Conclusion Alan Payne Date
This 1930s photo shows Edwin Garland and his team of gardeners working for the Shaw Mellors at Box House. The image of inter-war Box was the idealistic village idyll invoked for the Second World War conflict (courtesy Genevieve Brunt)
Because the inter-war period only lasted for twenty years, some historians have tried to make it a coherent or progressively-developing unit of time. It wasn’t and the conflicts of change and continuity continued in a roller-coaster of different economic and social circumstances. Nonetheless, we can see how much the word had changed by comparing the post-Edwardian world of 1913 with the modern society emerging in 1946. To emphasise the differences over this period, consider the different styles of warfare, the Great War being a horse-powered, infantry war and the Second World War ended by a nuclear explosion. Much had changed.
Some of these changes were reflected in three decisive acts of parliament in the middle of the period which fundamentally affected the future of Britain as a nation. The first was the Local Government Act of 1929 which abolished the Poor Law unions and transferred administration for social care to local authorities. The second was the 1931 Statute of Westminster Act, which accepted the right of Dominions to have a self-governing legislature, part of a process of reducing British imperial governance. The third was the Import Duties Act of 1932, which introduced a protectionist tariff of 10% on most imported goods from non-Dominion countries, ending nearly a century of Free Trade.[1]
Some of these changes were reflected in three decisive acts of parliament in the middle of the period which fundamentally affected the future of Britain as a nation. The first was the Local Government Act of 1929 which abolished the Poor Law unions and transferred administration for social care to local authorities. The second was the 1931 Statute of Westminster Act, which accepted the right of Dominions to have a self-governing legislature, part of a process of reducing British imperial governance. The third was the Import Duties Act of 1932, which introduced a protectionist tariff of 10% on most imported goods from non-Dominion countries, ending nearly a century of Free Trade.[1]
Contemporary Thought
One of the most intriguing aspects of the period is how contemporaries came to terms with the horrors of the war. On one hand there were the thinkers who sought to alter society into Fascist or Communist ideologies with comparatively little philosophy of a middle ground of tolerance. Others based their views on the Freudian theory of id, ego and super-ego which helped to popularise eugenics in both totalitarian and democratic countries. Perhaps the hardest moral dilemma fell to the church whose role in supporting the war came under scrutiny. It caused a huge debate in 1927 when church proposals to amend the Book of Common Prayer to make it more tolerant of Catholicism and less exclusively Protestant were twice defeated in parliament.
One of the most intriguing aspects of the period is how contemporaries came to terms with the horrors of the war. On one hand there were the thinkers who sought to alter society into Fascist or Communist ideologies with comparatively little philosophy of a middle ground of tolerance. Others based their views on the Freudian theory of id, ego and super-ego which helped to popularise eugenics in both totalitarian and democratic countries. Perhaps the hardest moral dilemma fell to the church whose role in supporting the war came under scrutiny. It caused a huge debate in 1927 when church proposals to amend the Book of Common Prayer to make it more tolerant of Catholicism and less exclusively Protestant were twice defeated in parliament.
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Published in 1922, The Waste Land by TS Eliot captured the bleak reality of the war with its relentless searching for explanations and an escape from the barren, doomed landscape of a modern life of despair. The poem is attributed to the quest for the Holy Grail and the feudal idealism of the Arthurian legend.
The rebuilding of the Hazelbury Chapel in Box Church echoes the same note of despair and a search for understanding from the past. Alfred and Dora Shaw Mellor restored the chapel in memory of their daughter Joan Marion Shaw Mellor who had died on 2 May 1923.[2] In February 1926 the bishop of Bristol came to open the chapel reappointed to the Glory of God. But the chapel rebuilding sanitised this part of the church and obliterated all chance of investigating the origins of the building, claimed to date from the twelfth-century, possibly the original chancel of the church. The work is reminiscent of Eliot’s Murder in the Cathedral published in 1935, closely associated with Box Church of St Thomas à Becket: The last temptation is the greatest treason: To do the right deed for the wrong reason. Left: The murder of Thomas à Becket (courtesy Wikipedia) |
End of Liberal Society
With the abandonment of the Gold Standard in 1931, the British economy became increasingly protectionist. Protectionism led to the decline of the Liberal Party and the rise of both new-style trade unionism and the political Labour Party. The Labour Party became a dynamic force in post-war Box Hill where events and outings offered local people comfort and the chance to experience a wider society than their wartime experiences.
Centralising measures for security in the inter-war period altered the role of national government in the lives of ordinary people. There was a trend towards nationalisation with the establishment of the national grid and the Central Electricity Board in 1926, the national planning of production by the Iron and Steel Federation in 1934, and a quota system for coal production and pricing after 1930.[3] The introduction of state marketing boards for milk and pigs in the mid-1930s was intended to encourage production levels. These trends towards centralised interventions in market forces later increased substantially during the Second World War and after with the Beveridge reforms of health and education. It was a far cry from the free market philosophy of Edwardian Britain.
Situation in Box
Box in 1939 would have been inconceivable to residents in 1913 because so much had changed. The localism of the Great Western Railway as one of 130 railway companies had been superseded by four regional monopolies in 1923, the merger of the Bath Stone firms with the Portland Stone firms in 1911 ended with the virtual collapse of stone extraction in our area, and the rise in importance of Box Parish Council in place of the Northey family as lords of the manor was a major break with tradition.
Localism in the inter-war period led to an increase in the number of shops in Box village and the hamlets, mostly comprising independently-owned corner grocer shops, newsagents and repair shops. When anyone deplores the lack of village shops in modern times, it is the inter-war period with which they are comparing.
The end of laissez-faire had the most dramatic consequences in the village with the purchase of the mines from the Bath and Portland Stone Firms, for most quarries effectively ending their use for stone extraction, and leading to the immigration of new families and an Irish population still sometimes seen in local surnames.
With the abandonment of the Gold Standard in 1931, the British economy became increasingly protectionist. Protectionism led to the decline of the Liberal Party and the rise of both new-style trade unionism and the political Labour Party. The Labour Party became a dynamic force in post-war Box Hill where events and outings offered local people comfort and the chance to experience a wider society than their wartime experiences.
Centralising measures for security in the inter-war period altered the role of national government in the lives of ordinary people. There was a trend towards nationalisation with the establishment of the national grid and the Central Electricity Board in 1926, the national planning of production by the Iron and Steel Federation in 1934, and a quota system for coal production and pricing after 1930.[3] The introduction of state marketing boards for milk and pigs in the mid-1930s was intended to encourage production levels. These trends towards centralised interventions in market forces later increased substantially during the Second World War and after with the Beveridge reforms of health and education. It was a far cry from the free market philosophy of Edwardian Britain.
Situation in Box
Box in 1939 would have been inconceivable to residents in 1913 because so much had changed. The localism of the Great Western Railway as one of 130 railway companies had been superseded by four regional monopolies in 1923, the merger of the Bath Stone firms with the Portland Stone firms in 1911 ended with the virtual collapse of stone extraction in our area, and the rise in importance of Box Parish Council in place of the Northey family as lords of the manor was a major break with tradition.
Localism in the inter-war period led to an increase in the number of shops in Box village and the hamlets, mostly comprising independently-owned corner grocer shops, newsagents and repair shops. When anyone deplores the lack of village shops in modern times, it is the inter-war period with which they are comparing.
The end of laissez-faire had the most dramatic consequences in the village with the purchase of the mines from the Bath and Portland Stone Firms, for most quarries effectively ending their use for stone extraction, and leading to the immigration of new families and an Irish population still sometimes seen in local surnames.
This photo in June 1939 was captioned "Things like air raid shelters were far from the minds of these young dancers" (courtesy Genevieve Brunt)
Box society was still deeply parochial after the First World War and didn’t change a great deal until after the Second. Even then, change happened slowly. In 1937 the Box Methodist Church applied to the parish council for permission to hold their fete on the Lower Recreation Field near Valens Terrace, which was turned down.[4] Arthur Shaw Mellor complained that no church fete had ever been held there and they objected that now there was an application to put on “cycle races, coconut shies and the like”. It was a curious distinction which was totally swept away when war took the lives of people of all religions and none.
References
[1] Shortly thereafter the duty was increased massively to 15% and 33%.
[2] Bath Chronicle and Herald, 27 February 1926
[3] EJ Hobsbawm, Industry and Empire, 1969, Penguin Books, p.242
[4] The Wiltshire Times, 3 July 1937
[1] Shortly thereafter the duty was increased massively to 15% and 33%.
[2] Bath Chronicle and Herald, 27 February 1926
[3] EJ Hobsbawm, Industry and Empire, 1969, Penguin Books, p.242
[4] The Wiltshire Times, 3 July 1937