ABSTRACT

Despite its wide use in the past, the rural idyll as a concept, or set of concepts, has never been adequately unpacked. The term has been used to describe the positive images surrounding many aspects of the rural lifestyle, community and landscape, reinforcing at its simplest, healthy, peaceful secure and prosperous representations of rurality. Many writers have referred to qualities or attributes felt to be important to the rural idyll (Williams 1973; Short 1991; Laing 1992; Mingay 1989) but few have looked at any depth at how these may vary between groups and individuals.