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University of Warwick institutional repository: http://go.warwick.ac.uk/wrap A Thesis Submitted for the Degree of PhD at the University of Warwick http://go.warwick.ac.uk/wrap/34807 This thesis is made available online and is protected by original copyright. Please scroll down to view the document itself. Please refer to the repository record for this item for information to help you to cite it. Our policy information is available from the repository home page. SUMMARY The thesis seeks to determine the relationship between community feeling and political activity in one interwar town, Northampton. It is argued that localism continued to be an important dimension of social and political experience in this period for businessmen, employers and workers. The development of modern industrial relations and welfare policies in industry gave employers a renewed interest in their location of operations. Depression and decline in the private enterprise economy made municipal intervention important to both the lower middle class and the working class. At the same time central governments expanded the role of local authorities by giving them more mandatory responsibilities and greater funding. A public culture developed in Northampton which stressed service to the common interest and meritocratic leadership. In this context the Labour Party was able to gain some legitimate authority in the town community. Its leaders were accorded a grudging acceptance in the meritocracy. The ethos of public and political life was reflected in neighbourhood and workplace experience. Most Northamptonians defined their social identity in terms of citizenship rather than class. However, there were a number of social, economic and industrial factors which produced a crisis in the 1933 to 1935 period. That crisis increased Labour support and led to abstention by many non-Labour voters. A different approach to the study of society and politics in Britain from 1918 to 1939 is advocated on the basis of the Northampton evidence. It is noted that there already exists considerable material showing that there was a wide range of difference in local response to government social policy. It is also argued that the Labour Party's philosophy and electoral performance during these years may owe more to community influences than has previously been acknowledged. TOWN PATRIOTISM AND THE RISE OF LABOUR: NORTHAMPTON 1918-1939 Marie Dickie, M.A Submitted for the degree of Phd at the Centre for the Study of Social History, September 1987 University of Warwick This dissertation may be photocopied TABLE OF CONTENTS Preface Abbreviations PAGES Introduction 1 - 17 Chapter 1 - AN HISTORICAL OVERVIEW 18 - 55 - Introduction 18 - Economy and Social Structure 19 - Politics and Religion 36 - Conclusion 48 Chapter 2 - TOWN PATRIOTISM 1918-1939 56 - 81 - Introduction 56 - Enterprise and Service a New Image 56 - 69 - The Community Under Pressure 69 - 80 - Conclusion 80 Chapter 3 - PROGRESS EFFICIENCY AND SERVICE TO THE 82 - 108 COMMON INTEREST - Introduction 82 - Election Pacts and Alliances 82 - 84 - The Developnent of Consensus 84 - 102 - The Limits of Consensus 102 - 105 - Conclusion 105 Chapter 4 - THE LABOUR MOVEMENT - SOURCE OF AN ALTERNATIVE VISION? 109 - 143 - Introduction 109 - A Socialist Elite 109 - 115 - Class War and Municipal Socialism 116 - 134 - A Labour Movement Subculture? 134 - 142 - Conclusion 142 - 143 PAGES Chapter 5 - NORTHAMPTONIANS THEIR VALUES AND 144 - 175 VOTING BEHAVIOUR - Introduction 144 - Voting for Class or Community? 144 - 156 - The Working Class Experience 156 - 161 - The Crisis of 1933 to 1935 161 - 171 - Conclusion 171 - 172 Chapter 6 - CONCLUSION 176 - 181 BIBLIOGRAPHY 182 - 189 FIGURES AND TABLES CONTENTS Figure Laa2 1. The Expansion of Northampton 50 2. Location of Footwear Factories in Northampton 51 3. Distribution of Occupations in Northampton 52 1911-1931 4. Northampton Ward Structure 1900-1932 53 Table Page 1. Owner Occupancy in Northampton in 1925 54 2. Class Composition of Northampton Wards 1925 55 3. Occupations of Members of Northampton Borough 81 Council 1918-1939 4. Northampton Borough Council: Composition and 106 Control 1918-1939 5. Council House Building Completions in 107 Northampton 1919-1939 6. Occupations of Labour Councillors on 108 Northampton Borough Council 1918-1939 7. Liberal Weakness the Liberal Conservative Pact 1932 and the Labour Advance 173 8. Councillors Resident in Ward Represented 1918 to 1939 174 9. Parliamentary Election Results in Northampton 1918 to 1935 175 PREFACE As the title of this study suggests it is about the relationship between feelings of community and political activity in one interwar town. Inevitably therefore I am deeply indebted to many of its residents for help and information they have given me. Often the enthusiasm of their co-operation has served to convince me that the ethos described is still alive. The librarians and curators at the Northampton Central Library and Northampton Central Museum deserve special mention for years of careful hoarding of material, as well as willing assistance. In so far as quantatitive methods of research have been used in the study, it is largely due to the advice of Dr Hopkin at the Social History Department of the University College of Wales and Prof Harrison of the University of Warwick Statistics Department. Any errors made in following their advice have certainly been my own. All published works quoted have been published in London unless otherwise stated. ABBREVIATIONS Defence of the Realm Act DORA Federation of Boot and Shoe Manufacturers Associations FBSMA General Management Committee GMC Independent Labour Party ILP Labour Representation Committee LRC League of Nations Union LNU National Confederation of Employers Organisations NCEO National Executive Committee NEC National Minority Movement NMM National Union of Boot and Shoe Operatives NUBSO National Unemployed Workers Movement NUWM Northampton Borough Council NBC Northampton Boot and Shoe Manufacturers Association NBSMA Northampton Chamber of Commerce NCC Northampton Constituency Labour Party NCLP Northampton Communist Party NCP Northampton Co-operative Society NCS Northampton Conservative and Unionist Association NCUA Northampton Liberal Association NLA Northampton Master Builders Federation NMBF Northampton Past and Present NPP Northampton Ratepayers Association NRA Northampton Trades Council NTC Northamptonshire Natural History Society NNHS Public Assistance Committee PAC Public Record Office PRO Social Democratic Federation SDF Unemployment Assistance Board UAB Workers Education Association WEA Working Mens Club WMC 1 INTRODUCTION In Birch's study of the small town of Glossop in 1959 he found that local tradition and community pressure could still have an important influence (1) on the behaviour of its electors. Hampton's later work on the city of Sheffield discovered that there is a persistant "association between (2) community feeling and political activity". However, Birch and Hampton both regard this localism as an effect of lesser significance than the national, centralising trends in British political culture. Joyce, one of the most prominent advocates of the role of civic cultures in the nineteenth century, agrees that the major themes of twentieth century (3) life are those of class and nation. In his work on the factory towns of Yorkshire and Lancashire in the 1850's to 1880's Joyce emphasised the way that local industrialists determined the political values of their (4) employees and the town population as a whole. The identification of the family firm with the wider prosperity of the locality and the industrialists participation in charitable and civic duties created conditions in which occupational and social identity became intertwined. There was a recognisable 'town patriotism' among nineteenth century factory workers. ( 5) But the turn of the century brought about "momentous changes in the nature of town life" and these led to the decline of this type of citizenship. One of the most crucial changes was the loss of the industrialists as civic leaders living within the community. Paul Thompson highlights another aspect of the drift towards a national political culture. After 1914 he argues, political parties ceased to be dependent on the local political activist. The popular press and radio allowed national politicians to speak directly to the electorate. 1. A H Birch, Small Town Politics (1959)9 P3 2. W Hampton, Democracy and Community a Study of Politics in Sheffield (1970) 3. P Joyce, Work Society and Politics (1980), p336 4. P Joyce, Work Society and Politics, pp168-169 5. P Joyce, Work Society and Politics, pp93 and 278 2 State intervention in welfare undermined the authority of provincial elites (6) in voluntary charity and in municipal government. Middlemas has woven these themes of centralisation in society into a sophisticated analysis of the state's role in Britain after 1911. As the military, professional associations, churches, charities and municipalities declined in importance the NCEO and the TUC replaced them (7) as "governing institutions". On the basis of this collaboration between the civil service, the representatives of big business and organised labour, Middlemas postulates the creation of a style of "managerial collective government" which brought about "a new form of harmony in the (8) political system". As well as being overwhelmingly national in 7 orientation Middlemassthesis places class relations at centre stage in the conduct of interwar government.
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