{"product_id":"2026100010064-secondhand-surrey-hills-friendly-societies-signed","title":"Surrey Hills' Friendly Societies (SIGNED)","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eCondition remarks:\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBook: Good\u003cbr\u003eJacket: No dust jacket\u003cbr\u003ePages: Good\u003cbr\u003eMarkings: Signed\u003cbr\u003eCondition remarks: Condition as shown in image\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eLong before the welfare state, the working men and women of the Surrey Hills banded together in mutual aid organisations known as Friendly Societies — grassroots institutions that formed the backbone of Victorian and Edwardian social resilience. Ken James chronicles the rich and largely forgotten history of these local brotherhoods, detailing how communities across the Surrey Hills pooled their modest resources to provide sickness benefits, death payments, and a vital social safety net for their members and families.\n\nThis meticulously researched local history illuminates the broader narrative of working-class self-help and collective solidarity in rural England, situating the Surrey Hills' societies within the wider national story of the Friendly Society movement. James writes with the quiet authority of a dedicated local historian, drawing on parish records, lodge minutes, and archival documents to reconstruct a world of lodge banners, annual feast days, and fraternal oaths. For anyone passionate about the social history of Surrey or the origins of the British welfare tradition, this work raises a compelling question: what might modern communities rediscover in the forgotten wisdom of those who came before?\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Secondhand Stock","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":49130803167451,"sku":"2026100010064-SECONDHAND","price":25.0,"currency_code":"AUD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0523\/7646\/9701\/files\/e3846e65-929e-4a88-a4db-43349a63e06f.png?v=1786590142","url":"https:\/\/bookgrocer.com\/products\/2026100010064-secondhand-surrey-hills-friendly-societies-signed","provider":"Book Grocer","version":"1.0","type":"link"}