DOCSLIB.ORG

Romsey Town Labour Club

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Romsey Town Labour Club MILL ROAD HISTORY PROJECT BUILDING REPORT Romsey Town Labour Club William Ingram [Type text] MILL ROAD HISTORY PROJECT BUILDING REPORT Romsey Town Labour Club The Mill Road History Project was officially launched in 2013 under the umbrella of Mill Road Bridges1 to study the heritage of Mill Road, Cambridge, its buildings (residential, commercial and industrial), institutions and community. It was supported by a two-year grant from the Heritage Lottery Fund. First edition ‒ June 2015 Second edition ‒ September 2015 Author: William Ingram Cover picture: Romsey Labour Club (photograph William Ingram, 2014) 1 'Mill Road Bridges seeks to grow and maintain the community spirit, heritage and rich cultural diversity of the Mill Road area by improving the flow of information between and about individuals, businesses, voluntary organisations and local stakeholders.' 2 MILL ROAD HISTORY PROJECT BUILDING REPORT Romsey Town Labour Club TABLE OF CONTENTS PRE-HISTORY OF THE SITE 5 HISTORY OF THE ROMSEY LABOUR CLUB 6 Labour in Cambridge 6 The First Steps 7 The Building Plans 9 “Ramsay Town” 12 The General Strike 14 Finishing the Building 17 Early Days 18 The Second World War 20 After the War 23 The Silver Jubilee 24 The Present Day 25 KEY PEOPLE 26 Alderman William Layton Briggs 26 Alderman Albert E Stubbs 27 BIBLIOGRAPHY 29 APPENDIX : MEMORIES OF THE CLUB 30 ______________________ 3 MILL ROAD HISTORY PROJECT BUILDING REPORT Romsey Town Labour Club Abbreviations AGM Annual General Meeting CIP Cambridge Indepent News ARP Auxiliary Raid Precautions CLP Cambridge Labour Party ASLEF Associated Society of Locomotive HQ Headquarters Engineers and Firemen ILP Independent Labour Party CA Cambridgeshire Archives NUR National Union of Railwaymen CC Cambridgeshire Collection OED Oxford English Dictionary CC Cambridge Chronicle TUC Trades Union Congress CDN Cambridge Daily News __________________ NOTE This report was produced by William Ingram, who visited the site on 4 December 2013 and completed his report in 2014. The short sections ‛The Building Plans’ and ‛The General Strike’ were added by Ian Bent, and the appendix was compiled by Allan Brigham, all three in June 2015. Location of site 276 Mill Road, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire, CB1 3NL The club is located on the south-east corner of the junction between Mill Road, Coleridge Road, and Hemingford Road. It is situated between Mill Road to the north, and Coleridge Road to the west. National Grid reference TL 546934 257597 Latitude: 52.197033 Longitude: 0.14841306 4 MILL ROAD HISTORY PROJECT BUILDING REPORT Romsey Town Labour Club __________________ PRE-HISTORY OF THE SITE In 1903 the land belonged to Romsey House, as shown in Figure 1 below. Between 1903 and 1927 much of its land was sold for development, and by 1927 Romsey Avenue (later to become Coleridge Road) had been built. Both the Avenue and the Labour Club are visible in Figure 2, and the GPS location of the Labour Club can be seen in Figure 3. Figure 1 1903 Map of Romsey Figure 2 1927 Map of Romsey 5 MILL ROAD HISTORY PROJECT BUILDING REPORT Romsey Town Labour Club Figure 3 2014 Map of Romsey HISTORY OF THE ROMSEY LABOUR CLUB The Romsey Labour Club today is an unassuming building. Standing on the corner of Coleridge Road, it is ‒ or was until 2015 ‒ flanked by two boxing clubs and at first glance seems to be unused. The impression continues inside, where there are a few reminders of a time gone by, but for the most part it doesn’t stand out from your average pub. All this, however, belies the fact that the Romsey Town Labour Club was in fact a key building before and during the Second World War, and hosted ‛the most prestigious event ever seen in Romsey Town’ according to historian Sallie Purkis.2 Labour in Cambridge The Romsey Town Labour Club was built as a result of continued interest, within Romsey and Cambridge as a whole, in the Labour Party movement. The Cambridge Labour Party was eventually founded in 1912, following various failed attempts, and was created mainly from members of the Independent Labour Party (ILP) and Cambridge University Fabian Society (which would become the Cambridge University Socialist Society), and eight trade unions also had strong affiliations. Interestingly, the key issues at this historic election are similar to the ones being debated today. A 1912 councillor would have argued about housing, education and wages, among other issues, and those questions still plague modern-day councillors. At the 1912 AGM of the Cambridge Trades Council and Labour Party it was decided to form the Cambridge Labour Party. One of the problems with earlier incarnations was that the groups that formed the committees looked out for their own interests instead of the party’s. By forming one group, this would no longer be an issue. 2 See Purkis (1982), p. 46. 6 MILL ROAD HISTORY PROJECT BUILDING REPORT Romsey Town Labour Club Figure 4 Labour Club site When deciding where to build a club to house the party, Romsey was an obvious choice. Firstly, Labour had won every municipal election held in Romsey since the formation of the party (and would win every election up to 1998, bar one freak by-election in 1981). Secondly, thanks in part to the trade union links, railway workers were ‛the backbone of the modern labour party’3 and the vast majority of these workers lived in Romsey. Finally, residents in Romsey had already gained a reputation for holding left-wing views, and the ward was dubbed ‛Red Romsey’, ‛Little Moscow’ and ‛Red Russia’ by people in other parts of Cambridge. Romsey was clearly the ideal place to build a headquarters for the Cambridge Labour Party, and the current plot of land was bought for the sum £950 in 1921 (See Figure 4, above). The First Steps The Romsey Labour Club never became the HQ of the Cambridge Labour Party (CLP) which decided to continue looking for an appropriate venue.4 However the central party did allow the Labour Party to build the Club itself, granting it the land in 1922. 3 Johnson and Walsh, Camaraderie, p. 33. 4 The precise reasons for this need further investigation. They may perhaps relate to a desire on the part of the members to appear less ‛left-wing’ so as encourage those unsure of their political leanings to join the Club. See Purkis (1982), p. 44 and footnote 26. 7 MILL ROAD HISTORY PROJECT BUILDING REPORT Romsey Town Labour Club Figure 5 Building of the club in 1924 with voluntary labour Due to various circumstances, it was not until 21 May 1924 that the Club filed a building application (see Figure 6) as an Industrial and Provident Society, under the name of ‛Romsey Town Labour Club & Hall, Ltd’ (secretary Harold W Few). The application was sent off by the building committee, which had amongst its ranks William ‛Billy’ Briggs, who would go on to become the Club’s first President and, more significantly, Cambridge’s first Labour Mayor. Having been approved by the Council, the plans were outlined at Romsey Council School by Ernest Bond (bricklayer and member of the Cambridge Friends Society) and David Crown (contractor, active and prominent co-operator5). The idea of a bar was pushed strongly by Briggs, who claimed that after his experience with a previous venture in Romsey Town he would never support another project which did not include this facility. Figure 6 Application for Planning Permission (Cambridgeshire Archives) 5 co-operator: ‛a member of a co-operative society; one who practises industrial co-operation’ (OED); David Crown was involved in the building of Romsey town terraced housing. 8 MILL ROAD HISTORY PROJECT BUILDING REPORT Romsey Town Labour Club To help finance the project, it was floated. Shares cost £1 and promised an interest rate of 5%. However, the generosity of shareholders meant that most never claimed their dividends, and some even transferred their loans to donations. By 13 July 1925, £1,100 of the £2,000 goal had been raised and work began one week later. The first thing to be put in was the damp course (a layer of waterproof material designed to stop rising damp). This also showed how the building work would proceed. The Romsey Labour Party could not afford to pay workmen, so volunteers gave up evenings and weekends to help build it. Thanks to trade union links, the club members received instructions from the Associated Union of Building Trade Workers. All those who helped were commemorated in a roll of honour. Nick Mansfield describes the Club as ‛a modest brick building in a vaguely Queen Anne style’, and declares the one-storey red brick building a ‛“Wrenaissance” structure’ with ‛its handsome exterior [which] boasted two Venetian windows and [a] fine stone carving over the front door’.6 The Building Plans The architect’s drawings, signed ‛Ernest W Bond / 23 City Road Cambridge / May 1925’, are preserved in the Cambridgeshire Archives.7 The ground-floor plan shows the layout of the interior (Figure 7). Inside the main Mill Road entrance is a small vestibule, which leads Figure 7 Ground-floor plan 6 Nick Mansfield, Buildings of the Labour Movement (English Heritage U.K., 2013), p. 95 and Figure 12.12. 7 CA CB/2/SE/3/9/5413 (planning application form and single sheet of drawings: Figures 6 and 7‒10). 9 MILL ROAD HISTORY PROJECT BUILDING REPORT Romsey Town Labour Club directly into a small octagonal hall, panelled in oak, with entranceways to north, south, east and west. The left (east) entranceway, with door, leads through to the billiard room, passing between the gents’ toilet and the bar. That to the right (west), with door, leads into a spacious reading room extending to the back of the building.
Load more

Recommended publications
  • The Rise of Leagues and Their Impact on the Governance of Women's Hockey in England
    ‘Will you walk into our parlour?’: The rise of leagues and their impact on the governance of women's hockey in England 1895-1939 Joanne Halpin BA, MA A thesis submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements of the University of Wolverhampton for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Submission date: May 2019 This work or any part thereof has not previously been presented in any form to the University or to any other body for the purposes of assessment, publication or for any other purpose (unless otherwise indicated). Save for any express acknowledgements, references and/or bibliographies cited in the work, I confirm that the intellectual content of the work is the result of my own efforts and of no other person. The right of Jo Halpin to be identified as author of this work is asserted in accordance with ss.77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. At this date copyright is owned by the author. Signature: …………………………………….. Date: ………………………………………….. Jo Halpin ‘Will you walk into our parlour?’ Doctoral thesis Contents Abstract i List of abbreviations iii Acknowledgements v Introduction: ‘Happily without a history’ 1 • Hockey and amateurism 3 • Hockey and other team games 8 • The AEWHA, leagues and men 12 • Literature review 15 • Thesis aims and structure 22 • Methodology 28 • Summary 32 Chapter One: The formation and evolution of the AEWHA 1895-1910 – and the women who made it happen 34 • The beginnings 36 • Gathering support for a governing body 40 • The genesis of the AEWHA 43 • Approaching the HA 45 • Genesis of the HA
    [Show full text]
  • University of Huddersfield Repository
    University of Huddersfield Repository Baldwin, Anne Progress and patterns in the election of women as councillors, 1918 – 1938 Original Citation Baldwin, Anne (2012) Progress and patterns in the election of women as councillors, 1918 – 1938. Doctoral thesis, University of Huddersfield. This version is available at http://eprints.hud.ac.uk/17514/ The University Repository is a digital collection of the research output of the University, available on Open Access. Copyright and Moral Rights for the items on this site are retained by the individual author and/or other copyright owners. Users may access full items free of charge; copies of full text items generally can be reproduced, displayed or performed and given to third parties in any format or medium for personal research or study, educational or not-for-profit purposes without prior permission or charge, provided: • The authors, title and full bibliographic details is credited in any copy; • A hyperlink and/or URL is included for the original metadata page; and • The content is not changed in any way. For more information, including our policy and submission procedure, please contact the Repository Team at: [email protected]. http://eprints.hud.ac.uk/ Progress and patterns in the election of women as councillors, 1918 – 1938 Anne Baldwin 19 March 2012 Thesis submitted in fulfilment of requirements of a PhD, History, awarded by the University of Huddersfield. i. The author of this thesis (including any appendices and/or schedules to this thesis) owns any copyright in it (the “Copyright”) and s/he has given The University of Huddersfield the right to use such Copyright for any administrative, promotional, educational and/or teaching purposes.
    [Show full text]
  • Abaldwin Phd Final Text
    University of Huddersfield Repository Baldwin, Anne Progress and patterns in the election of women as councillors, 1918 – 1938 Original Citation Baldwin, Anne (2012) Progress and patterns in the election of women as councillors, 1918 – 1938. Doctoral thesis, University of Huddersfield. This version is available at http://eprints.hud.ac.uk/id/eprint/17514/ The University Repository is a digital collection of the research output of the University, available on Open Access. Copyright and Moral Rights for the items on this site are retained by the individual author and/or other copyright owners. Users may access full items free of charge; copies of full text items generally can be reproduced, displayed or performed and given to third parties in any format or medium for personal research or study, educational or not-for-profit purposes without prior permission or charge, provided: • The authors, title and full bibliographic details is credited in any copy; • A hyperlink and/or URL is included for the original metadata page; and • The content is not changed in any way. For more information, including our policy and submission procedure, please contact the Repository Team at: [email protected]. http://eprints.hud.ac.uk/ Progress and patterns in the election of women as councillors, 1918 – 1938 Anne Baldwin 19 March 2012 Thesis submitted in fulfilment of requirements of a PhD, History, awarded by the University of Huddersfield. i. The author of this thesis (including any appendices and/or schedules to this thesis) owns any copyright in it (the “Copyright”) and s/he has given The University of Huddersfield the right to use such Copyright for any administrative, promotional, educational and/or teaching purposes.
    [Show full text]
  • FRANK RAMSEY OUP CORRECTED PROOF – FINAL, 7/1/2020, Spi OUP CORRECTED PROOF – FINAL, 7/1/2020, Spi
    OUP CORRECTED PROOF – FINAL, 7/1/2020, SPi FRANK RAMSEY OUP CORRECTED PROOF – FINAL, 7/1/2020, SPi OUP CORRECTED PROOF – FINAL, 7/1/2020, SPi CHERYL MISAK FRANK RAMSEY a sheer excess of powers 1 OUP CORRECTED PROOF – FINAL, 7/1/2020, SPi 3 Great Clarendon Street, Oxford, OXDP, United Kingdom Oxford University Press is a department of the University of Oxford. It furthers the University’s objective of excellence in research, scholarship, and education by publishing worldwide. Oxford is a registered trade mark of Oxford University Press in the UK and in certain other countries © Cheryl Misak The moral rights of the author have been asserted First Edition published in Impression: All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without the prior permission in writing of Oxford University Press, or as expressly permitted by law, by licence or under terms agreed with the appropriate reprographics rights organization. Enquiries concerning reproduction outside the scope of the above should be sent to the Rights Department, Oxford University Press, at the address above You must not circulate this work in any other form and you must impose this same condition on any acquirer Published in the United States of America by Oxford University Press Madison Avenue, New York, NY , United States of America British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data Data available Library of Congress Control Number: ISBN –––– Printed and bound in Great Britain by Clays Ltd, Elcograf S.p.A. Links to third party websites are provided by Oxford in good faith and for information only.
    [Show full text]
  • Womanandhersphere « Woman and Her Sphere
    Woman and her Sphere womanandhersphere This user hasn't shared any biographical information Homepage: http://womanandhersphere.wordpress.com Suffragette Autograph Album To Be Auctioned: Save It For The Nation – And Future Researchers Posted in Collecting Suffrage on December 8, 2012 A very interesting autograph album is to be auctioned by Dominic Winter Auctions (http://issuu.com/jammdesign/docs/dw_12.12.2012_low_res? mode=embed&layout=http://skin.issuu.com/v/dark/layout.xml&showFlipBtn=true) on Wednesday, 12 December 2012. How I wish it would be bought by a British library or museum so that all researchers would have access to it. It would be an ideal fit in the collections of either the Museum of London or the Women’s Library. Neither, alas, are likely to be bidding. Is there any other institution that could come to the rescue? Below is the entry from the Dominic Winter catalogue. (http://womanandhersphere.com/2012/12/08/suffragette-autograph-album-to-be-auctioned-save-it- for-the-nation-and-future-researchers/suffragette-autograph-album/)Lot 380* Suffragettes. A rare and historically important autograph album containing approx. fifty autographs of suffragettes and sympathisers, 1909 and later, but many dated from the time of the WSPU’s second window-breaking campaign, March/May 1912, the majority signed below quotations and epithets relating to the cause, written mostly in pen and occasionally pencil and inscribed to thirty-four leaves (mostly rectos) with some leaves blank, prisoner (?) pencil number 94472186/3 to front free endpaper, contemp. cloth, rubbed and soiled, oblong small 8vo, 11 x 14.5 cm, together with an Edwardian 9ct gold circular locket, engraved with initials M.E.P.
    [Show full text]
  • The Workers' Educational Association and the Pursuit of Oxford Idealism
    The Workers’ Educational Association and the Pursuit of Oxford Idealism, 1909-1949 Chih-Hao Lee Jesus College Faculty of History University of Cambridge This dissertation is submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. November 2018 Abstract – The Workers’ Educational Association and the Pursuit of Oxford Idealism, 1909-1949 Chih-Hao Lee This study examines the practical application of Oxford Idealism to education reform and the adult education movement. According to Idealist philosophy, enlightened and active citizenship was the cornerstone of a participatory democracy. This thesis thus explores how Oxford Idealists used the Workers’ Educational Association (WEA) to pursue the aim of cultivating good citizenship and forming a common purpose for the future society they wished to see emerging. The WEA, founded in 1903, embodied the Idealist vision by promoting its two-fold practices: first, it organised university tutorial classes to foster mutual learning and fellowship between intellectuals and workers; second, it campaigned for a state-funded ‘educational highway’, from nursery to university, so that every citizen would have the opportunity to receive the kind of liberal education which had hitherto been limited to upper and middle classes. By exploring the development of the dual initiative, this thesis examines the achievement and limitations of the Idealist project. In particular, it investigates whether and how this pursuit, in the long run, contributed to the rise of professionalism, a trend which has been ascribed to the efforts of Idealists but which in many ways contradicted the ideal of participatory democracy. In so doing, this thesis explains why the influence of Oxford Idealism—this highly moralistic philosophy which inspired a generation of intellectuals and politicians and lent a distinctive flavour to British public policy at the beginning of the twentieth century—gradually ebbed in the public domain.
    [Show full text]
  • Catalogue of Books on Cambridge the University, the Town and the County, Arranged Alphabetically by Author, Otherwise by Title
    Catalogue of Books on Cambridge The university, the town and the county, arranged alphabetically by author, otherwise by title Compiled by Pierre Gorman Catalogue of Books on Cambridge: the university, the town and the county, arranged alphabetically by author, otherwise by title Compiled by Pierre Gorman, CBE, PhD (Cantab), BAgriSc BEd (Melb), FACE University of Melbourne Catalogue of Books on Cambridge: the university, the town and the county, arranged alphabetically by author, otherwise by title © The University of Melbourne 2008 ISBN 9780734039170 All material appearing in this publication is copyright and cannot be reproduced without the written permission of the publisher and the relevant author. The views expressed herein are those of individuals and not necessarily those of the University of Melbourne. Editors: Stephanie Jaehrling and Pam Pryde Catalogue design and typesetting: Jacqui Barnett Photography: Lee McRae Production: Publications, Information Services The University of Melbourne Victoria 3010,Australia Front cover:‘Inside view of the Public Library, Cambridge’, by T.H. Rowlandson, 1809. Back cover:Watercolour of Pierre Gorman at Corpus Christi College, by D. Moore, 1990. Contents Dr Pierre Patrick Gorman iv Acknowledgments iv Foreword 1 From the Granta to the Yarra: Cambridge in Books 3 Cambridge in Carlton: Dr Pierre Gorman and the Collection of Books on Cambridge 9 in the University of Melbourne Library Catalogue of Books on Cambridge: the university, the town and the county, arranged alphabetically by author, 17 otherwise by title iii Dr Pierre Patrick Gorman Acknowledgments (1924–2006) This publication was conceived and sponsored by the Friends of Pierre Gorman was born in Melbourne as the only child of the Baillieu Library.
    [Show full text]