AS THE 1900s dawned, Appleton Roebuck was a small rural community of a few hundred souls who lived largely by working the land.

In 1877, Kelly’s Post Office Directory reveals, the village had a population of only 477. That would have grown a little by 1900 – but not by that much.

Most of the villagers probably knew little of the world beyond their own small community. Even a trip to York would have been an event.

“In 1900 the village was full of life, and work was often within a five-mile radius of home,” writes local historian Marjorie Harrison, in the Ainsty Villages History Group’s splendid new book, Living History In The Ainsty.

“Most of the men worked on the land, children went to the village schools until they were 13 and women filled their days with washing, baking, cooking and cleaning.

“There were many shops, some legendary; pedlars and travelling salesmen came round and there were occasional trips to York to buy what could not be had in the village.”

Living History In The Ainsty covers the history of four villages – Appleton Roebuck, Bolton Percy, Colton, and Acaster Selby – between 1875 and 2000. Much of it is in the words of villagers themselves, interviewed about what life used to be like – hence that “living history” in the title.

Combined with the many old photographs the history group has managed to bring together, it makes for a wonderfully vivid account of a vanishing world.

The Mortimer family ran the Roebuck Inn for many years during the first half of the 20th century. In 1990, aged 77, Arnold Mortimer recalled his childhood.

“Jack Pickering was the Brewery rep from Samuel Smiths… he would come to Appleton on his bike to collect orders,” he said.

“He would get tipsy with my father (George Mortimer), playing cards and supping too much, and be unable to ride back. Mother would yoke up the buggy to Bess and she would walk back to Tadcaster through Bolton Percy and Pallathorpe on her own with Jack and his bike on board, into the brewery yard.

The draymen would turn her round and she would come back.”

There is a wonderful section in the book about the various tradesmen who earned their living in Appleton. Men such as Ben Richardson and his son Len who, from the start of the 1900s to about 1970, served as village joiners and undertakers.

George Bradley was apprenticed to Len in 1945, aged 14. “The workshop had a soil floor and it was knee deep in shavings,” he recalled.

“When we made coffins, they had to be sanded by hand – it was hard work. When I started work he never let us shut the big doors on the workshop, there was no fire and no heating at all – he used to say you could work to keep warm. We made carts and wagons and did agricultural work like building sheds.”

Nurse Bearpark was a professional nurse long before the NHS was created. She lived in a cottage which is now part of the White House, and is still remembered as an elderly woman by some older villagers today. “She was a midwife and also laid people out,” recalled Freda Harrison.

“Mrs Kirk laid people out as well and my mother laid out Mrs Sweeting next door.”

• Living History In The Ainsty, edited by Marjorie Harrison, is published by the Ainsty Villages History Group, priced £7.50. It is available from the Barbican bookshop in Fossgate, York.