When a new baby arrives in the Timmins family, Laura, the eldest, is forced to leave the family home and embark on a new life.

Having spent her early years in the small hamlet of Lark Rise, in late 19th Century Oxfordshire, Laura finds herself working in the Post Office, the hub of the bustling market town of Candleford, under the watchful eye of the woman who is to become her mentor, the effervescent (more…)

The Pratt sisters run the women’s clothing store in Candleford. Neither is married and they spend most of their time running a critical eye over other people’s affairs.

Pearl is the elder sister and takes the lead in ensuring that the highest standards are maintained in their shop and in the town as a whole – while her younger sister Ruby is always quick to back her up.

The sisters immediately turn their noses up at Laura when she arrives from Lark Rise as she lacks refinement in their eyes – unlike the graceful Lady Adelaide, whose (more…)

Zillah

Zillah is Dorcas’s servant.

Zillah has known Dorcas since she was a child, and worked for her father, and her grandfather before her. Nobody could love Dorcas more than Zillah, and she also considers Matthew and Thomas as part of the family, not that this stops her grumbling about all three of them and the work they create for her. Zillah is naturally suspicious, she doesn’t warm to strangers, and anyone new has a tough time earning her trust. But once she accepts you, you’re a friend for life. Zillah is also a terrible gossip.

Thomas Brown

Thomas is Dorcas’s head postman.

Thomas is a devout Christian, a teetotaller and non-smoker. He has worked for Dorcas since he was a young man and is devoted to her, if occasionally frustrated by her decadence and lack of piety. Thomas has a reputation for lecturing and sermonising – people have been known to run in the opposite direction when they see him coming in case he starts asking impertinent questions about their souls. He is convinced that eventually he will succeed in converting all his friends, even Dorcas. And until that day he will not rest. Thomas can take his obsessions to extremes, but he’s no hypocrite, he practices what he preaches, has a true heart and an unswerving loyalty to Dorcas.

Matthew Welby

Matthew runs the forge for Dorcas.

Matthew is a silent but powerful presence at the forge. Like Thomas and Zillah, there’s nothing he wouldn’t do for Dorcas but he’s perhaps a little more aloof from the goings on in the Post Office than the other two. Matthew has an amazing gift for working with the horses that are brought to the forge – even the most nervous animals quieten immediately when approached by Matthew. He says it’s just a matter of speaking to them in their own language. Matthew says little, but when he speaks others know to listen.

Lady Adelaide Midwinter

Lady Adelaide is married to Sir Timothy Midwinter.

Lady Adelaide’s family made their money in trade, so marrying Sir Timothy was a step up for her into society. But life in Candleford hasn’t proved to be entirely what she’d anticipated. It’s a world away from the balls and parties where she first met Tim. So, until they start a family, she has few distractions. For the residents of Candleford and Lark Rise, Adelaide’s a less approachable, more remote figure than Sir Tim. But they respect her and warm to her as his wife. She brings a touch of glamour to the town, she’s graceful, beautiful and stylish, and to outsiders her life is to be envied.

Philip White

Philip is Sir Timothy’s assistant gamekeeper.

Philip’s father is head gamekeeper on an estate near Oxford. He worked for his father before taking up the position of assistant gamekeeper with Sir Tim on the understanding that when Tim’s head gamekeeper retires, Philip will take his place. He’s still close to his mother, father and sister and is proud of the fact that his father’s estate is owned by a nobleman with an historic title – he makes it very clear that it is larger and better preserved than Sir Tim’s. Philip is a couple of years older than Laura.

Lark Rise:

Edmund Timmins

Edmund is Laura’s brother, he is still at school.

Edmund is younger than Laura by three years, but the two are very close. He’s a gentle, thoughtful boy, but no wimp – popular at school, and well able to fight his own corner. He often clashes with his mother, particularly over his future, perhaps because they are equally stubborn. She wants to see him apprenticed to a trade, but Edmund dreams of joining the army and seeing the world.

Queenie Turrill

Queenie lives with her husband Twister next door to the End House.

Queenie is one of Lark Rise’s older residents and in many ways is the matriarch of the village. As well as looking after her bees, she gives support and advice to the mothers and children of Lark Rise. Queenie’s age means she is more in touch with the old country ways of doing things. She cares about the values and the superstitions of the old days and would like to see them passed on to the next generation.

Twister Turrill

Twister is Queenie’s layabout husband.

Twister is Queenie’s husband, and he is not the brains of the marriage. He can usually be found in the Wagon and Horses pub telling jokes and stories with the men of the village though, more often than not, he finds that the jokes are on him, as he is sometimes forgetful and a little slow-witted. Despite this he is well-liked figure in the community and the other residents know that his heart is in the right place.

Paxton

Mr Paxton runs the Wagon and Horses.

Mr Paxton runs the pub in Lark Rise and enjoys the position this gives him at the centre of the community. He is never short of an opinion on any subject being discussed by the men in the pub. His favourite topic of conversation is criticising the Candleford folk, who he thinks are always looking down on Lark Rise.

He left school early to help provide for the family. Unlike his mother he is extremely honest and hard working. He is only a boy himself but is responsible for earning the majority of the family’s money by working in the fields. It pains him to see his mother fritter his (more…)

Caroline is one of the Timmins’ neighbours. She is married to Walter who is away at sea. They have four children, and another on the way. Caroline is easily the biggest and most controversial character in Lark Rise.

Her husband, Walter, has gone away to sea, leaving her to care for her ever-growing brood. But Caroline doesn’t let this get her down. She may not have much money but what little she gets she spends in style – treating herself to barrels of beer and steak (more…)

Robert grew up in Oxford where his parents kept an inn. But Robert chose to be apprenticed to a stonemason. He arrived in Lark Rise with a firm of builders who were restoring the local churches and, by the time the restoration was finished, he was married (more…)

Sir Timothy and Dorcas were childhood friends and have remained close ever since.

He is well loved by all who encounter him because, although firm, he is fair in his dealings with his tenants, and those brought before him in his role as justice of the peace. (more…)

Dorcas runs Candleford’s Post Office and owns the town’s forge. Her father was a journeyman, the son of a master-smith. His travels came to an end when he stopped off to work at the Candleford forge and met the blacksmith’s daughter. He settled down, married and Dorcas Lane was born soon afterwards.

While Dorcas was still a young woman, her father was taken ill and during this time she ran the Post Office and forge. After her father died she took on the (more…)

Laura works for Dorcas Lane at the Post Office in Candleford. She is 16 years old, the eldest child of Robert and Emma Timmins and has four siblings: Edmund, Ethel, Frank and baby Annie. Laura is her father’s favourite and has inherited his yearning to learn more, see more, his impulsiveness and his outspokenness.

“Laura grew up in Lark Rise, but her mother always knew she didn’t really belong there, she can read and loves books and her mother sees there’s something more she can do with her life. So she arranges a position for Laura with her cousin Dorcas at the (more…)

“In her wonderful evocation of Victorian life, Flora Thompson writes that the people she grew up with “had never lost the secret of being happy on little”. In our age of frenetic appetite, that seemed to me to be something worth dramatising.

“What struck me first about the books was how they are teeming with wonderful characters and anecdotes. I knew immediately that this was crying out not to be the familiar four-part dramatisation of a classic novel, but to be a distinctive (more…)