s countryside.


Rural: The Lives of the Working Class Countryside reads like a memoir as Rebecca travels the countryside, often with her young family in tow, revisiting the places she grew up, meeting and telling the stories of rural workers and the precarious nature of work and housing in communities that have often become a playground for urban second home owners.


Talking to Landworker Rebecca explained why she felt inspired to write Rural now. “There was a real surge in working-class stories but many were urban. I didn’t really recognise that at all, so I wanted to tell my story, my families and people like us.


“There was also real interest in nature writing, which I love reading, but I also thought, where are the people who live and work in nature? I wanted to give people who work on the land, and have done for generations, a voice too. We also lived in a series of tied houses and I had never read anything about that. As soon as I realised quite how many rural industries had them, the book grew and grew!”


The book is really a series of interconnected stories telling the lives of working people in many of the different sectors that make up the rural economy. Rebecca explores the lives of land workers, foresters, miners, quarrymen as well as those that built the reservoirs and waterways that brought water to the cities, and those that work today in tourism that provide services to visitors from the same cities.


Some of these stories Rebecca describes seem to hark back to another age, and many people seem to have a rose-tinted view of rural life. Rebecca feels that this can sometimes be the case, but it’s not necessarily a view held by the people who own or who live in the countryside.


Rebecca explained, “If you don't understand the rhythms of rural life, you don't know how hard it can be. The weather has a huge effect, whether you work outside or not. Just getting to work, or to school, is dependent on the weather (floods, snow, wind) let alone if you work outside with animals or in forestry. And in the past, life was incredibly tough.


“Housing was often very damp and cold (still often is) and the work such as mining or farming or reservoir building was physically demanding and dangerous. It also took a huge amount of knowledge of the land and the geology of the area to work in these jobs. The men that worked underground in coal or slate mining or built the reservoirs needed to understand how rocks were formed so they knew how to dig and how to extract what they needed.”


Housing is at the core of “Rural”. Growing up in tied housing and experiencing the problems rural workers have finding a secure place to live has given the book a real insight into current housing problems.


Rebecca feels that second homes, and more recently the increased growth in Airbnbs is having a huge impact on communities like those that she grew up in. “We have always had tourism, holiday cottages, (which effectively changed to Air B&Bs in the late 2000s) and second homes in sought-after rural areas, but in many areas the balance has been tipped and there are too many second homes and Airbnbs now.


“Yes, they will bring some money into the local area but if the house is only lived in a few weeks a year or only any holiday makers, the school roll will dwindle, they’ll be no-one left to plan the county show, or the pantomime etc.” This has a massive impact, not just on the workers themselves, but also businesses in the country that are finding it increasingly difficult to find staff.


“It’s getting more and more difficult for businesses to find accommodation for workers. So there is not enough staff to work, whether it’s in the hotels or the


31 uniteLANDWORKERWinter 2023/24


garage, or if they are lucky to have one, a post office.”


She also came across ‘friendly societies’ which many forestry and estate workers joined, saying,“They were set up to help workers if they found themselves in debt due to illness, or old age and provided support for families.”


Rebecca said that she wanted her book to tell stories and highlight the issues – but said, “I was keen to try and not give answers to some of the issues I’ve written about in the book.


“I’m not a politician or an academic, I wanted to tell stories of people who I thought had largely been forgotten about in the past and now. I think when people listen to stories, it can have more of an impact than telling anyone what ‘should’ be done.”


And anyone who reads Rural will feel the impact of those stories, gaining an understanding of the struggles, but also the joy, of living and working in the countryside and why it is vital to keep these communities thriving.


Find out more Rural by Rebecca Smith is


available from booksellers now – RRP is £18.99


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