Barsetshire
Barsetshire is a fictional English county created by Anthony Trollope for his Chronicles of Barsetshire (1855–1867). The county town and cathedral city is Barchester, and other towns include Silverbridge, Hogglestock, and Greshamsbury. Trollope based Barsetshire on parts of Somerset and Winchester, with other influences from the West Country, and he described it as “a little bit of England which I have myself created.”
After the Reform Act of 1832, Barsetshire was divided into East Barsetshire (the rural part, including Barchester) and West Barsetshire (the more commercial part). Silverbridge also has its own Member of Parliament in Trollope’s world.
The Barsetshire novels use this imaginary county to explore how English life changes under reform, especially within a longtime, conservative institution like the church and local towns. It’s a way to examine tradition meeting modernity through its people and places.
Barsetshire has inspired many other writers too. Angela Thirkell wrote about 29 Barsetshire stories from 1930 to 1961, blending social comedy with romance. Ronald Knox and other authors referenced Barsetshire in various works, such as Carola Oman’s Somewhere in England and the Pullein-Thompson sisters’ books. It appears in works related to St Trinians, Michael Innes, and Kevin Kwan, and in Dennis Potter’s Vote, Vote, Vote for Nigel Barton. The county even shows up in films, ghost stories, and modern novels like Charlie Lovett’s The Lost Book of the Grail, William Golding’s The Pyramid, and J. L. Carr’s How Steeple Sinderby Wanderers Won the F.A. Cup.
In short, Barsetshire is a richly imagined England that many writers use to tell stories about society, change, and human character.
This page was last edited on 2 February 2026, at 08:07 (CET).