In light of
Child of the 7th Age's comment about the movie using an Edwardian style for the daily life of The Shire, here is a link with some quotations from Tolkien's Letters pertaining to the nature of The Shire. One letter identifies similarities to rural Warkickshire during Victoria's jubilee year; another suggests that a direct analogy is incorrect. I am familiar only with literary descriptions of 19C Yorkshire, so this is a difficult association for me to make.
Thanks to
Gandalf the Grey for providing the home link, from which I took this reference.
Is the Shire 19C rural England?
*curtsies*
Bethberry