Mansfield: A View from the Market Place: The Diaries of William Moss

Description

William Moss, a cooper, was born in 1813 and died in 1888 so lived through changing times in Mansfield. His diaries, written in old notebooks found by chance among stalls on Sneinton Market, cover the years 1838 to 1842 and 1874 to 1879.  As well as recording significant events in the town’s story, William Moss was also the chronicler of more mundane and everyday happenings.  He was obsessed with the vagaries of the weather and there is also rarely a page without the mention of a death or funeral.  Political agitation too provoked debate and action – “all human life is here”.  To read the diaries is to see 19th century Mansfield through the eyes of a respectable business man, who knew the town and its people.  196pp, illus.