CLAYHIDON was once a wild place of extreme poverty, great inequality and cruel injustice, according to a new book.

Clayhidon – a Devon Parish in the Nineteenth Century, by Pamela Reynolds, is an everyday story of country folk. But these were absolutely not the good old days.

It is full of true stories about farmers and pub landlords, starving labourers and tramps, their struggling wives and illiterate children, magistrates and murderers, clergymen and drunken peasants.

There are gory accidents involving overturned wagons, runaway carts, women and boys catching their clothes in machinery and a woman who starved to death in bed with the only food in the house a tiny piece of hard bread.

It might sound like the Wild West, but some things haven’t changed - they were complaining about the state of Clayhidon’s roads 130 years ago.

Clayhidon seemed a lawless place. It had its own policeman, who was variously shot at, attacked with a hand saw and punched by drunks.

There was an infamous murder - William Blackmore beaten and robbed by George Sparks. The judge wept with grief as he sentenced Sparks to be hanged.

A wandering umbrella repairer was fatally beaten in front of his young daughter at the Merry Harriers pub by two youths, who convinced the court it was self-defence.

But it wasn’t all robbery and violence. Clayhidon’s policeman spent much of his time investigating petty thefts committed by the desperately poor – a pair of scissors, food and fence posts for firewood. The punishments were wildly inconsistent – sometimes lenient, sometimes extremely cruel.

For stealing four fowls Henry Webber was sentenced to 15 years transportation. In the same year, 1847, James Baker got 14 years transportation for a similar offence. Could he have been related to the late Mike Baker, to whom the book is dedicated and whose family roots are not far from Clayhidon?

The former BBC education correspondent persuaded Pamela Reynolds that she should write this book. All profits will go to the Mike Baker Memorial Fund at the Villiers Park Educational Trust in Cambridge.

Copies of Clayhidon – a Devon Parish in the Nineteenth Century, will be on sale at Hemyock Market on Saturdays, December 12 and 19.

They are also available, price £10, direct from Pam Reynolds, on 01823-680481 or e-mail lhgclayhidonex15@waitrose.com