This is a rich and interesting work of local history successfully placed in the context of rural society and culture, in particular, the role of the middling sort inside that historical formation. The Dixon family of Holton-Le-Moor in North Lincolnshire were farmers who, over the course of four generations, built up a successful agrarian enterprise and substantial landholdings. Over the same period, they increasingly became involved with local society, philanthropy, the poor laws, religion, the bench and politics. A large collection of family papers detailing the private and business lives of successive generations of the family, built up and kept in their family home the Hall in Holton, was, since the 1970s, transferred to the Lincolnshire archives. This is an unusually large and complete set of records dealing with business, farming, household and local affairs, including the late eighteenth-century justice books of Thomas Dixon. Richard Olney is a former county archivist and assistant keeper with the Royal Commission on Historic Manuscripts and the author of previous works on rural politics and society mainly focused on Lincolnshire. North Lincolnshire in the English East Midlands is still best known (but generally not known well at all) for agriculture.

The story of this regional dynasty begins with William Dixon who bought ninety acres and with it the Lordship of Holton Manor in 1741. By the time of his death forty years later, the family's landholdings extended over 1,750 acres. Tellingly, perhaps, he still self-identified in later life as a grazier rather than as a gentleman. Trappings of gentility and social prestige would only slowly be picked up by succeeding generations. His grandson, William Dixon, was a non-urban organic intellectual of the propertied classes. The younger William participated in the Anglican revival of the late eighteenth century, became an activist follower of the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, and Founded a day school and Sunday school (shades of Max Weber, perhaps). His journals spanning the years 1805 until his death in 1824 and covering topics ranging from his daily devotions to readings in law (Blackstone) and political economy (Locke, Adam Smith, and David Ricardo) may be worthy of closer study.

Olney attempts to link his research to questions about middling or middle-class culture and identity in a rural society, an important but often neglected topic. Despite the fact that more than half of the population of England and Wales still lived in places with fewer than 2,500 inhabitants until the 1850s, class has been relatively little studied away from the larger towns and cities. Class is refreshingly discussed without all the theoretical paranoia now besetting most academic writers since the linguistic turn. Consequently, the book is much more readable than is the standard fare. However, more attention to the work of discourse in shaping identity and towards languages of social description—the persistence of terms such as yeoman for instance—would be useful.

In the main part this is good old-fashioned agricultural history interleaved with empirical social and economic history, making for what appears at first glance a distinctly unfashionable book, but it is nevertheless a significant work in British history to which many students and teachers could usefully turn for some important lessons and illustrations of themes and locales often bypassed in teaching and research. It may also be the case that further study will issue from the records so expertly dissected and laid open in these pages. Both the region and the subject matter have been unduly neglected in recent years. The chronology and main lines of development follow largely the conventional pattern of agricultural innovations, revolutions, and high farming, followed by decline. Its distinctiveness lies in the detail and in the light directed towards rural middle-class communities.

Three women steered the estate through the agricultural depression of the late nineteenth century until the direct descendants of William Dixon lost ownership. A shortish chapter, “The Ladies of Holton, 1871–1906,” hints at complex and interesting submerged lives, perhaps, too, of boredom and dissatisfaction. There may be more to be said about family relationships, gender, education, and travel than what is only hinted at here. The archive may well contain riches for subsequent historians pursuing newer foci of historical research, including consumption as a marker of taste and status. For example, there could be further exploration of anecdotes such as a pre-honeymoon trip to London by Thomas and Mary Dixon that incorporated spending £771 on furniture and fittings for Holton Hall, including a piano and Spode and Copeland china.

Produced as part of the regular publications of the Lincoln Record Society this volume is also nicely packaged; furnished with helpful maps, tables, and illustrations; and fairly priced as a standalone monograph that can be warmly recommended as an acquisition and a read.