ABSTRACT
Since Newby’s classic studies of rural Suffolk burst onto the academic scene in the later 1970s a certain interpretation of the role of the middle class in the countryside has become relatively commonplace. I shall begin with Newby’s account before turning to the various limitations that it possesses as an analysis of contemporary rural relations in Britain. Two particular claims will be advanced. First, there are important divisions within the “middle class” and it should not be presumed that such a class has a unitary or unambiguous relationship with the countryside. Second, it is necessary to analyze not just work and residence patterns but also the consequences of changing leisure and travel practices for rural social relations in Britain, particularly with the way the countryside is implicated in the production not just of food but also of leisure sites and of deeply held and contested meanings.
