Fox Hunting and the Food Supply

Hunting meet at Southcott Green, Linslade [Z1432/2]

Thursday 1st February 1917: Leighton Buzzard Urban District Council  is resisting pressure to plough up parks and recreation grounds for food production, the more so as so much local land is being used to produce game for hunting rather than to grow food. The Vice-Chairman of the Council, Mr. F.G. Woodman, has published a letter stating that to plough up the park in order to let it as allotments would cost a great deal of public money while having very little impact on the food supply. Meanwhile the Council is doing its best to find suitable allotments for every applicant, but its appeals have not been met with offers of enough land to meet demand. He suggests that the Duke of Bedford’s large walled park in Woburn would be better used for producing food for the people rather than for grazing deer, raising pheasants and as fox cover. He suggests that “instead of trying to be publicly rude to men who are striving to do the best with the materials they have”, those complaining should try to “persuade the Duke of Bedford and his agent into increasing the food supply by beginning at home, then spend a few hours in the market sympathising with the poultry breeder whose roosts are being nightly, and in some cases daily devastated, and the farmer whose crop is continually being spoiled and whose livestock is menaced by the marauders to the serious financial loss and discouragement of both.”

The truth of Mr. Woodman’s comments is demonstrated by this letter from a small poultry keeper who lost fifty fowls to foxes in the last year. He says: “Last year more than 400 fowls were killed within a radius of three miles of the fox cover. One labouring man lost 64 in one night, which were valued at £15. Some time after he was rewarded with a cheque for £6 and told he must keep up his poultry while the foxes were about. This year foxes are killing poultry worse than ever, fetching them by daylight. I myself am only a small poultry keeper, but I have 10 fowl houses to shut up each night and open every morning. That means 140 journeys every week to shut and open fowl houses.”

Source: Leighton Buzzard Observer, 30th January 1917

Ampthill Training Camp

Training camp at Ampthill Park [Z1306/1/34/3]

Tuesday 4th April 1916: There has been a case of measles at the Ampthill Training Camp, as a result of which passes for weekend leave were not given. On Thursday the soldiers at the camp enjoyed an excellent concert given by a party from Bedford. Performers included: Tom Swan, a clever comedian who was wounded in France; Signor Bellizzi, a veteran of 21 years in the British Navy and a talented singer; elocutionist Private Densley; and Mrs Hawkins Pearey as accompanist. There has been work as well as play, with the trainees taking part on several route marches, including one on Saturday through the villages of Maulden, Flitton and Flitwick. On the same day the draft ready for the Front was inspected by the Duke of Bedford in his role as Colonel.

Source: Leighton Buzzard Observer, 4th April 1916

More News of the Great Storm

Children collecting wood from fallen trees 

Wednesday 29th March 1916: News is coming in of the damage caused by yesterday’s great storm. In the town centre of Bedford a gable end blew in over Messrs Golding and Company’s shop in the High Street. The Bull clock and the Town Clock were blocked up with snow and both stopped at quarter past three. At the Modern School a flagstaff was blown over, smashing one of the battlements of the turret, and in Midland Road a window, complete with its frame, was blown out of the Co-operative Society’s Hall. Along with the gale came flooding as Monday night’s snow melted; many houses were flooded out at Biddenham and at Goldington the green was largely underwater and a number of cottages were surrounded.

Soldiers billeted in the Bedford area have begun clearing the many fallen trees from the roads and removing others which had been uprooted and toppled into the river at Bedford. In Newnham Lane no less than 39 large trees were blown down. The Town Council has permitted householders to fill their wood sheds by taking branches of no more than six inches diameter from the fallen trees, a task likely to take several days. In Kempston the famous walnut orchard of  Mr. Walter Harter, J.P. has been wrecked by the great gale. Three hundred and sixty five trees had been planted in 1815 to commemorate the Battle of Waterloo. These had since been thinned, leaving about half the original number, and others have occasionally blown down; of the 160 remaining trees, only 40 survived yesterday’s storm.

At Luton the roof blew off a stand at the football ground, with part being flung onto the Great Northern railway line behind where it hit a standing railway carriage. The Club secretary estimates that the damage will cost £150. Some of the huts at Biscot Camp suffered badly and the men were housed for the night at the Corn Exchange, St. Mary’s Hall and the Fire Station. Many trees were blown down in Wardown Park and elsewhere, and a number of motor cars had to be abandoned by their drivers. An employee at the Vauxhall Motors works in Kimpton Road was badly injured by a falling bough on Tuesday evening as she was entering the mess-room.

During the initial snow fall on Monday evening a motor car collided with a footstone of the Market Cross at Leighton Buzzard due to snow obscuring the windscreen and covering the headlamps. On Tuesday afternoon farmer had great difficulty getting home from Leighton market, and a number of tradesmen were stranded during their delivery rounds. The Postmaster at Leighton reports that he has never seen or heard of such a “hopeless tangle of wires”, with all telegraphic communication interrupted and almost all telephone wires broken. Soulbury Road in Linslade was almost blocked by snow drifts three to four feet deep. At Husborne Crawley a large chimney stack was blown on to the roof of a public house where it crashed through the roof and through the bedroom floor into the room below; fortunately nobody was nearby and there were no injuries. Motor cars sent to meet the Duke of Bedford at Bletchley Station were unable to get there, and the Duke was forced to sleep on a couch at the Station Hotel, which was already full of stranded passengers. The next day he set out for Woburn in the hotel motor car but was stopped by fallen trees across the road; he then decided to walk to Woburn, leaving his valet and luggage to return to the station.

Sources: Luton News 30th March 1916; Leighton Buzzard Observer 4th April 1916; Bedfordshire Times 31st March & 7th April 1916; Bedfordshire Standard 7th April 1916

Soldier's Family Evicted at Woburn

Leighton Street, Woburn 1908 [Z1086/10]

Monday 3rd January 1916: In an unusual case the Duke of Bedford has instructed both the prosecution and the defence solicitors when applying at the Police Court for the eviction of one of his tenants. Before the war the Duke would clearly have been in a position to evict the man and his family, but the Court now has discretion in cases where it appears that a tenant was unable to vacate a property through circumstances directly related to the war. In the light of this the Duke wished to secure a fair, legal decision in a difficult situation.

A cottage at 70, Leighton Street, Woburn was let to Mr. George Tansley in 1906 at two shillings and sixpence a week. The tenancy was tied to his employment with the local blacksmith, Mr. W.H. Marshall, and it is essential for the blacksmith’s business that his employee should live opposite the smithy. Last September Mr Tansley left to join the Army Service Corps, resulting in the closure of the smithy until a replacement for him was found in October. However, despite being given notice to quit Mrs. Tansley and the couple’s two daughters remained in the cottage. The new employee, a Mr. Manning, had initially gone home to Olney at weekends, but was now living with his family in a small cottage at Birchmoor Green which was not suitable for his needs, being almost a mile from his work. He had already threatened to leave as he was unable to get home for breakfast and struggled to get home for dinner.

Mrs. Tansley is not from Woburn, and the Duke has admitted it would be impossible for her to get another cottage in the village. The Duke's estate agent stated that he had explained the situation to Mrs. Tansley and had offered her reasonable expenses to move to any part of the country of her choice, and any legal assistance she required to defend the eviction case. While the Duke did not wish any harm to the family of a man who was serving his country, the smith's business was essential for agriculture and could not be carried out properly without the cottage. He therefore wished the magistrates to make a legal decision on the matter. After giving the matter consideration the magistrates exercised their discretion and decided that the eviction should be carried out; Mrs. Tansley was given 28 days to leave.

Source: Leighton Buzzard Observer, 8th January 1916.

Left Flapper Slightly Dented

Woburn Abbey riding school in use as a hospital c.1916 [Z141/5]

Saturday 13th March 1915:  An article has been published in The Times describing the success of initiatives taken by the Duke and Duchess of Bedford. The Duke was responsible for setting up the training camp at Ampthill, and they have permitted the conversion of the tennis court and riding school at Woburn Abbey to provide a hospital described as “one of the most comfortable and well-equipped hospitals in the country” of which it can be said that “to anyone who needs to learn how best a war hospital should be organised and managed, a visit to Woburn is a liberal education”.  We are told that “the buildings have been transformed. Windows have been pierced in the riding school and the largest ward is here. There is a well-appointed cook house; a room full of baths with a plentiful supply of hot water; an operating-room; a dispensary; store-rooms, and, in fact, everything that can be required for the comfort of the sufferers, including a reading-room.“

The villagers themselves have also been contributing to the war effort. The girls of the Council School have given thirteen shillings and sixpence to the “something to smoke” fund. At St. Mary’s Church a collection has been taken in aid of the Mission to Seamen after the Reverend E. Eland of Antwerp reported on the work it carries out for the benefit of our sailors, whose efforts have been so vital for the country’s war effort. Woburn men are doing their bit in the forces. Arthur H. Simmons, a former employee of the Park Farm Office who left England for Canada nearly two years ago, has been wounded while at the Front with the Princess Patricia’s Canadian Light Infantry. He has written from a hospital near Paris describing his condition as “left flapper slightly dented”.

Sources: Leighton Buzzard Observer and Linslade Gazette, 2nd March 1915; Bedfordshire Standard 12th March 1915

“Home from Home” at Ampthill

The Camp, Ampthill Park c.1914 [Z1306/1/34/2]

Thursday 19th November 1914, Ampthill: The first soldiers have now arrived at the Bedfordshire Training Depot set up by the Duke of Bedford at Ampthill. Herbert Bennett of Biggleswade, who signed up with the Bedfordshire Regiment last week and was among the first soldiers to arrive there, has given us some more detail about the camp.[1] He says that there were about eighty men in the first draft to arrive from Kempston Barracks. Of the six huts so far completed one is being used as the Sergeants Mess, the sergeants being mostly former police officers or ex-Army along with Regimental Sergeant Major Roper Bass. He reports that the facilities are much better than those at Kempston Barracks, with new spring single beds with mattresses and blankets in the huts, and with food that promises to be good. If it continues as it has begun it will be quite a “home from home”. The trainees are to go to the woods to learn trench digging and have been told that the Duke himself will be coming to take Company drill twice a week.

Source: Memoir of H (Bert) Bennett [AU41/3/4]

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[1] Herbert (“Bert”) Bennett remained at Ampthill until he was sent overseas on 9th June 1915. His service papers show that he served in France until October 1916, was posted home until March 1918, then saw out the war back in France. 

Woburn Abbey

Woburn Abbey, 2008 © Bedfordshire and Luton Archive Service

5th September 1914, Woburn: Many of the employees of the Duke of Bedford at Woburn Abbey and Park have already left to join the Forces. More are expected to follow as the Duke has made it crystal clear that after the war he will not continue to employ any single men who fail to serve their Country. All his workers have received the following notice:

“To all employees on the estates of the Duke of Bedford, K.G. His Grace directs that at the conclusion of the war posts now held by single men between the ages of 19 and 35 who are physically fit, and have not accepted service in any of the Naval and Military Forces of the Crown, will be thrown open to men who return from the war in want of employment, and that the present occupants of those posts must not expect to retain them.”

Source: Luton News 10/9/1914