I think if you want to get a handle on the realities of English rural life, it's worth reading Akenfield: Portrait of an English Village by Ronald Blythe - written in 1974 but with memories going back to the First World War. Life was tough for rural communities and agricultural workers in Suffolk and Norfolk, for example, were treated virtually as slaves.

I have family letters, written from Norfolk to Canada - starting in 1837 and continuing to 1890 - which paint a very interesting picture of the precariousness of rural life indeed. Why 1837? Because around 40,000 people left East Anglia around then - paid for - to find a better life in Canada and Australia.

The re-imagined village is a nice idea - but "in retirement" you might be near starvation in those days! To retire meant to stop work - and to stop work might mean being out of your tied cottage - and into the workhouse... :-)