Hostname: page-component-7479d7b7d-c9gpj Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-07-15T09:28:00.888Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

From Soldier to Peasant? The Land Settlement Scheme in East Sussex, 1919—1939

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 November 2017

Carol A. Lockwood
Get access

Extract

The English rural myth suggested that being close to the rhythms of nature, as opposed to being immersed in the irritations and pollution of city life, would create a settled, healthy, content, and loyal population. By the inter-war period the rural myth depicted an appealing image of self-sufficient, independent peasants living an uncomplicated lifestyle based on agricultural pursuits. In the aftermath of the First World War this picture of a golden countryside was popular and admired by social reformers, members of the government, and the general public. The coalition government incorporated this myth into its post-war social legislation and created in 1919 a land settlement scheme for newly demobilized soldiers aimed at establishing a new base of smallholding agricultural workers to populate the countryside. The myth may have been appealing, but it turned out to be economically not self-sustaining and politically it got little more than lip service. A myth cannot be attained through mere legislation. This article examines the land settlement scheme in East Sussex during the inter-war period and argues that even in an area seemingly well-suited to such a program, the scheme was neither practical nor successful in its attempt to put the myth into practice.

Type
Research Article
Information
Albion , Volume 30 , Issue 3 , Fall 1998 , pp. 439 - 462
Copyright
Copyright © North American Conference on British Studies 1998

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Footnotes

*

An earlier version of this article was presented at the North American Conference on British Studies, Washington, D.C., October 1995. I am grateful to the panel participants for their encouragement and to Albion’s editor and anonymous readers for their criticism and suggestions on drafts of this article.

References

1 Beer, Max, ed., The Pioneers of Land Reform (London, 1920), pp. v—ixGoogle Scholar.

2 Offer, Avner, Property and Politics, 1870—1914 (Cambridge, 1981), pp. 332—39, 350—51Google Scholar.

3 Ibid., pp. 337—38, 351, 356; Emy, H. V., “The Land Campaign: Lloyd George as a Social Reformer, 1909—14,” in Lloyd George: Twelve Essays, ed. Taylor, A. J. P. (London, 1971), pp. 39—40Google Scholar; George, Henry, Progress and Poverty (London, 1883), p. 305Google Scholar.

4 Dickens, Charles, Hard Times (1854; reprint New York, 1980)Google Scholar.

5 Ruskin, John, Fors Clavigera (1871)Google Scholar.

6 Offer, Property and Politics, pp. 337—38, 351, 356; Emy, “The Land Campaign,” pp. 39—40; Michael Tichelar, “Socialists, Labour and the Land: the Response of the Labour Party to the Land Campaign of Lloyd George before the First World War,” Twentieth Century British History 8, 2 (1997): 127—129, 132—33, 141.

7 See, for example, George Start, The Bettesworth Book (1901) or Change in the Village (1912); Kenneth Granarne, The Wind in the Willows (1908); Rudyard Kipling, Puck of Pook’s Hill (1908); Hammond, J. L. and Hammond, Barbara, The Village Labourer 1760—1832 (London, 1911)Google Scholar; Marsh, Jan, Back to the Land (London, 1982)Google Scholar.

8 Walker, Helen J., “The Outdoor Movement in England and Wales 1900—1939” (D. Phil, diss., University of Sussex, 1988), pp. 114—15, 227—28Google Scholar; Bassett, Phillippa, “The Cyclists Touring Club” in Lists of Historical Records ed., Phillippa Bassett (Birmingham, 1980), pp. i—iiiGoogle Scholar, and “The Ramblers’ Association,” in ibid., pp. i—ii; Ramblers’ Association History, set of notes (c. 1935); Oakley, William, Winged Wheel (Godalming, 1977), pp. 27, 30—31Google Scholar; Leigh-Bennett, F. P., Golfín the South (London, 1935), passimGoogle Scholar.

9 Offer, Property and Politics, pp. 337—38, 351, 356; Emy, “The Land Campaign,” pp. 39—40.

10 Emy, “The Land Campaign,” pp. 35—39, 45—54, 58, 65.

11 Fedorowich, Kent, Unfit For Heroes (Manchester, 1995), pp. 4—20Google Scholar; see also Hall, A. D., Agriculture After the War (London, 1916)CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Col. Henry Pilkington, Land Settlement for Soldiers (London, 1911); Charles Bathurst, “The Land Settlement of Ex-Servicemen,” Nineteenth Century and After 88 (1915): 1097—1113; F. E. Green, “Home Colonisation by Soldiers and Sailors,” Nineteenth Century and After 89(1916): 888—905.

12 Ibid.; Douglas, Roy, Land, People and Politics (London, 1976), pp. 176—77Google Scholar.

13 East Sussex Record Office (hereafter cited as ESRO), C/C75/4, Smallholdings and Agricultural Files-General Files on Land Settlement 1918—1922.

14 Hardy, Dennis and Ward, Colin, Arcadia For All (London, 1984), pp. 20—21Google Scholar; Howkins, Alun, Reshaping Rural England (London, 1991), pp. 277—78Google Scholar.

15 ESRO, C/C75/4 General File on Land Settlement; C/C75/5 Smallholdings and Agricultural Files 1922—1928, General Files on Land Settlement for Ex-servicemen.

16 Oakley, Winged Wheel, pp. 27, 29, 30, 65; Cyclists’ Touring Club Gazette 39, 8 (Aug., 1920): 131—32.

17 ESRO, DW/B60/58, Uckfield Rural District Council, File on Public Rights of Way-Withyham (1938—39).

18 Fedorowich, , Unfit for Heroes, pp. 4—20Google Scholar.

19 Astor, Viscount and Rowntree, Seebohm, British Agriculture(Penguin, 1939), pp. 63—64, 66, 139Google Scholar; Horn, Pamela, Rural Life in England in the First World War (New York, 1984), pp. 48—60Google Scholar; Bonham-Carter, Victor, The Survival of the English Countryside(London, 1971), pp. 72—74Google Scholar; SirHall, Daniel A., Reconstruction and the Land (London, 1941), pp. 10, 13—14, 40Google Scholar; Enfield, R. R., The Agricultural Crisis 1920—1923 (London, 1924), pp. 15, 31, 63, 65, 71, 77, 98Google Scholar; Whetham, E. H., “The Agricultural Act of 1920 and its Repeal” Agricultural History Review 22 (1974): 45—48Google Scholar; Astor, Viscount and Murray, Keith A. H., The Planning of Agriculture (London, 1933), pp. 24—25Google Scholar.

20 Census of England and Wales, 1921, County of Sussex (London, 1923).

21 Agricultural Output of England and Wales, 1925, Cmd. 2815 (1927), Table 24, pp. 145—46; Ministry of Agriculture Fisheries and Food, “Summary Report” in National Farm Survey of England and Wales (London, 1946), Table G, pp. 86—87; Public Record Office (hereafter cited as PRO), MAF 68, Agricultural Returns for Sussex.

22 Stamp, L. Dudley, “The Report of the Land Utilisation Committee Survey of Britain” in The Land of Britain, vol. 8, parts 83—84: Sussex, ed., Stamp, L. Dudley (London, 1937—1943), p. 355Google Scholar; PRO, Kew, MAF 68/2938, 2992, 3046, Agricultural Returns for Sussex.

23 Enfield, Agricultural Crisis, pp.15, 31, 71, 77; Astor and Murray, Planning of Agriculture, pp. 24—25; Hall, 13; Short, Brian M., “Agriculture in the High Weald of Kent and Sussex 1850 to 1953” (Ph.D. diss., University of London, 1973), p. 252Google Scholar; Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries, National Farm Survey of England and Wales, Summary Report (London, 1946), pp. 27, 93, Table A3.; Britton, D. K., “The Sale Value of Farm Land Between the Wars” Farm Economist 5 (1949): 128Google Scholar, Table 1.

24 Enfield, Agricultural Crisis, pp. 63, 65, 77, 98; Hall, Reconstruction and the Land, p. 40; Whetham, “The Agricultural Act,” pp. 45—49; Ministry of Works and Planning, Report of the Committee on Land Utilisation in Rural Areas, Cmd. 6378 (1942), p. 15.

25 Stamp, Land of Britain, p. 355; PRO, Kew, MAF 68/3208, Agricultural Returns for Sussex.

26 ESRO, C/C11/59/13, East Sussex Agricultural Committee, Cultivation and Land Drainage Sub-Committee, 21 Oct. 1927, 26 Oct. 1928; 1930—1939.

27 Hom, Rural Life, p. 210; ESRO, NFU 1/1—1/8, National Farmers’ Union, East Sussex Branch, Executive Committee Minutes, 23 December 1929, 23 January 1930, 24 June 1932, Poultry Committee Minutes, 4 March 1937, Fruit, Flower and Vegetable Committee, 17 July 1929, Milk Committee Minutes, 26 February 1934, Pigs Committee Minutes, 14 October 1935.

28 ESRO, C/C11/59/1, Agricultural and Smallholdings Committee, 21 Oct. 1932.

29 Orwin, C. S., A History of English Farming (London, 1949), pp. 85—86Google Scholar, 89—90; “Committee on Land Utilisation in Rural Areas,” 15; Horn, Rural Life, p. 237.

30 Stamp, Land of Britain, p. 355; PRO, Kew, MAF 68/3532, 2938, 2992, 3046, 3100, 3154, 3208, 3262, 3316, 3370, 3424, 3478, 3532, 3586, 3640, 3694, 3739, 3775, 3811, 3847, 3883, 3920.

31 Wilkinson, Walter, A Sussex Peep-Show (London, 1933), p. 75Google Scholar.

32 Leigh-Bennett, , Golf in the South;Mais, S. P. B., Walking at Week-ends (London, c. 1935)Google Scholar; PRO, RAIL 652/29, Southern Railway Publications, Country Homes at London’s Door (London, c. 1934), pp. 9-11.

33 Mingay, G. E. A SocialHistory of the English Countryside (London, 1990), p. 217Google Scholar; ESRO, C/C75/4 Small Holdings and Agriculture Files: General Files; C/C75/5, Small Holdings and Agriculture Files: General Files.

34 The Sussex Express, 2 Jan. 1925.

35 ESRO, C/C11/21/6, Smallholdings and Allotments Committee, Auction Sub-Committee Minute Book 1919—1921.

36 Ibid., 8 April 1919; 27 January 1920; East Sussex Smallholdings and Allotments Committee, Auction Sub-committee minutes, 8 April 1919.

37 ESRO, C/C11/21/6, Auction Sub-Committee; C/C 11/21/7, Selection Sub-Committee; C/C11/59/4, Small Holdings and Allotments Sub-Committee; C/C 11/59/8, General Purposes Sub-Committee; C/J1/8, Annual Reports on County Smallholdings; C/J2/14, Hole and Alchome Farm, Nutley.

38 ESRO, C/C11/59/4, Smallholdings and Allotments Sub-Committee Minutes.

39 ESRO, C/C75/4, General File on Land Settlement.

40 ESRO, C/C11/21/7, Selection Sub-Committee; C/C11/59/7, Selection Sub-Committee.

41 Cmd. 2815, Agricultural Output of England and Wales, 1925, p. x.

42 ESRO, C/C11/59/7, C/C75/4, Small Holdings and Agriculture Files: General File.

43 ESRO, C/C11/21/7 Selection Sub-Committee, 2 Sept. 1919, 14 Sept. 1920; C/C4/59/4, Small Holdings and Allotments Committee, 29 Sept. 1922.

44 ESRO, C/C11/21/7, East Sussex Smallholdings and Allotments, Selection Sub-Committee Minutes; C/C11/59/8, General Purposes Sub-Committee, 27 July 1923; C/J2/14, Correspondence Files, Hole and Alchorne Farm, Nutley, Schedule of Sub-Division.

45 Ibid.

46 ESRO, C/C75/5 General Files on Land Settlement for Ex-servicemen.

47 The Sussex Express, 30 Oct. 1925.

48 ESRO, C/C11/59/4, Smallholdings and Allotments Sub-Committee Minutes; C/J1/1, 8, 12, 18, Annual Reports on County Smallholdings.

49 Ibid.

50 C/C11/59/8, General Purposes Sub-Committee, 23 Oct. 1925, 11 Dec. 1925, 28 May 1926.

51 Mingay, A Social History, p. 217; Simon Miller, “Urban Dreams and Rural Reality: Land and Landscape in English Culture, 1920—45,” Rural History 6, 1 (April 1995): 94; Wiener, Martin, English Culture and the Decline of the Industrial Spirit, 1850—1980 (Penguin, 1981), pp. 6—7Google Scholar, 100—01; Douglas, Land, People and Politics, pp. 194—96.

52 ESRO, C/J1/1, 12, 18, Annual Reports on County Smallholdings for 1929, 1933, 1936; C/J3/2, Smallholdings Registers, “Casualties-Changes in Tenancies.”

53 ESRO, C/C11/59/4, 25 March 1927; C/C11/59/7, 4 March 1927, 20 Jan. 1928.

54 Ibid., 30 Sept. 1927, 5 Oct. 1928, 4 Oct. 1929.

55 ESRO, C/C11/21/4 Small Holdings and Allotments Sub-Committee, 1 October 1926; C/C11/59/8, General Purposes Sub-Committee, 16 September 1927, 2 March 1928.

56 ESRO, C/J1/1, 8, 12, 18, Annual Reports on County Smallholdings. Even the large poultry industry, a mainstay of agriculture in the region, experienced a decline. The number of chickens, which peaked at 24,000 in 1934, fell to 13,000 by 1939.

57 ESRO, C/J1/1, 8, 12, 18, Annual Reports on Smallholdings.

58 ESRO, C/C11/21/4 Small Holdings and Allotments Sub-Committee, 1 October 1926; C/C11/59/8, General Purposes Sub-Committee, 16 September 1927, 2 March 1928.

59 ESRO, C/J1/1, 8, 12, 18, Annual Reports on County Small Holdings, 1922, 1929, 1933, 1939.

60 Chesterton, G. K., The Outline of Sanity(New York, 1927)Google Scholar; Cronin, A. J., The Stars Look Down (London,1935)Google Scholar. There are numerous books and articles of the inter-war years that discuss the recreational and residential aspects of the countryside. For example, see Williams-Ellis, Clough, ed., Britain and the Beast (London, 1938) and idem, , England and the Octopus (Portmeirion, 1928)Google Scholar; Joad, C. E. M., The Horrors of the Countryside (London, 1931)Google Scholar.

61 Joad, C. E. M., “The Peoples’ Claim,” in Williams-Ellis, Britain and the Beast, p. 67Google Scholar.

62 Massingham, H. J., “Our Inheritance from the Past,” in Williams-Ellis, , Britain and the Beast, p. 11—36Google Scholar.