Camino Portuguese: English village life--dead or alive?

I felt the desire to blog about English village life that I experienced over the two weeks I've been in Colchester. Not far from this bustling city is a life that Bill Bryson writes about and I witnessed first hand. This is also in the context of a Camino walk through small villages in Spain and Portugal, where a different culture and language exist, but where core values are similar and in which their future lies.

Each village has a sense of identity based on the nature of its inhabitants, be they fishermen, shop keepers, farmers, ranchers or retires. It seems the demographic is aging, and with that a loss of energy and vitality that a younger population exudes I didn't spot many young people, unless they were working in a pub or restaurant or coming home from school dressed in their uniforms The countryside is dotted with failed businesses and farmhouses that were past their prime. Many of the outlying pubs were closed down due to economic difficulties and an inability to reinvent themselves. Many have successfully expanded into a pub with a nice restaurant and/or B&B, for example One headline in the Colchester newspaper alluded to,it's stagnating town center as more and more people cut back on consumer spending or shop online.

I learned that many of the rail lines have closed down when austerity measures were put in place.. The rail lines historically linked town centers and gave villagers a means to connect with the greater English community. Their sense of isolation is keenly felt and must factor into holding onto their traditions and values with stubborn resistance.

Many of the seaside towns depended on tourism in the summer months to thrive. More and more British are taking their holidays abroad and Spain, particularly in the summer, due to more reliable weather and cheap air fares. I saw partially completed developments turned into low cost housing projects.

Clackton-on-Sea