Agricultural History Review, Volume 68 Part 1 (2020), pp. 22–36

This paper contributes to our understanding of dearth in early modern England and adds new weight to the developing recognition that famine is first and foremost the consequence of adverse climatic conditions and only secondly the outcome of market failures or unemployment. Evidence of weather in western England in the dearth years of the 1580s and 1590s is drawn from a chronicle source from Shrewsbury, which has until now remained unexploited to this end. These years are shown to have been ones of unusual rainfall. The Chronicle also sheds light on the response of farmers to weather. It outlines the relief effort mounted by the borough authorities in Shrewsbury in these years: its account is supplemented by material from the borough archive. It shows that the town attempted to manage conditions in the difficult circumstances produced by extreme weather. Finally evidence is provided of the use of vegetables as a famine food in Shrewsbury. 

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