For well over a thousand years Wingrave has occupied its hilltop site, with extensive views of the Vale of Aylesbury and the distant Chilterns. Before the ownership of motor cars became widespread it lay largely isolated by distance from the surrounding market towns of Aylesbury, Leighton Buzzard and Tring, and developed a strong identity of its own, compounded by its association with the Rothschilds and the Roseberys. Yet no part of its story had been published until 1994, when the authors wrote The Great Upheaval, an account of the enclosure of the parish in 1798. This aroused so much interest that they immediately began work on the present volume, dealing mainly with the years 1800 to 1960.

Wingrave tells the story of the subjugation of the agricultural labourer in the 19th century, and his desperate struggle against poverty and disease. It includes an account of how strawplaiting, a cottage industry, helped to supplement family incomes, and described how others resorted to emigration in the quest for a better life. It relates how the tide began to turn after Hannah de Rothschild came to the rescue in the mid-1870s, providing quality cottages at low rents, an infants' school and a reading room. The influence and interaction of church and chapel are described, as is the evolution of the parochial school. The problems of farming are examined both generally and by reference to the experience of local farmers. We look at home life in days gone by, recreation and relaxation, and business life in Wingrave in the last 150 years. Finally, we consider the recent influx of 'strangers' and its effect on the village and the villagers.

Whenever possible the recollections and views of ordinary people are included in their own words, one living as far back as the 1820s. They include substantial recollections from Wingrave's senior citizens, and a generous helping from the hitherto unpublished writings of Wingrave's very own scribe, the late Hilda Roberts, whose Remembrances of Wingrave were found mouldering in attics in Wingrave and Worcester.

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