THIS year’s William Cobbett Annual Memorial Lecture is being held in the Tindle Room at the Maltings at 8pm on Friday, October 9. It is entitled ‘The Politics of Englishness’ and is partly about the relevance of Rural Rides today.

Cobbett was angry about the plight of the rural poor and how they were treated by grasping landlords and the Thing – his name for the Establishment.

Part of the reason why Rural Rides has remained in print for 200 years is that it is not just backward looking and nostalgic for a mythical past but also calls for a fairer and more equitable society.

The fight for electoral reform and for political rights for the marginalised were a feature of Cobbett’s life and the 1832 Reform was little more than the first step.

The reason why Rural Rides has a continuing ‘afterlife‘ will be discussed in the lecture by Dr Claire Griffiths of Sheffield University.

Claire is a social historian who has an interest in agricultural and cultural history. She has written a very well-received book entitled ‘Labour and the Countryside: The Politics of Rural Britain’. She will no doubt have views on what Cobbett would have to say on Jeremy Corbyn.

Tickets for the lecture are available from the Maltings box office. Tickets are £8 (£5 for students). The lecture is at 8pm and the bar will be open from 7pm.