The Local Historian Volume 52 Number 2 April 2022

By Michael Leach

pp 98-105

This paper focuses on events which took place during one of the periodic public alarms about Catholic plots which were a feature of the later seventeenth century. Anti-Catholic books, broadsheets and other propaganda flourished in the late 1670s and early 1680s, and among the publications were a series of bitterly accusatory pamphlets written in early 1681 by the Reverend Jonathan Saunders, rector of Sandon in Essex, concerning the alleged destruction and burning of a wooden angel in the church of All Hallows Barking, near the Tower of London. Michael Leach dissects the evidence for this vitriolic local dispute, tracing its origins back to the mid-1670s and using a wealth of contemporary printed sources and court records to highlight the vicious and intensely personal nature of the quarrel (as well as its somewhat arcane theological and spiritual dimensions). This was a period of intense religious factionalism and argument, and Leach emphasises that in this local dispute the big issues of national concern, including the complex inter-relationship between politics and religion during this period of heightened tension and security worries, are exemplified.

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By Nigel Tringham

pp 106-115

Using the court rolls of the borough of Tamworth, which cover the period from the 1280s to the 1550s with gaps, Nigel Tringham discusses the evidence which they provide for disorderly and anti-social behaviour in the town, which was divided in two by the county boundary between Warwickshire and Staffordshire. It was a significant market town with a population in 1300 of perhaps 1000 or more. The paper explains the jurisdiction and operation of the courts, and the other administrative and religious bodies in the town, and then discusses the various categories of offences which they dealt with: illegal gaming, sports and gambling; breaking of the curfew, night-time misdemeanours, and the role of the nightwatch; trading standards, the infringement of the assize of bread and ale, and price regulations; cleanliness, refuse disposal, and the problem of pigs; and strangers, immigrants and the presence of foreigners.

Tringham emphasises the importance of the court rolls in illuminating many day-to-day aspects of urban life, while pointing out that a more complete picture could have been obtained if other records had survived—such as those of guilds and local church courts. He contextualises by considering issues such as moral reform, the regional presence of Lollardy, and the impact of epidemics. He concludes by suggesting that a new perspective can be obtained by looking at offences and regulations from the point of view of the offenders. The frequency of gaming ion alehouses implies leisure time and some money, for example.

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By Nick Sign

pp 116-129

In 1933 the Board of Education published a pamphlet entitled An Experiment in Rural Reorganisation, which highlighted the secondary school scheme which had been adopted by East Suffolk County Council and was now being implemented. It suggested that this would of general interest, while also warning that the principles might not be applicable everywhere, and that (of course) financial constraints would be operating. In this paper Nick Sign explains what East Suffolk was doing, and charts the progress and effectiveness of the county’s reorganisation. He begins by explaining the situation in East Suffolk in the early 1920s, as the national framework for secondary education began to move from a haphazard system in which the majority of the population left school at 14, but many areas had a very serious deficiency in number of places for those aged 11 to 14. The county faced significant problems, including agricultural depression and rural poverty, youth unemployment, and the increasing costs of providing education in rural areas.

The East Suffolk system was intended to extend secondary educational provision by developing new ‘area schools’, with specialist facilities and amenities, which would allow the majority of elementary schools to cease provision for 11-14 year olds. The area schools were to centrally situated in small country towns and larger villages. The paper discusses the implementation of the programme, the concept of the new schools and their community role, and the effectiveness of the approach. By the end of 1932 twelve area schools had opened and six were in development. Nick Sign assesses contemporary opinion, for and against the principle and practice, and makes comparisons with other counties (arguing that East Suffolk was modest in its ambitions compared with, for example, Cambridgeshire). He suggests that the scheme was pragmatic and involved cost-cutting, but that there were also idealism and a commitment to providing a better educational experience for thousands of children. However, the scheme did not become the model for the future, as the Education Act 1944 introduced a different strategy.

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By David T. Taylor

pp 130-139

This important paper considers an intriguing aspect of the pre- and post-1832 electoral and parliamentary reform, namely the electoral politics of boroughs which were first enfranchised by the 1832 Reform Act but considering the nature and significance of their electoral activity prior to that fundamental change. In Staffordshire there were three newly-enfranchised boroughs (Walsall, Wolverhampton and Stoke-on-Trent) and these are analysed by looking at the activity of electors in these places during county elections from 1818 onwards. In other words, they had a sizeable electorate prior to 1832, but as part of the county qualification and electing county MPs.

After a valuable discussion of the views of political historians about the impact of the 1832 reforms, Taylor considers source material and the great significance of newspaper coverage of electoral meetings and public debates about reform. He then describes the county electoral politics of the decades before 1832, noting that there were no contested elections between 1747 and 1835, the Tories (the county gentry) being dominant. From 1820 onwards, however, an increasing volume of debate was apparent, as the question of reform was aired. Taylor demonstrates that the electorate was subject to conflicting arguments and became noticeably more divided, even if elections were not contested, but he concludes that despite the changing context there was relatively little political involvement by electors in the towns which were soon to be enfranchised. Studies of other counties might help to determine whether this was a more general phenomenon.

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By Sally Self

pp 140-153

This valuable exemplar of an aspect of the local history of the twentieth century could serve as a model of research elsewhere, in other communities. Trading estates (or industrial estates) and their latter-day successors, the retail parks which proliferated in the post-1970 decades on the edge of almost every town, are a major feature of urban areas throughout the country, but are rarely researched and analysed by local historians. The first trading estate was Trafford Park, Manchester (1896) and the Cheltenham example which is discussed in this paper was first contemplated in the mid-1920s and then developed, initially in a piecemeal fashion, from the mid-1930s.

Sally Self first considers the pre-development landscape and its historical evolution, and then explain thew planning context and the economic rationale for the development of the estate. She emphasises the often divergent and contradictory approaches of the several local authorities involved, and shows how after 1947, and the imposition of a more structured and coherent planning system, the expansion of the estate and its light industrial and service base proceeded in a more rational and organised fashion. The story continues through phases of major growth a

Nd extension in the 1960s and 1970s; the need to upgrade services and transport links; the diversification into retailing in the 1980s and 1990s; and the impact of recent changes in shopping habits, technology, the leisure sector and local government. The final note is perhaps a harbinger of the future: in summer 2021 a new development site within Kingsditch was unfinished, and the take-up of units was ‘woefully slow’.

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By Louise Ryland-Epton

pp 154-164

This paper argues that the almost invariably negative tone of historical research and writing about workhouses before the Poor Law Amendment Act of 1834 conceals some examples where the management regime was in fact benevolent to some degree. Taking as its case study the parish workhouse at Westbury on Trym (now a suburb of Bristol) it begins with an overview of workhouses under the Old Poor Law (and especially from Knatchbull’s Act of 17233 onwards) and considers the impact of Gilbert’s Act (1782) which was humanitarian in its aims and encouraged parishes to join together to form voluntary ‘unions’. The paper then considers the local situation at Westbury – demographic, financial and administrative – and the background to the building of a new workhouse there in 1801-1804.

The second part of the paper analyses the operation and management of the workhouse, beginning with its furnishings and equipment, and the high quality of the diet which was provided. It looks at the administrative methods and the appointment of the governor (i.e. master) and matron; the work regime and the provision of education for workhouse children; and the treatment of the sick and infirm. In her conclusion Louise Ryland-Epton provides an overview of the period from 1800 to 1834, and discusses what happened during this period elsewhere in the area. She suggests that conditions at Westbury were clearly comfortable by the standards of the time, and that this was achieved despite a surprisingly effective and cautious policy of financial management. It fulfilled many of the aims of Thomas Gilbert’s legislation back in 1782.

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By Robert Dunning

pp 165-168

This short paper reassesses the first volume published by the Somerset Record Society, a calendar of the register of Bishop John Droxford of Bath and Wells (1309-1329), which appeared in 1887. It argues that this had many inaccuracies, and its index (which was designed largely for the benefit of the Society’s local subscribers) was a major limitation on the usefulness of the document transcript. During lockdown Robert Dunning prepared a new finding aid, now available on the Somerset Record Society website, and in the course of this revealed much about the bishop’s travels, his household, his royal connections, and his properties. He argues that this source has unique and valuable information for historians of places far beyond the bishop’s own diocese, but that this information had hitherto been largely inaccessible because of the inadequacy of the original index. The second half of the paper discusses in fascinating detail aspects of the life of Bishop Droxford, including his frequent journeying, his political role, travel itineraries, and building activities. Dunning concludes that ‘key to all this in Droxford’s case as a busy bishop is a comprehensive and reliable index’. Otherwise, he says, ‘short of reading the text of the printed register from cover to cover … such journeys and their possibilities [would be] forever hidden’.

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