Country Dwellers

As a group, the Country Dwellers represent the traditional rural society of Suffolk. They tend to live in smaller villages and in the old heart of the larger villages, away from the newer estates that have been built onto the villages in Suffolk. The houses of Country Dwellers tend to have names rather than numbers, and this is a key point to identifying members of the group.

 

Within the areas of Country Dwellers, Agriculture and Tourism are significant sources of employment. Small-scale provision is seen as important in an attempt to counterbalance the depersonalising effects of mass consumption. As we would intuitively expect from a more self-contained grouping, the Country Dwellers exhibit a wide spread of age, incomes and residential tenures.

 

As a community, they are highly reliant upon each other as they suffer from poor service delivery from both the private sector and the public sector. For them, the ownership of a car is vital if they are to participate fully in society.

 

Four sub-groups within the Tribe are present in Suffolk - Rural Disadvantage, Gentrified Villages, Small Farms, and Rural Retirement. What is striking about these groupings is their diversity. Those living in Gentrified Villages tend to enjoy higher than normal levels of income and live in high value housing, whilst, for example, those living in the Rural Disadvantage sub-group tend to suffer from lower than normal levels of income and live in low value housing. As a group, the Country Dwellers show a wide variety of income levels.

 

One common feature of the Tribe is their preference for Country Sports and Outdoor Pursuits. The exact nature of the enjoyment of these is determined by the ability of the members of the Tribe to afford the various aspects of these preferences (for example, those in Gentrified Villages have a marked preference for Sailing).

 

However, what brings the Tribe together can also pull it apart. The sheer diversity of the Tribe means that income and class based differences will provide sources of friction within the Tribe. For example, the Rural Disadvantaged and the Rural Retirement sub-groups demonstrate a pronounced antipathy towards the sailing fraternity in the Gentrified Villages sub-group.

 

In many ways, the Country Dwellers represent the rural aspect of the whole of society in a microcosm. The Tribe has been in retreat for the past twenty years, and we can reasonably expect it to retreat even further in the period to 2020. The key issue facing the group will be how it can remain viable given the increasing threats to its way of life.

 

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LOCATION

 

In Suffolk, the Country Dwellers are the primary Tribe in the following Post Code Sectors:

CB0808, CB0809, CB0907, CO0605, CO0706, CO1009, IP0609, IP0706, IP0707, IP0901, IP1000, IP1202, IP1203, IP1300, IP1306, IP1307, IP1308, IP1309, IP1403, IP1404, IP1405, IP1406, IP1701, IP1702, IP1703, IP1900, IP1909, IP2000, IP2104, IP2105, IP2201, IP2202, IP2307, IP2308, IP2806, IP2904, IP3000,  IP3009,  IP3101,  IP3102, IP3103, NR3205, NR3400, NR3407, NR3408.

In Suffolk, the Country Dwellers are the secondary Tribe in the following Post Code Sectors:

CO1008, IP0608, IP0902, IP1604, IP2709, IP2808, IP2905.

 

Click Here to link to a map that shows the locations of the Tribe in Suffolk. The area shaded in Purple is where the Country Dwellers are the primary Tribe, and the area shaded in Orange is where the Country Dwellers are the secondary Tribe.