Fred Archer's first publisher was Hodder and Stoughton. Though these early editions are no longer in print, many are still available in libraries throughout the UK.

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The Distant Scene
"These are events, experiences I shared with the village folk; tales told me by people working on the land... I shall never forget their optimism, their serenity." Fred Archer's first book is of life in Ashton-under-Hill, Gloucestershire between 1876 and 1939.
This edition: 1967
ISBN: 0 340 02537 9

Under The Parish Lantern
"This was a land of cider, fat bacon and bread pudding... There is the smell of new mown hay, the lambs gambol in apple-blossomed orchards - and no street lamps, so we are still under the parish lantern."
This edition: 1969
ISBN: 0 340 10801 0

Hawthorn Hedge Country
... tells of country life between 1768 and 1813. Though the characters are fictitious, any countryman over 60 will recognise them - squires, parsons, tenant farmers and labourers who knew the reality of semi-starvation.
This edition: 1970
ISBN: 0 340 12592 6

The Secrets of Bredon Hill
"The texture of English country life under a microscope is one way to describe [this] chronicle of the year 1900, month by month, in the village of Ashton... It acts on the computerised, pollution-scarred spirit of the 70s like a balm." R.F.Delderfield.
This edition: 1971
ISBN: 0 340 15745 3

A Lad Of Evesham Vale
... is Sacco, the stonemason. Others might let the grass grow under their feet. But Sacco, with his motor bicycle, lived and loved in the village and beyond.
This edition: 1972
ISBN: 0 340 16573 1

Muddy Boots and Sunday Suits
... is about Ashton-under-Hill as Fred knew it between 1915 and 1939. Here are his lively impressions of his family, home and school; and of the shepherds and ploughmen whose recollections were planted so firmly in his memory.
This edition: 1973
ISBN: 0 340 17746 2

Golden Sheaves, Black Horses
"... harks back to a time when the village parson kept a cow and horse in his orchard, and the smell of the good earth had not been polluted by diesel fumes," wrote Fred Archer. "Come wind come weather, life went on."
This edition: 1974
ISBN: 0 340 19186 4

When Village Bells Were Silent
The war comes to Ashton, bringing POWs, Fred's wife Joyce - a Land Girl, and refugees from bombed out Coventry and Birmingham. "We beant worth a bom yer... they be hellishly expensive to make."
This edition: 1975
ISBN: 0 340 20278 5

Poachers Pie
... has not only poachers and princes, but the Salvation Army band and townspeople running amok when done out of the Coronation festivities for Edward VII.
This edition: 1976
ISBN: 0 340 21273 X

By Hook and By Crook
In the long reign of Queen Victoria, Fred Archer's grandfather still took his pearmains and pippins to Evesham market by donkey cart and the horse-driven threshing machine caused a riot.
This edition: 1978
ISBN: 0 340 23426 1

When Adam Was A Boy
In 1911 as young Adam trades school for a plough, Fred Archer conjures a range of characters - from a cowman who shouts "Charge" behind a retired Boer War horse, to the old shepherd with his blood and nicotine stained whiskers, among the young tups.
This edition: 1979
ISBN: 0 340 24825 4