OXFORDSHIRE LOCAL HISTORY NEWS The Newsletter of the Oxfordshire Local History Association Issue 128 Spring 2014 ISSN 1465-469 Chairman’s Musings gaining not only On the night of 31 March 1974, the inhabitants of the Henley but also south north-western part of the Royal County of Berkshire Buckinghamshire, went to bed as usual. When they awoke the following including High morning, which happened to be April Fools’ Day, they Wycombe, Marlow found themselves in Oxfordshire. It was no joke and, and Slough. forty years later, ‘occupied North Berkshire’ is still firmly part of Oxfordshire. The Royal Commission’s report Today, many of the people who live there have was soon followed by probably forgotten that it was ever part of Berkshire. a Labour government Those under forty years of age, or who moved in after white paper. This the changes, may never have known this. Most broadly accepted the probably don’t care either. But to local historians it is, recommendations of course, important to know about boundaries and apart from deferring a decision on provincial councils. how they have changed and developed. But in the 1970 general election, the Conservatives were elected. Prime Minister Edward Heath appointed The manner in which the 1974 county boundary Peter Walker as the minister responsible for sorting the changes came about is little known but rather matter out. He produced another but very different interesting. Reform of local government had been on white paper. It also deferred a decision on provincial the political agenda since the end of World War II. In councils but ditched unitary authorities in favour of a 1966, The Royal Commission on Local Government in two-tier system. By this time, only the Labour party England was established. Better known as the and a minority of local authorities supported the Redcliffe-Maud Commission after its chairman, Lord unitary concept. Redcliffe-Maud, it published its recommendations in 1969. There was a lengthy dissenting report by Derek Bruce Wood points out in his book The Process of Senior but the majority recommendation was that town Local Government Reform, 1966-74 (George Allen & and country should no longer be separately governed, Unwin, London, 1976) that there were clear party as they are interdependent. Moreover, planning, political advantages to be gained by the Conservatives transport, education, social services, health and from a two-tier reform. The first of these was that housing should, wherever possible, be provided by a traditional party strongholds would welcome the single unitary authority. emphasis on county government, which was certainly the case in Oxfordshire. Secondly, many large cities Apart from three metropolitan areas, Redcliffe-Maud that had long been controlled by Labour, would lose recommended that 58 unitary authorities be established their independence, becoming instead subordinate to and that there should be eight provincial councils. Conservative county councils. Finally, the rapid Oxfordshire would have been in a massive south-east implementation of the two-tier reform would hamstring province, including Northamptonshire, Essex, Kent, the Labour party, who would probably be unable to Hampshire and everywhere in between, apart from a make further major reforms for at least a generation. London metropolitan district. Thus in 1971, with amazing alacrity, the Heath Redcliffe-Maud would have left Oxfordshire roughly government introduced a Local Government Bill. A the same size as before, but with adjustments to its Local Government Act was passed the following year. north-east and south-east boundaries. It would have In 1973, the new administrations shadowed the old gained Brackley and its hinterland from ones and the changeover came about on 1 April 1974. Northamptonshire and ceded Henley-on-Thames and Northamptonshire kept Brackley, Oxfordshire retained its environs to Berkshire. Berkshire, on the other hand, Henley and the only bit of Buckinghamshire ceded to was to have been considerably increased in size, Berkshire was Slough – hardly compensation for the Oxford Local History Association Newsletter Issue 128 -- Spring 2014 (Cont from p1) loss of the Vale of White Horse, A noteworthy aspect of the 1974 changes was how Faringdon, Wantage, Didcot, Wallingford and the politicians of all hues and the various professional former county town of Abingdon. Wantage Rural bodies involved did their best to ensure that the public District Council, which covered a surprisingly large were given little or no say in the outcome. Two years area of northern and western Berkshire, was sliced in after the boundary changes, Lord Redcliffe-Maud two, with the southern portion staying in Berkshire and wrote that, if public votes had been required, there the northern part ceded to Oxfordshire. Berkshire’s loss would probably have been ‘no substantial changes was certainly Oxfordshire’s gain. The much shrunken anywhere in the local government structure of the ceremonial county of Berkshire continues to exist and 1960s’. He added, ‘Fortunately local government remains the only English county with the prefix Royal. reformers in Britain do not yet have to win local But Berkshire County Council was abolished in 1998, referenda.’ to be replaced by six unitary authorities. Tony Hadland, OLHA Chairman ________________________________________________________________________________________________ The Floods, 2014 Oxford featured regularly in news items in January this year as the world's media visited communities along the Thames river banks who were suffering the misery of consistently wet weather and prolonged periods of inundation by flood water. Some commentators were interested in how people had responded to flooding in the past. Tony Hadland was given a 10 minute spot in Radio Oxford's local history hour on 8 January, to talk to the presenter, Kat Orman, on behalf of OLHA on how our ancestors coped with flooding. Climate change has become an important issue in public debate and Oxford University's 'Meteorological Observer' was frequently called upon to comment on the occurrence of periods of very wet weather through history because the Radcliffe Meteorological Station at the University has the longest series of temperature and rainfall records for any one site in Britain. The records are continuous from January 1815, with irregular observations of rainfall, cloud and temperature from 1767. On the basis of these records, weather observers at the University confirmed that January 2014 was the wettest ever of any of the three winter months (December to February) since their records began, beating the previous high of December 1914 by a considerable margin. The most recent December and January combined total of 244.6mm of rainfall was also higher than for any other December–January period ever recorded by the Observatory. The flooding this year was obviously directly related to the heavy rainfall but changes in the water table, control of river levels and the types of land use on the river plain all contribute to it. Research by local historians on riverside settlements has much to offer to policy makers who are concerned with the management of flood plains. Neglect of ditch clearance was a serious public offence in previous centuries but had become commonplace by the 20th century. The wisdom of building houses on higher ground and preserving the flood plains for hay meadows has been forgotten in the land-hungry post-war years when agriculture is no longer a priority. The lower reaches of the River Thames and its tributaries hsve always flooded, but whereas at the time of Doomsday one could have walked from Cricklade in the west to the River Cherwell in the east without straying from a flood meadow, today these ancient habitats which benefitted from regular watering by the river are only preserved at the designated Special Areas of Conservation, such as Port Meadow and Wolvercote, and the Cherwell Meadows SSII. The ancient 'lot ceremony' when the hay was shared out to those with rights to it by the use of cherry wood balls inscribed with their names was last held in a pub in 1968. Alison McDonald has posted a fascinating essay on-line on her research into the Oxford hay meadows at www.floodplainmeadows.org.uk. Oxfordshire Local History Association Oxfordshire Local History News ‐ Issue 128 Officers and Committee Contents Page Chairman’s Musings …………………..…....…..... 1 Tony Hadland : Chairman News from the Shires ………..……….....….…...... 3 Oxfordshire History Centre ...…….…................. 3 Norma Aubertin-Potter: Secretary Berkshire Record Office Update …….….……... 3 Liz Woolley: Treasurer and MembershipSec Victoria County History Update………...………4 Spotlight on Local History Societies .......................5 Chris Hall: Journal Editor Goring and Streatley....………………...…..……5 .Littlemore History Society ………….......….… 6 Vicky Jordan: Study Day Organiser Spotlight on Archives and Museums........................8 Simon Townley (Victoria County History) Vale and Downland Museum....………………....8 Thame Museum ..........……………..……….......8 Malcolm Graham (ex Centre for Oxon Studies) WWI Centenary….……………………………...9 OUDCE...................................................................12 Kathryn Davies (English Heritage) Obituaries ……...……………………………….. .12 Email Contact: Publications and Research ......................................14 Library Acquisitions .…..……..………….….... 13 Chairman: [email protected] Quaker Clockmakers ..........................................14 Membership: [email protected]