For Parish Council Aficiandos ......

[ColinJ]

I know there are a few visitors and users of the Vote 2012 forum who are very interested in this area, such as “Listener”.

I just wanted to publicise the fact that my long-term research into Harrow’s electoral history has now been extended to the parish council elections that took place between 1894 and 1933.

The first parish council that I have been in a position to upload to my site is Pinner Parish Council. The links are:

For the 1894-1918 period: www.harrow-elections.co.uk/resources/1894Pinner1.pdf

For the 1919-1933 period: www.harrow-elections.co.uk/resources/1894Pinner2.pdf

I have only one election result for the whole of this period still to locate, which isn’t bad going I think. A number of interesting features have come to light, and I am not sure how well known they are:

1) On their formation in 1894 – as second-tier authorities under Rural District Councils – it was the intention that the whole Parish Council be elected annually. Therefore, after the first election in December 1894 elections took place in the spring of 1896, 1897, 1898 and 1899. It must have become obvious to central government that this was causing too much ‘churn’ and instability.

2) The Parish Councillors (Tenure of Office) Act 1899 extended the term of office of those parish councillors elected in 1899 to 1901. Additionally, elections were then to take place every three years concurrently with the elections to the Rural District, i.e. in 1901, 1904, 1907 etc.

3) Councillors were elected by a show of hands at a Parish Meeting. Only if a number of electors demanded a poll would the election then take place at the ballot box.

4) All casual vacancies – whether in times of peace or during the Great War – were filled by co-option.

[ColinJ]

I am pleased to report that I have now finished research into the elections of the second of the five parish councils that existed in the Harrow area between 1894 and 1934.

The new work has chronicled Harrow Weald Parish Council. If you are interested, the links are:

For the 1894-1918 period: www.harrow-elections.co.uk/resources/1894HarrowWeald1.pdf

For the 1919-1933 period: www.harrow-elections.co.uk/resources/1894HarrowWeald2.pdf

Like the Pinner results that I published earlier, the interest rests perhaps not with the names and numbers (of interest to only the most zealous of psephologists) but with the footnotes, where I have attempted to give a feel for 'parish pump politics' between the last years of Queen Victoria's reign to the time of the slump of the early 1930s.

Although party politics were absent in Harrow Weald, there were clearly combative factions from time to time, as the emergence of rival 'tickets' illustrates. There also appear to have been a number of bad-tempered Parish Meetings that ended up with three local polls being called. Details of the polls are recorded here:

www.harrow-elections.co.uk/resources/1894AppendU.pdf

The only one of the candidates to perhaps mean anything to a modern audience is Thomas F. Blackwell.  He was part of the Blackwell family that co-founded the Crosse and Blackwell fine food company.  (Crosse was also a Harrow Weald resident.)  W.S. Gilbert (of Gilbert and Sullivan fame) was a Harrow Weald resident until his death in 1911.  I noted that his widow, Lady Gilbert, attended Parish Meetings on at least one occasion.

[ColinJ]

My historical survey of the electoral history of former Parish Councils in the area now covered by the modern London Borough of Harrow continues. The latest parish to be studied is Great Stanmore, but particular problems have arisen which has resulted in the publication of information for the period 1894 to 1918 only, at:

www.harrow-elections.co.uk/resources/1894GreatStanmore1.pdf

The results in themselves are pretty dull. Only the first two elections – in 1894 and 1896 – were contested at the Parish Meetings and resulted in a poll taking place. Thereafter enthusiasm and interest in the new council clearly waned, possibly once its limited powers were realised. After the 1896 poll the next contested election occurred after the First World War.

My inability to (so far) complete the study for the 1919 to 1934 period is due to missing Parish Council and Parish Meeting minute books. The local collection at Harrow's reference library has only TWO volumes of Council minutes. The first volume covers meetings from 2.1.1895 to 23.11.1914; the other volume 14.2.1933 to 28.3.1934. The whereabouts of the minute books for the intervening period is unknown. Equally frustrating, the single volume of Parish Meeting minutes covers 4.12.1894 to 22.3.1915. Although there are plenty of spare, blank pages in the book it was not used for the minutes of subsequent meetings: again it is not known if these have survived in another form elsewhere. It would seem that I will have to depend on any newspaper reports to complete the survey. It is possible that the parish council made official returns to the Middlesex County Council (MCC): I will discover that in due course when I visit the Metropolitan Archives to check out what they might have for the MCC.

Great Stanmore parish was relatively small in population: in the 1901 census it was 1,827. By 1931, despite the growth of ‘Metroland' in neighbouring areas, it was still only 2,688. Of course the local government electorate (‘parochial' electors) was much smaller: 326 in 1894, 419 in 1913, and 1,296 in 1931.

Finally, some amusement can be had at the expense of a candidate in 1896/97…… I wonder what on earth was going through Mr & Mrs Grinling's minds when they named their son Gibbons…….!

[Pete Whitehead]

I'm surprised how small the electorate was in that area but then I guess it was mostly buiilt after 1931, except for a few bits toward the top of STanmore Hill. I know you have maps on the site, but are you able to give some description of the boundary? It looks to me that it covers the area roughly between Marhs Lane in the East and Kenton Lane in the West, or is it narrower than that?

[Davıd Boothroyd]

May 1, 2013 12:17:59 GMT ColinJ said:

Finally, some amusement can be had at the expense of a candidate in 1896/97…… I wonder what on earth was going through Mr & Mrs Grinling's minds when they named their son Gibbons…….!

They were probably fans of sculpture.

[ColinJ]

May 1, 2013 12:58:05 GMT Pete Whitehead said:

I'm surprised how small the electorate was in that area but then I guess it was mostly buiilt after 1931, except for a few bits toward the top of STanmore Hill. I know you have maps on the site, but are you able to give some description of the boundary? It looks to me that it covers the area roughly between Marhs Lane in the East and Kenton Lane in the West, or is it narrower than that?

Unfortunately precise boundaries are not clear to me. I suspect it is the area bounded on the west by Kenton Lane/Clamp Hill, and on the east by Dennis Lane/Marsh Lane.

Alan Godfrey Maps (Consett) have published excellent Old Ordnance Survey Maps. Their edition for Great Stanmore (Middlesex sheet 5.16) is from the 1935 revision, so a year after the parish council ceased to exist, and the boundaries (if shown on earlier surveys) may now have been deleted.  I think these maps are really great and worth investing in for areas of specific interest.  The scale is approximately 14.5 inches to the mile.

[ColinJ]

May 1, 2013 13:34:31 GMT Davıd Boothroyd said:

May 1, 2013 12:17:59 GMT ColinJ said:

Finally, some amusement can be had at the expense of a candidate in 1896/97…… I wonder what on earth was going through Mr & Mrs Grinling's minds when they named their son Gibbons…….!

They were probably fans of sculpture.

I have always wondered about another couple of unlikely names of folk, who I came across when I worked at Kodak.

One colleague was called Julian Caesar. Another was known as Tony Gray, although his real name was Earl T. Gray.

[stepney]

May 1, 2013 12:58:05 GMT Pete Whitehead said:

I'm surprised how small the electorate was in that area but then I guess it was mostly buiilt after 1931, except for a few bits toward the top of STanmore Hill. I know you have maps on the site, but are you able to give some description of the boundary? It looks to me that it covers the area roughly between Marhs Lane in the East and Kenton Lane in the West, or is it narrower than that?

Not sure how useful these will be, but a certain degree of ground detail and difficult-to-see dotted lines for parish boundaries are in the 1885 Boundary Commissioners' map and this 1900 map.

[ColinJ]

May 1, 2013 16:55:38 GMT stepney said:

May 1, 2013 12:58:05 GMT Pete Whitehead said:

I'm surprised how small the electorate was in that area but then I guess it was mostly buiilt after 1931, except for a few bits toward the top of STanmore Hill. I know you have maps on the site, but are you able to give some description of the boundary? It looks to me that it covers the area roughly between Marhs Lane in the East and Kenton Lane in the West, or is it narrower than that?

Not sure how useful these will be, but a certain degree of ground detail and difficult-to-see dotted lines for parish boundaries are in the 1885 Boundary Commissioners' map and this 1900 map.

The 1900 map is excellent! It does show the western boundary of Great Stanmore parish to be well to the east of what I suspected (Kenton Lane/Clamp Hill). The eastern boundary appears to be on Marsh Lane but to the east of Dennis Lane. A small extension of Great Stanmore reached as far as the Morrisons store in Queensbury!

[ColinJ]

I have decided to upload my 'best shot' at the electoral record for Great Stanmore Parish Council for the period 1919-1933. It can be found at:

www.harrow-elections.co.uk/resources/1894GreatStanmore2.pdf

To be honest there is nothing particularly earth-shattering here. As noted in a posting of 1 May, missing minute books and poor press reporting have resulted in a significant number of unknowns during these years for this parish council. I have therefore concluded I should publish what I have collated, on the basis that it is unlikely I will be able to fill in the gaps in the near future (or indeed maybe never!).

[ColinJ]

I have now added results for Edgware Parish Council to my website.

Little Stanmore and Edgware Parish Council areas were both, in terms of population, smaller than the other parishes in Hendon Rural District (viz. Pinner, Harrow Weald and Great Stanmore), so each Council consisted of six members. The parishes shared a long common boundary which was Watling Street, an ancient trackway that was paved by the Romans. To the east of the road was an area administered by Edgware Parish Council, which held its sessions in the Girls' School Room. The Council held its inaugural meeting on 18 December 1894 and met for the final time on 24 March 1931.

On 1 April 1931 the Edgware parish was transferred to Hendon Urban District, the other parishes of Hendon Rural District continuing in existence for a further three years. During the lifetime of Edgware Parish Council there appears to have been only one election of councillors that proceeded to a poll. Being a small parish, there was a tendency on the part of the parishioners to try and avoid the expense of a poll: even in 1928, a keenly contested election at a well-attended Parish Meeting did not result in a demand for a poll. Elections were not fought on party lines although by 1928 the Edgware and District Residents' Association was beginning to wield some influence: all councillors elected on that occasion belonged to the association.

The records for Edgware Parish Council are mostly complete. Unfortunately I have been unable to find definitive information for the 1896, 1897 and 1898 elections so my 'best guess' for each has been included in the results. The links are as follows:

For elections between 1894 and 1918:
www.harrow-elections.co.uk/resources/1894Edgware1.PDF

For elections between 1919 and 1931:
www.harrow-elections.co.uk/resources/1894Edgware2.PDF

For a parish poll on the question of purchasing a new fire engine:
www.harrow-elections.co.uk/resources/1894AppendV.PDF

For a parish poll on the issue of amalgamation of local government districts:
www.harrow-elections.co.uk/resources/1894AppendW.PDF

The information that I have collected on the poll on amalgamation of local government districts has left me very confused. If any forum member can help me decipher what was going on I would be very grateful!

Added in edit: Sorry, forgot to mention that a full list of Chairmen and Vice-Chairmen of the Council can be found at:
www.harrow-elections.co.uk/resources/1894AppendD.pdf#page=4

[Deleted]

Colin, I love you.

[David Ashforth]

From Steve Chamber's London Community Governance site.

London Parish Councils and dates abolished
Chislehurst 1900
Foots Cray 1902
Feltham 1904
Hayes (Hillingdon) 1904
Ruislip 1904
Arkley 1905
Merton 1907
Yiewsley 1911
Morden 1913
Totteridge 1914
Beddington 1915
Coulsdon 1915
Mitcham 1915
Sanderstead 1915
Wallington 1915
Crayford 1920
Addington 1925
Dagenham 1926
Hornchurch 1926
Northolt 1928
Cowley 1929
Harefield 1929
Hillingdon East 1929
Ickenham 1929
West Drayton 1929
Bedfont 1930
Cranford 1930
East Bedfont 1930
Hanworth 1930
Harlington 1930
Harmondsworth 1930
Edgware 1931
Chelsfield 1934
Cranham 1934
Cudham 1934
Downe 1934
Farnborough 1934
Great Stanmore 1934
Harrow Weald 1934
Havering-atte-Bower 1934
Hayes (Bromley) 1934
Keston 1934
Little Stanmore 1934
Mottingham 1934
Noak Hill 1934
North Cray 1934
Orpington 1934
Pinner 1934
Rainham 1934
St Mary Cray 1934
St Paul's Cray 1934
Upminster 1934
Wennington 1934
West Wickham 1934
North Ockendon 1936

Prospective Parish Councils (as at August 2012)


Bermondsey (Southwark)
Borough & Bankside (Southwark)
Chingford (Waltham Forest)
Forest Gate (Newham)
Harlesden (Brent)
Kilburn (Camden)
London Fields (Hackney)
Mayfair (Westminster)
Mitcham (Merton)
Norton Folgate (Tower Hamlets)
Upper Norwood (Croydon)
Queen's Park (Westminster) - Parish Council will be created in 2014
Thamesmead (Bexley / Greenwich)
Wapping (Tower Hamlets)
Waterloo (Lambeth)

[ColinJ]

Dec 4, 2013 19:58:48 GMT doktorb🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍⚧️ said:

Colin, I love you.

Steady on there....

[neilm]

This is excellent. Thank you!

[ColinJ]

Last week I spent two days researching Little Stanmore Parish Council at the London Metropolitan Archives (LMA). A lot of new information was gathered to add to information already collected from other sources, and, as a result, my compilation of election results for the parish between 1894 and 1934 is quite advanced and reached a stage that makes uploading the information on to the harrow-elections web site worthwhile.  So.....

For election results between 1894 and 1918 see:
www.harrow-elections.co.uk/resources/1894LittleStanmore1.pdf

For election results between 1919 and 1934 see:
www.harrow-elections.co.uk/resources/1894LittleStanmore2.pdf

For a list of Chairmen and Vice-Chairmen of the Parish Council see:
www.harrow-elections.co.uk/resources/1894AppendD.pdf#page=4

For an index to candidates see:
www.harrow-elections.co.uk/resources/1894Index$28LittleStanmore$29.pdf

This is the last of the five parish councils that I have chosen to study. For reasons that have probably been lost in the mists of time the Minute Books for Little Stanmore were deposited at the LMA rather than the London Borough of Harrow. Unfortunately the last of these volumes (covering January 1930 to March 1934) is not stored at LMA and its whereabouts currently unknown. What this has meant is that a list of Chairmen and Vice-Chairmen is not quite complete yet.

As far as the election results go, only two elections – 1894 and 1901 – proceeded to a poll. In the former case I have been able to include some quotes from the press that add some local colour. As for 1901, I still have to try and find the poll result, and I will need to revisit local newspaper microfilm records to see if I can find it.

Little Stanmore was a small parish and had six councillors: the electorate only managed to exceed 1,000 by the time of the 1925 election. The population of the parish grew rapidly thereafter due to ‘Metroland’ development, especially in the southern part of the parish. Elections to the Council (which convened at the Whitchurch Institute) were more competitive than those in neighbouring Edgware: in the final two contests the Little Stanmore Ratepayers’ Association promoted candidates, while the local Conservative Association was represented in 1928 and the local Labour Party in 1931.

[nick]

Dec 4, 2013 20:54:39 GMT David Ashforth said:

From Steve Chamber's London Community Governance site.

London Parish Councils and dates abolished
Chislehurst 1900
Foots Cray 1902
Feltham 1904
Hayes (Hillingdon) 1904
Ruislip 1904
Arkley 1905
Merton 1907
Yiewsley 1911
Morden 1913
Totteridge 1914
Beddington 1915
Coulsdon 1915
Mitcham 1915
Sanderstead 1915
Wallington 1915
Crayford 1920
Addington 1925
Dagenham 1926
Hornchurch 1926
Northolt 1928
Cowley 1929
Harefield 1929
Hillingdon East 1929
Ickenham 1929
West Drayton 1929
Bedfont 1930
Cranford 1930
East Bedfont 1930
Hanworth 1930
Harlington 1930
Harmondsworth 1930
Edgware 1931
Chelsfield 1934
Cranham 1934
Cudham 1934
Downe 1934
Farnborough 1934
Great Stanmore 1934
Harrow Weald 1934
Havering-atte-Bower 1934
Hayes (Bromley) 1934
Keston 1934
Little Stanmore 1934
Mottingham 1934
Noak Hill 1934
North Cray 1934
Orpington 1934
Pinner 1934
Rainham 1934
St Mary Cray 1934
St Paul's Cray 1934
Upminster 1934
Wennington 1934
West Wickham 1934
North Ockendon 1936

Prospective Parish Councils (as at August 2012)


Bermondsey (Southwark)
Borough & Bankside (Southwark)
Chingford (Waltham Forest)
Forest Gate (Newham)
Harlesden (Brent)
Kilburn (Camden)
London Fields (Hackney)
Mayfair (Westminster)
Mitcham (Merton)
Norton Folgate (Tower Hamlets)
Upper Norwood (Croydon)
Queen's Park (Westminster) - Parish Council will be created in 2014
Thamesmead (Bexley / Greenwich)
Wapping (Tower Hamlets)
Waterloo (Lambeth)

Barking Reach (also known as Barking Riverside) is also seeking to become a Parish Council

Proposed boundary for Barking Reach, via London Community Governance 
 

[neilm]

This is excellent. Thanks chaps.

[ColinJ]

A recent addition to my web site are two illustrations, being the official notices for the Edgware Parish Poll held on 1 January 1923:





The original notices are held in the Barnet Local History collection at Hendon: these images are assembled from photocopies supplied by the archivist. A feature, very typical of the time, was the use of multiple typefaces by the printer.

[East Anglian Lefty]

The Truth Room seems like a bizarrely Orwellian place for a polling station to be located.