British countryside customs and slang

[buyjupiter]

I'm writing about a village that could be anywhere in England. After completing two thirds of the story, I've found that there is something missing from one of my characters. His dialogue bits aren't sounding, well, right.

I've looked into some West Country dialects, but they get far too dense, when all the other characters speak in standard English.

I think what I need is some kind of blend of countryside dialects, slang, and customs to fully flesh out his character. He's pretty much the only main character that's lived in the village his whole life, the others have popped off to London and other cities and only come back to the village as adults.

I think I've found the most helpful resources through the other threads on English dialects, but if anything new has come up since then, I'd be happy for the help.

Any help in the following areas would be appreciated (book recommendations doubly so):
--Standard village life (i.e. how big of a village would it have to be before it gets a pub, church, school? I've made it so there's a larger community outside of the village, and the village is the biggest thing in the area, so that's why they have all of that, but inside the village there's only about fifty families.)
--village customs (whether it's traditional in Norfolk, Suffolk, Yorkshire, Berkshire, or the Orkneys, if there's an odd custom you know of or a book of weird customs, please let me know!)

I'm trying to keep the non-fantastical bits as realistic as possible to contrast with the magic/fantasy elements.

I'm sorry if that's rather vague, but I have the feeling I'll know what I'm looking for when I find it. Thanks in advance to whomever can help!

 

[Scales]

British Folk Customs including East of England
British Folk Customs in Norfolk

 

[buyjupiter]

Ooh, thank you! Just glancing through the list I've had several ideas on little bits to add. And a point of departure for more in depth research into little villages in some areas I'm less familiar with.

 

[CupofJoe]

I don't think there is a definition of a village in the UK, but I think it has to do with parish boundaries [wikipedia says it has to do with having a church, but I know villages that don't have them [but they might have]]. Towns, Boroughs and Cities are defined by statute and acts of parliaments so I would guess that anywhere not a town, borough or a city is unofficially a village. In population they can range from under 20 [I know a place called "Blounce" that has exactly 4 houses and a church [but they call it a hamlet]] to around 20,000 [another place called "Lancing", which has a private school with a 500+ pupils].
If you are looking at odd things about village life in Berkshire, I'd look in to fox hunting. There are a lot of customs there that vary from hunt to hunt...

 

[buyjupiter]

I was on the right track then. I had some of the background info include a very old church, as I figure any settlement in Europe that had a large enough population would have a church (even if it's very small). This definition and info helps bunches, thank you so much!

Through some further research, I did find a village in Leicestershire outside of the national forest that I loved. It had a name in common with one of my characters, and I've fleshed out her back story a bit more with that info. I probably won't call it by name, as it changes names already and that'd get too confusing. I'd also hate for a bunch of people to be upset that I (mis)used their village, but it'll definitely be my point of departure. (I have visions of very upset villagers with pitchforks and torches trying to make their way through airport security to America with said items to take care of that author who dared to use their village like that if I specifically named it.)

I think I have to do some research into fox hunting for my villain. It would be right up her alley.