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On The Table Read Magazine, “the best book magazine in the UK“, Nigel Lindsay’s Making Happier Places shares the details of Lincolnshire RCC from its founding in 1927 until it was wound up in 2021.
Making Happier Places
For all those living in rural communities, Making Happier Places by Nigel Lindsay is an edifying and eye-opening read, with a Foreword by the Lord Lieutenant of Lincolnshire, Mr Toby Dennis.
If you’re interested in local government or concerned by the challenges currently facing farmers and others making a living from the land, Making Happier Places offers a unique overview of the role of Lincolnshire’s Rural Community Council.
Having had first-hand experience of the important role an RCC plays in rural life as the chief executive of Lincolnshire’s RCC for ten years, Nigel Lindsay’s unexpectedly compelling book outlines how this one particular RCC supported rural development work for almost 100 years.
Telling the story of rural development work in Lincolnshire from 1927 to 2021, from support of rural craftsmen in the Depression of the 1930s, through development of village halls, affordable housing and community-led planning in the intervening years, Making Happier Places looks at rural stress and the problems of ageing in rural areas. It celebrates the work done to empower village communities, and the people who undertook this work.
With our desire to be more at one with nature, and Covid encouraging more people to consider leaving their urban lifestyle and heading for the country, the need to protect rural ways and empower village communities is more vital than ever. If you’re a fan of country life and have never heard of the works of rural community councils, Making Happier Places is well worth a read.
Nigel Lindsay
Rural areas today get less attention from government than at any time in the last century yet rural communities face more challenges than ever before, in terms of changing demography, lack of affordable housing for local people and high stress levels among farmers and other rural workers. RCCs worked very effectively to address these challenges, but they are themselves now disappearing through lack of support and funding from central and local government. My book is about Lincolnshire but has implications for all rural areas.
-Nigel Lindsay
Nigel Lindsay graduated M.A. and M.Litt. from Aberdeen University in the 1970s before moving to Lincolnshire. He was chief executive of Lincolnshire RCC from 1988 to 1998 and was helped in writing this book by many former colleagues, as well as by trustees of the organisation from before and after he worked there. He moved to Scotland to work with the Scottish Government when devolution was agreed in 1998 and is now retired.
Find more from Nigel Lindsay now:
Making Happier Places (ISBN 978-1-7395491-0-7) can be ordered by any bookshop or purchased from Lindum Books, Bailgate, Lincoln, or the Society for Lincolnshire History and Archaeology, Steep Hill, Lincoln. Priced £10.00 (plus £2.50 P&P) it can also be ordered from Clairefontainebooks@mf.me
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