Strumpshaw is a small Norfolk village; the home to 500 residents and the envy of property developers. Its 1350 acres is the buffer zone for the well-developed neighbourhoods of Brundall and Lingwood. Two pubs flourish, engine enthusiasts flock to its annual steam rally and bird-watchers descend on the RSPB reserve of Strumpshaw Fen.

At the Domesday survey King William laid claim to his share of Strumpshaw. For centuries the village survived on agriculture when each ten acres of farmland provided employment for one village labourer. These days there are no resident farmers yet the fields are fully cropped.

There was a time when the community sustained a dressmaker, undertaker, brick-maker, fish-curer; the blacksmith would shoe three horses before breakfast and Strumpshaw clay was fired into fine earthenware at Bristol and London.

From the threat of Napoleonic invasion to the risk of nuclear attack during the Cold War, Strumpshaw’s geographical contours played a small but integral part in Britain’s defence communications. But two world wars devastated the lives of some families.

This book was influenced by the experiences of Strumpshaw folk who recounted their lives; telling of the heartbreaks and hard-work; of how things were done ‘at that time of day.’

Stephen Peart made his quest to record the history of Strumpshaw, following the trail of Pearts who came to lay the railway through the village in 1880 and shoe horses at the blacksmith’s forge, one hundred years ago.

For The Book of Strumpshaw the author brought a forty year experience working in regional television and applied it to giving celebrity status to the village and its people. Previously he wrote “Strumpshaw: the lights under its bushels” for the East Anglian Magazine in 1982 and two books on ‘his other hobby’, the history of East Anglia’s cinemas.

Imprint: Halsgrove. ISBN 978 0 85704 061 9, hardback, 297x210mm, 160 pages. Published October 2010.