The Bousfield diaries: a middle-class family in late Victorian Bedford

The diaries of Charlotte Bousfield, extending from 1878 to 1896, paint a vivid picture of the activities of the multi-talented Bousfield family of Bedford, led by its strong-minded matriarch.

The Bousfields 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, important as a factor in Bedford’s growth.  Will, the ablest of their children, became a QC and Conservative MP, whose election campaigns are described in lively detail.

Charlotte was also active both in Bedford 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 describes the work of the home 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 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; and the frequency with which family members would spend time staying with friends and relatives.