Bonds End Lane

Historically, farming has always been the chief activity in the rural villages of North Oxfordshire. In the 19th century, grain, hay, straw, malt and beer went to London and Birmingham via Banbury’s canal and railway. Until the 1920s, carriers’ carts provided the only link with Banbury market and great droves of cattle and sheep made their way to the Market Place, as they had done for centuries.

By 1914 Oxfordshire was suffering the full impact of the agricultural depression which had begun in the 1870s. With cheaper imported grain and meat, and a run of poor harvests, the county slipped from being one of the richest to one of the poorest. Agricultural labourers’ wages were the lowest in England. In summer, life in these villages could be very pleasant indeed. But, for many farm workers, there were times of insecurity and isolation.

The living conditions and welfare of the rural communities did not feature in National Government thinking, but following the Local Government Act of 1894, Banbury Rural District Council was formed absorbing the Banbury Rural Sanitary District who had grappled with drains, sewers, cesspools, flooding, pumps, springs and wells.

Part of the remit of The Land Enquiry set up by Lloyd George in 1912 was to establish what the stumbling blocks were to improve living condi5ons for farm workers. It had little difficulty in establishing that rural housing conditions were appalling. Wages were lower than in urban areas, rents were relatively high and landlords were often unable or unwilling to improve living conditions. A further report in 1913 put forward a number of solutions ranging from a reformed Land Tax, subsidies for Councils to build cottages and the wider encouragement of smallholdings. So the idea of council owned housing for rent to the rural communities was conceived but the Great War was to intervene before a coherent set of reforms on the ‘land question’ could be put in to practice.

To be continued… Maureen Hicks