DEPARTMENT OF SOCIAL POLICY AND INTERVENTION Social enquiry, social reform and social action one hundred years of Barnett House © George Smith, Elizabeth Peretz and Teresa Smith 2014 Published by the University of Oxford Department of Social Policy and Intervention, Barnett House, 32 Wellington Square, Oxford OX1 2ER, United Kingdom. First published 2014 ISBN 978 0 9929333 0 2 Every effort has been made to trace all copyright holders, but if any have been inadvertently overlooked the Publishers will be pleased to make the necessary arrangements at the first opportunity. All rights reserved. Apart from any use permitted under UK copyright law, no part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying and recording, or held within any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher. Edited by Paul Stirner, DSM Partnership Designed and typeset by Stephen Moulds, DSM Partnership Printed in the UK by Harcourt Colour Print, Swansea Contents Acknowledgements iv List of illustrations vi Glossary and abbreviations viii Preface xi Map of locations xiv Introduction 1 Part 1: History of Barnett House 1 Origins and early days: 1914–1918 9 2 Bursting at the seams: 1918–1929 36 3 Barnett House comes of age: 1929–1946 58 4 From university delegacy to department: 1946–1962 77 5 The Department of Social and Administrative Studies: 1962–1978 99 6 Losing ground: 1979–1990 121 7 Transition, survival and change: 1990–2002 144 8 Stability and change: 2000–2014 171 Part 2: Contributions to social work education and social action 9 Social work and social action: 1914–1962 191 10 Social work and social action: 1962–2004 217 Part 3: Research perspectives 11 Research at Barnett House: 1914–1965 247 12 Research at Barnett House: 1965–2014 270 Conclusions: Barnett House 100 297 Appendix 1: Biographies 306 Appendix 2: Sidney Ball Lectures 1921–2013 313 Bibliography 316 Index 332 iii Acknowledgements This book could not have been written without many conversations with people across the world. We are indebted to the many current and former staff and students and others connected with Barnett House who consented to be interviewed. The book, however, is the views of the authors alone. We are grateful to our colleagues on the research team who have contributed their thinking and expertise, as well as trawling archives and conducting interviews – Dr Eve Colpus, Dr Katie Field, Jennifer Park, Kate Coxon, Katie Har and Antonina Santalova; and to the Department of Social Policy and Intervention (the latest of its many names, as readers of this book will find out) for their interest and financial help in producing this book, to the head of depart- ment, Professor Martin Seeleib-Kaiser, for writing a preface for us, and to administrative staff for their help, particularly Katherine Gardiner, Teena Stabler and Sarah Bryant. We owe special thanks to Sir Brian Harrison for guiding our steps in the last stages, and Anthony Weale, former secretary of faculties, who guided us in the matter of university administration (but cannot be held responsible for any remaining howlers); to Dr Jeremy Burchardt of the University of Reading; to John Hall, and Lawrence Goldman; and to Sir David Butler who gave us permission to use material from Violet Butler’s papers, the Carnegie UK Trust which has allowed us to use material and photographs, and Steve Bell for permission to use one of his early cartoons. We are grateful to the many archivists and librarians who have helped us find material, and allowed us to use material from their collections, including David Smith at St Anne’s College, Cliff Davies at Wadham, Oliver Mahoney at Lady Margaret Hall, and Clare Kavanagh at Nuffield College. We give very special thanks to Colin Harris and his colleagues at the Bodleian’s Special Collections, and to Alice Millea, Assistant Keeper of the archives in the Bodleian and her colleagues; to Helen Drury at the Oxford History Centre; and to Helen Ford at the University of Warwick’s Modern Records Centre. We also wish to thank the many individuals who have generously shared information, reminiscences, photographs and papers, and iv Acknowledgements helped with the construction of this book, including Bill MacKeith, and our long-suffering editors at DSM, Paul Stirner and Steve Moulds. We are deeply grateful to the Nuffield Foundation which has supported research projects at Barnett House for more than sixty years, and now this study. Its current director, Dr Sharon Witherspoon has watched over and encouraged us from the beginning, and its financial support has funded our research. The Nuffield Foundation is an endowed charitable trust that aims to improve social well-being in the widest sense. It funds research and innovation in education and social policy and also works to build capacity in education, science and social science research. The Nuffield Foundation has funded this project, but the views expressed are those of the authors and not necessarily those of the foundation. More information is available at www.nuffieldfoundation.org. We should finally underline that the book represents the views of the three authors, and not necessarily those of the Department of Social Policy and Intervention, the Social Sciences Division or the University of Oxford. George Smith, Elizabeth Peretz and Teresa Smith June 2014 v List of illustrations Cover: Barnett House (top) 26 Broad Street postcard (no date) (with thanks to Stephanie Jenkins) Barnett House (bottom left) 34–35 Beaumont Street Barnett House (bottom right) 32 Wellington Square (with thanks to Katherine Gardiner) Sidney Ball (sketch by S Anderson, 1913) 9 Violet Butler (front row, right) in 1904 with the Society of Oxford Home-Students hockey team (by kind permission of the principal and fellows of St Anne’s College) 22 Front cover of Barnett House brochure and appeal for funds, 1916 31 Grace Hadow, secretary of Barnett House 1920–29 36 Flyer for lectures at Barnett House in 1919 (by kind permission of the Carnegie UK Trustees) 40 Village Survey Making: map drawn by Oxfordshire schoolchildren 48 WGS Adams, president of Barnett House 1930–49 58 The Chinese commission studying higher education in Britain visit Barnett House in 1932: Adams is second from the right (by kind permission of David Butler) 66 Weekend School programme, Barnett House, 1939 70 Leonard Barnes, director of Barnett House 1948–62 77 Violet Butler in the new delegacy with staff and students, 1946 80 Opening of Hadow House in 1955; left to right, ORCC chair, Miss Hadow (older sister of Grace) and professor WGS Adams (by kind permission of David Butler) 85 Students and staff at Barnett House in 1960 97 AH Halsey, director of Barnett House 1962–90 99 Barnett House in winter (Teresa Smith) 121 Stein Ringen, director of Barnett House 1990–96 144 Teresa Smith, head of department 1997–2005 159 Aerial photograph of Wellington Square, 2007 (Webb Aviation) 171 vi List of illustrations Martin Seeleib-Kaiser, head of department 2011 to date 187 Violet Butler 191 Wytham Woods camp, 1933 (by kind permission of David Butler) 199 Students on the balcony at Barnett House, c1948 (with thanks to Margaret Pawley) 211 Olive Stevenson 217 ‘Playgroups’: Barton Group outing to Wicksteed Park June 1968 (with thanks to Sara Glennie Shevenell) 224 Barton in 2010 (Teresa Smith) 234 Violet Butler’s study of Village Survey Making, 1928 247 Marschak’s analysis of labour movement into Oxford by industry and place of origin, 1936 259 The first attempt to demolish the Cutteslowe walls in 1938 (by kind permission of the Oxford History Centre) 265 Research students in the Halsey room, 2006 (George Smith) 270 An early Steve Bell cartoon on the bureaucratic hurdles faced by new immigrants, Birmingham CDP, 1977 (by kind permission of Steve Bell) 276 Seminar discussion at Barnett House with South African government officials and a member of the department 288 Colour plate section (between pages 194–95): Page 1: Miss AMH Rogers, 1921; Miss CV Butler, 1968 (Peter Wardle); dons in St Anne’s, 1943 (by kind permission of the principal and fellows of St Anne’s College ) Page 2: Cooking class – working girls’ clubs in Oxford in the 1920s; play centres in Oxford in the 1920s (by kind permission of David Butler) Page 3: Educational priority area projects: West Riding 1969–72 (Teresa Smith) Page 4: Community development projects, Liverpool 1970–77: Scotland Road, Liverpool (Peter Leeson); resident in the walk-up flats Liam( Gilligan) Page 5: Index of multiple deprivation for Greater London, 2004 Page 6: School children in Mount Frere, Eastern Cape province, South Africa, 2003 (Jasmine Waddell); South African delegation visiting the department Page 7: Poverty and Shame study, Gujarat: meeting with members of a women’s workers union (Ming Yan); women and children rolling incense sticks (Elaine Chase) Page 8: Aframano schoolgirls in Ghana, sanitary pads trial run by Paul Montgomery and colleagues (Jim Hecimovich); Young Carers research study in rural South Africa run by Lucie Cluver, 2011 (Lucie Cluver) vii Glossary and abbreviations University of Oxford bodies Colleges: self-governing bodies referred to in the text which sponsor candidates for matriculation in undergraduate General Board of the Faculties: and graduate examinations of the co-ordinated and supervised the university. They are each responsible work of the academic faculties for their undergraduate teaching and including all matters connected for discipline. with research and teaching at the university. Merged with Hebdomadal Divisions: from 2000–01 the Council in 2000 to form the new university created originally five Council. divisions (now reduced to four), one of which is the social sciences; the Hebdomadal Council: committee others are the humanities, medical originally meeting every seven days, and mathematical, physical and life composed of university, college, sciences.