Bousfield Diaries

The diaries of Charlotte Bousfield extending from 1878 to 1896 paint a vivid picture of the activities of a multi-talented Bedford family led by a strong-minded matriarch. They were prominent in local life: Charlotte's husband Edward was an influential figure in developing agricultural machinery at the Britannia Iron Works Bedford's successful exemplar of a modern iron foundry and important as a factor in the town's growth while Will the ablest of the children became a QC and Conservative MP whose election campaigns are described in lively detail. Charlotte meanwhile was also active both in the town and further afield: her concern for the underprivileged in the town a practical expression of her fervent Methodist beliefs emerges clearly in her lifelong work for the temperance cause locally and nationally. She founded a home for 'inebriate women' which was ground-breaking for the time and whose work she describes in fascinating detail. She was also a Poor Law Guardian and a leading figure in the Bedford Workhouse scandal of the 1890s. Throughout the diaries bring out some aspects of Victorian social life which are not always obvious: the dependence of the family on their servants; the ease of travelling using railways and horse-drawn transport; the frequency with which family members would spend time staying with friends and relatives. Edited here with notes and introduction they bring the past vividly to life.