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Abstract
This article explores English national identities in the early twentieth century through the regional case study of Shropshire. Building on existing research on English regions, this article addresses the scarcity of border case studies. I argue that Shropshire was perceived as a border region that, at the same time as being incorporated into the model of the South Country, was also powerfully shaped by its proximity to Wales. Shropshire was valued as an escape from commercial modernity through its countryside landscapes, as a gateway to the past through its buildings, place-names, and folk customs, as a borderland of medieval conflict with Wales, and as a mysterious region of superstitions and the supernatural. This article suggests that the motifs and themes which worked through the images of ‘Shropshire’ and ‘England’ supported an imagination of diversity, multiplicity and contradiction—not solely one of national unity.
Acknowledgements
I would like to thank Professor Clare Griffiths and Professor Adrian Bingham, who provided invaluable suggestions on several earlier drafts of this article, as well as the anonymous reviewers for their helpful comments.
Notes
1. Mary Webb’s (1881–1927) novels depict the regional landscapes and people of Shropshire in great detail. Webb’s most popular novel was Precious Bane (1924), for which she received the Femina Vie Heureuse Prize in 1925. A. E. Housman (1859–1936) published A Shropshire Lad in 1896, a collection of 63 poems set in a part-real, part-imagined Shropshire. The poems gradually gained popularity, and by 1920 Housman was considered a very popular poet.
2. For an introduction to borders as liminal spaces, see Younger, Border Crossings, 2, 3.
3. For ‘Britishness’, see Readman, “Dover and National Identities,” 244.
4. Kumar, English National Identity, 211, 212.
5. Wright, The Village that Died; Brace, “Finding England Everywhere,” 90–109; and Brace, “Looking Back,” 502–16.
6. Taylor, A Dream of England; and Daniels, “Making of Constable Country,” 9–17.
7. Cosgrove, Roscoe, and Rycroft, “Landscape and Identity,” 534–51.
8. Howkins, “Discovery of Rural England,” 85–111.
9. Williams, Keywords, 264–266; For the idea of region as a ‘distinct area’, see Snell, The Regional Novel, 1.
10. Vernon, “Border Crossings”; Russell, Looking North; Kirk, Northern Identities; Colls, Northumbria: History and Identity, 177; and Readman, Storied Ground, 18–20.
11. Readman, Radding, and Bryant, “Introduction,” 9.
12. Kumar, English National Identity, 62, 137, 156, 157.
13. Harvey, Spaces of Capital, 225.
14. Howard, Landscapes: The Artists’ Vision, 129.
15. Howard, Jonathan Cape, Publisher, 101, 164; Cockburn, Bestseller, 175; and Orwell, “Inside the Whale,” 222.
16. Gilbert, “Representations of Imperial London,” 281.
17. Matless, Nature of Landscape, 15.
18. Handbook for Shropshire, 22.
19. Thomas, Bradshaw’s April 1910 Guide, 462; Piggott, Guide to North Wales, 64; London North Western Railway, 273; and Great Western Railway Guide, 351, 352.
20. Muirhead, Baedeker’s Great Britain (1887), 260; Bradshaw’s April 1910 Guide, 467; and Muirhead, Baedeker’s Great Britain (1910), 279.
21. Great Western Railway Guide, 325, 326, 352, 353, 356.
22. Paasi, “Region and Place,” 480, 481; For a fuller treatment of the theoretical framework employed in this introduction, see David Matless’s consideration of ‘regional cultural landscape’, in Matless, Nature of Landscape.
23. Matless, Nature of Landscape, 6, 7, 16, 29; Cosgrove, The Palladian Landscape, 5, 24; and Pearson, Performance, Memory and Landscape, 15, 17.
24. Watts, Geography of the County, 16–38, 50–53, 72–95, 181–195.
25. Davies, Mary Webb Country, 1; Swinnerton, The Georgian Literary Scene, 327, 328; Paterson and Paterson, “Shropshire: Reality and Symbol,” 212, 213; and Webb, Precious Bane, 9.
26. Bayliss, “Housman and the Composer,” 452, 453.
27. Scott-Kilvert, A. E. Housman, 9.
28. Davies, Mary Webb Country, 22, 29, 37, 38; and Coles, The Flower of Light, 332.
29. Housman, A. E. H., 82.
30. Hanley, “The Imaginative Visitor,” 119, 120.
31. Taylor, A Dream of England, 64, 65.
32. Chappell, Shropshire of Mary Webb, facing 40, 170.
33. The Times, 15 March 1933, 14; The Times, 13 April 1933, 9; and The Times, 3 November 1933, 9.
34. Daily Mirror, 3 September 1928, 11.
35. Graves, A. E. Housman, 105; Firchow, “Housman’s Shropshire,” 8; and Parker, Housman Country, 165, 166, 190–191.
36. Chappell, Shropshire of Mary Webb, 6.
37. Hoyer and Heppel, The Welsh Border, 74; and Bourke, Working-Class Cultures in Britain, 12, 13.
38. Joad, “Pains and Pleasures,” 94, 95.
39. Orwell, “Inside the Whale,” 222, 223; and Grierson, Lyrical Poetry, 154.
40. Forster, Howard’s End, 142.
41. The Times, 26 April 1928, 18.
42. Leavis and Thompson, Culture and Environment, 3; Carey, Intellectuals and the Masses, 10, 11; and Miles and Smith, Cinema, Literature and Society, 82.
43. Webb, Precious Bane, 8, 9.
44. Foote, Regional Fictions, 5; and Hart, “Regionalism in English Fiction,” 92.
45. Burchardt, Paradise Lost, 105.
46. Williams-Ellis, England and the Octopus, 128; and The Times, 13 September 1934, 13.
47. Marx, The Modernist Novel, 193.
48. The Times, 13 September 1934, 13.
49. Mandler, English National Character, 1–8.
50. Webb, The Golden Arrow, vii.
51. Darling, Seeing Shropshire, 5, 6.
52. The Times, 5 August 1937, 13.
53. Gardner, Critical Heritage, 102–109.
54. Marshall, Music in the Landscape, 112, 219, 267; and Freeman, “A. E. Housman,” 71, 72.
55. Mandler, “Against ‘Englishness’,” 169; and Scott-Kilvert, A. E. Housman, 26, 27.
56. Swinnerton, “Latter Day Fiction,” 23, 24; “Gone to Earth,” 68; and Daily Mirror, 26 June 1931, 17.
57. Darling, Seeing Shropshire, 7.
58. Carey, Intellectuals and the Masses, 222–5.
59. Shaw, “Cold Comfort Times,” 80.
60. Housman, A Shropshire Lad, 58, 59.
61. Webb, House in Dormer Forest, 214.
62. Webb, House in Dormer Forest, 9; and Webb, Seven for a Secret, 225.
63. Guardian, 11 October 1932, 8.
64. Rieger and Daunton, “Introduction,” 2–15.
65. Wiener, English Culture, xv.
66. Matless, Landscape and Englishness, 14.
67. Matless, “Definitions of England,” 181–5; and Matless, Landscape and Englishness, 16, 17.
68. Walton, “Landscape and Society,” 75, 76; Colbert, Travel Writing and Tourism, 10; Mandler, History and National Life, 57; and Coulbert, “Romance of the Road,” 202–4.
69. The Times, 31 August 1935, 34; and Muirhead, The Blue Guides: England, 271.
70. Piper and Betjeman, Shropshire: A Shell Guide, 38.
71. Mee, The King’s England: Shropshire, 60; Daily Mirror, 19 June 1931, 7; and Daily Mirror, 26 June 1931, 17.
72. Byford-Jones, The Shropshire Haunts, 27–30.
73. The Times, 16 October 1937, 13.
74. Weale, Highlands of Shropshire, 17.
75. Morton, In Search of England, xvii–xviii, 178, 179.
76. Bartholomew, In Search of Morton, 90.
77. Gruffudd, “Remaking Wales,” 232–5.
78. Mee, The King’s England: Shropshire, 2.
79. Webb, The Golden Arrow, 229.
80. Hauser, Shadow Sites, 174–6.
81. Watkins, The Old Straight Track, 23, 120.
82. Weale, Highlands of Shropshire, 13, 14; Watts, Geography of the County, 126; and Cobbold, Church Stretton Illustrated, 38.
83. Morton, In Search of England, 173.
84. Baker, The English Novel, 221–2; and Webb, Seven for a Secret, 85.
85. Hughes, About England, 164; Howarth, Scenic Heritage of England, 118; Cornish, The Scenery of England, 73; and Housman, A Shropshire Lad, 91–4.
86. Morton, In Search of England, 179, 180.
87. Peele, Shropshire in Poem, 5.
88. Bowcock, Shropshire Place Names, 9, 10, 76.
89. Weale, Highlands of Shropshire, 182–4.
90. Housman, A Shropshire Lad, 45, 46; Brett-James, Walking the Welsh Borders, 198; Mais, Highways and Byways, 74, 75; Morton, In Search of England, 173; and Mee, The King’s England: Shropshire, 3.
91. Freeman, “A. E. Housman,” 71, 72.
92. Darling, Seeing Shropshire, 5.
93. Francmanis, “National Music,” 1, 2.
94. The Times, 27 April 1928, 21; and Webb, The Golden Arrow, viii, ix.
95. Moult, Mary Webb, 10.
96. “Gone to Earth,” 68.
97. Byford-Jones, The Shropshire Haunts, 23, 24; and Cavaliero, The Rural Tradition, 143.
98. Bayliss, “Housman and the Composer,” 452, 453.
99. Housman, A Shropshire Lad, 38.
100. Chappell, Shropshire of Mary Webb, 4; and The Times, 13 September 1934, 13.
101. Peele, Shropshire in Poem, 5; H. V. Morton, In Search of Wales, 8; and Collett, Changing Face of England, 237.
102. Byford-Jones, The Shropshire Haunts, 43; Bartie et al., “Shropshire Historical Pageant”; and Bartie et al., “Church Stretton Historical Pageant.”
103. Bellamy, “Regionalism and Nationalism,” 76, 77.
104. Mandler, History and National Life, 47–52; and Samuel, “Continuous National History,” 10, 11.
105. Cornish, The Scenery of England, 74; Howarth, Scenic Heritage of England, 117; Peele, Shropshire in Poem, 8; and Weale, Highlands of Shropshire, 14.
106. Morton, In Search of England, 173, 174; Mee, The King’s England: Shropshire, 3, 165, 166, 190; Peele, Shropshire in Poem, 13–5; Mais, Highways and Byways, 55, 63, 71, 72; Watkins, The Old Straight Track, 21; Howarth, Scenic Heritage of England, 117, 118; Weale, Highlands of Shropshire, 14; and Muirhead, The Blue Guides: England, 270–2.
107. Byford-Jones, The Shropshire Haunts, 78; Farrow, Civil War in Shropshire, 113; Muirhead, The Blue Guides: England, 270–2; and Hughes, About England, 243, 244.
108. Muirhead, The Blue Guides: England, 270–2.
109. Muirhead, The Blue Guides: England, 270–2; and Peele, Shropshire in Poem, 35.
110. For the BBC as a centralising cultural force, see Briggs, History of Broadcasting, and Scannell and Cardiff, Social History of Broadcasting. For the BBC and pluralistic Britishness, see Hajkowski, BBC and National Identity, 2, 3.
111. Robinson, Deeper than Reason, 337.
112. Birmingham Post, 22 December 1919; and Manchester Guardian, 2 April 1921, 10.
113. Mee, The King’s England: Shropshire, 2.
115. Fussell, Abroad, 210; and Coulbert, “Romance of the Road,” 214, 215.
116. Rieger and Daunton, “Introduction,” 5–8.
117. Piper and Betjeman, Shropshire: A Shell Guide, 32, 33.
118. Chappell, Shropshire of Mary Webb, 110, 111; and The Times, 31 August 1935, 33.
119. Morton, In Search of England, 170.
120. Reade, Currents in Modern Literature, 198; and Webb, Armour Wherein He Trusted, 20.
121. Graves, Poetic Unreason, 259; and Housman, A Shropshire Lad, 40–2.
122. Hoyer and Heppel, The Welsh Border, 129; and Peele, Shropshire in Poem, 7.
123. Webb, Seven for a Secret, 224, 225.
124. Farrow, Civil War in Shropshire, 7.
125. Housman, A Shropshire Lad, 40–2.
126. Cornish, The Scenery of England, 73, 74.
127. Paterson and Paterson, “Shropshire: Reality and Symbol,” 213.
128. Webb Seven for a Secret, 17, 209.
129. The Times, 14 June 1932, 18, 19.
130. Piper and Betjeman, Shropshire: A Shell Guide, 36, 37.
131. Webb, The Golden Arrow, 1, 178.
132. Morton, In Search of England, 170; Morton, In Search of Wales, 9; Collett, Changing Face of England, 237; and Watts, Geography of the County, 2.
133. Bayley, Housman’s Poems, 3; Gardner, Critical Heritage, 6; and Forster, Howard’s End, 220, 233.
134. Housman, A Shropshire Lad, 55, 83.
135. Morton, In Search of Wales, 16, 17.
136. For tours through and around Shropshire, see Handbook for Shropshire, 1; Black's Guide to England, 143–150, 175–182; Great Western Railway Guide, 3. For Shrewsbury as the start- or endpoint of a Welsh tour, see Jenkinson, Jenkinson’s Practical Guide, 393.
137. Muirhead, The Blue Guides: Wales, v, viii, 39, 129, 148. For other examples, see Muirhead, The Blue Guides: England, 271; Muirhead, Baedeker’s Great Britain (1910), 220, 283; Muirhead, Baedeker’s Great Britain (1887), 280; Guide to North Wales, 7–9; and Black’s Guide to South-Wales, 260, 387–392, 395, 396.
138. Guide to North Wales, 7–9; Muirhead, The Blue Guides: Wales, inside front cover; Jenkinson, Jenkinson’s Practical Guide, 392–6.
139. Peele, Shropshire in Poem, 7.
140. Webb, Seven for a Secret, 111.
141. Webb, The Golden Arrow, 1, 14, 15, 178, 197, 220.
142. Collett, Changing Face of England, 102, 237.
143. Watts, Geography of the County, 104; and Peele, Shropshire in Poem, 14.
144. Mais, Highways and Byways, 59, 60; and Peele, Shropshire in Poem, 14.
145. Byford-Jones, The Shropshire Haunts, 43.
146. Housman, A Shropshire Lad, 40–2.
147. Graves, A. E. Housman, 259; and Brett-James, Walking the Welsh Borders, 184.
148. Morton, In Search of England, 172.
149. For the historical imagination in Cornwall, see Welshman, “Dreams of Celtic Kings,” 61, 62.
150. Samuel, “Continuous National History,” 10, 11.
151. Pitchford, Identity Tourism, 3.
152. Readman, “Living a British Borderland,” 184, 185.
153. Readman, “Living a British Borderland,” 172.
154. Gramich, “Every Region Its Romance,” 147–163; Colbert, Travel Writing and Tourism, 9; and Gruffudd, Herbert, and Piccini, “In Search of Wales,” 594, 595, 597.
155. Morton, In Search of Wales, 9.
156. Coles, The Flower of Light, 24.
157. Paterson and Paterson, “Shropshire: Reality and Symbol,” 215; and Coles, The Flower of Light, 136.
158. “Legendary Lore of Wells,” 153; The Times, 2 June 1914, 6; and Ridge, Shropshire Highland Folk Tales, 5.
159. Watkins, The Old Straight Track, 171.
160. Webb, House in Dormer Forest, 16, 172.
161. Watts, Geography of the County, 177.
162. Mais, Highways and Byways, 115; and Chappell, Shropshire of Mary Webb, 167–9.
163. Baker, The English Novel, 221, 222; Coles, The Flower of Light, 24; and Webb, The Golden Arrow, viii, ix.
164. Reade, Currents in Modern Literature, 211; Sampson, History of English Literature, 975, 976; and Brett-James, Walking the Welsh Borders, 248, 249.
165. Simpson, Folklore of the Border, 111.
166. Webb, Precious Bane, 56.
167. Simpson, The Folklore of the Border, 125, 126.
168. Byford-Jones, The Shropshire Haunts, 23, 24.
169. Byford-Jones, The Shropshire Haunts, 24.
170. Webb, Armour Wherein He Trusted, 20.
171. Reade, Currents in Modern Literature, 211; Adcock, “Mary Webb’s Last Novel,” 332; and Evans, Shropshire Days, 63, 123.
172. Mais, Highways and Byways, 99.
173. Moult, Mary Webb, 10; Daily Mirror, 11 March 1932, 8; and Daily Mirror, 1 April 1932, 2.
174. Manchester Guardian, 20 September 1932, 11.
175. Mais, Highways and Byways, 101; and Peele, Shropshire in Poem, 41.
176. Peele, Shropshire in Poem, 41.
177. Sanders, “The Golden Arrow,” 1; and Webb, The Golden Arrow, 23, 24.
178. Lawrence, St Mawr, 73–9.
179. Brett-James, Walking the Welsh Borders, 250, 251.
180. Chappell, Shropshire of Mary Webb, 99.
181. MacNeice, Poetry of Yeats, 78.
182. The Times, 2 May 1936, 9.
183. Howkins, “Discovery of Rural England,” 87.
184. Bartholomew, “Morton’s English Utopia,” 34, 35; and Bartholomew, In Search of Morton, 108, 109.