Rural Modernity in an Interwar English County Magazine: Cheshire Life, 1934–39

Abstract

There are some eighty-five county magazines across England, read by millions. This case study of 1930s Cheshire Life explains their appeal and demonstrates their value for twentieth-century social and cultural history. The birth of this middle-brow non-metropolitan publishing genre is outlined, using back copies, archival sources and interviews. Content analysis finds these magazines are the voice of ‘the county set’, a neglected subculture. Themes include county identities, attitudes to the countryside, the rise of the middle classes and decline of the gentry, sense of place and modernity. Cheshire Life’s 1930s countryside is modern and void of nostalgia.