Romford UDC

[finsobruce]

That's it. I'm off!

To Romford as it turns out. Several weeks ago I e-mailed all the local history/archive/museums services of the London boroughs that previously contained UDCs and RDCs. All but two have replied (will name and shame later if they don't respond to a follow up  and several have, or think they have, already tabulated results of one or both (where there were two or more) of the predecessor authorities. 

Havering seem to have the most promising amount of stuff which may include some data for  Romford RDC and  Hornchurch UDC as well as Romford UDC. Bexley think they have everything for the four predecessor UDCs which may or may not turn out to be true. I do however, have to join Bexley libraries first. Brent's archives may cover Wembley or Willesden or both but are currently in their "quarantine" room which sounds slightly alarming. Croydon have Coulsdon and Purley from a certain date and think the Surrey county history centre will have the rest. 

A lot of the others have bits and pieces or suggest council minute books from the time, but i've no idea how detailed these might be and how they might differ from place to place. Several have nothing at all except local newspapers. I'm going to set up some visits in the new year depending on other commitments and how interesting/depressing the first forays turn out to be. 

Hopefully I will have something to report from Romford after tomorrow. I bet you all can't wait. 

[Davıd Boothroyd]

Hmm. When I was compiling the list of byelections in London boroughs in 1964-68, Havering was one of the most difficult because their council minutes did not include any mention of a councillor having ceased to be a member of the authority. However each agenda did have a frontsheet with a seating plan of the council, and from that it was possible to compare the two and see who was no longer sitting.

Some councils do include their election results (to varying degrees of detail) in their minutes.

[finsobruce]

I'm expecting to find that in some cases the minutes option will turn out to be wishful thinking but there you go. At Havering as at Enfield, someone in the dim and distant past seems to have taken the trouble to transcribe the results of the UDC whether for personal interest or local government reasons who can say. I will be taking a stubby pencil just in case I'm not allowed a biro again.....

[ColinJ]

Don't be too pessimistic about council minute books as a source of election results.

During my studies into Harrow, I found that the old Harrow-on-the-Hill UDC recorded the voting figures and full candidate names from all their elections in their Minute Books, right up to 1933. Sadly, including electorates and turnouts did not form part of the official record; these data had to be obtained from local newspapers.

Unfortunately Wealdstone UDC did NOT follow the same procedure as their neighbour, no mention of election results being in their minutes. (The Minutes were otherwise very useful for confirming when casual vacancies occured and their causes.)

As for Hendon Rurual District, again no mention of election results in the council minutes: this has led to a couple of 'gaps' in my record for this council.  However, I am hoping that there might be a record in the Hendon Union Board of Guardians Minutes, as Rural District councillors also served as Guardians.  A visit to the London Metropolitan Archives will be needed to find out if this is the case.

The five parish councils whose minutes I consulted contained the voting fugures from both parish meetings and polls in their Minutes, with one or two minor exceptions.

We all wish you well with your studies.

[finsobruce]

Thanks Colin. It went very well. I even did part of the journey on Route 66 (Leytonstone to Romford).

The results from 1900 - 1935 were in the form of the official declarations pasted into a folder. And this included any by - elections, the first one being for the South ward on the 6th of September 1901. The early ones were produced by Wilson and Whitlow "steam printers of Romford". 1936 and 1937 were handwritten, and 1938 I obtained from the annual handbook which was printed at the end of every year. Hornchurch had them too. I'll be going back to get the rest from the other handbooks.

The downside of this compared to Edmonton is that the parties (or non party labels) were not recorded, so I won't post anything up until I've done a bit of research in the newspaper archive to try and put labels to names.

As a start here is the result of the 1864 election for the Health board which was also in the folder. Whether the other ones were ever there or it was added later I've no idea. No party labels obviously but it did include occupations.

George Griggs (Corn Merchant) 201*
George Gilbey (Corn Merchant) 199*
Edward Pertwee (Chemist) 205*
Robert Bartlett (Tailor) 210*
William Lee (Farmer) 122
Samuel Fletcher (Auctioneer) 127
Charles Springham (Timber Merchant) 109
Isaac Black (shoemaker) 93

Candidates addresses were also listed. Mr Lee the farmer lived at "Pigtails"

[Davıd Boothroyd]

Not really, as there were no party descriptions until 1969.

[finsobruce]

20th April 1900

North Ward
Bassett, John (gentleman) 133*
Blackwell, Joseph (butcher)61
Dowsing, James Everett (builder) 194*
Fletcher, Edward (newsagent) 168*
Holliday, John Richard (engineer) 98
Moore, Arthur Chisholm (solicitor) 103
Mynott, Frank (printer) 77
Ockenden, Pierce (licensed victualler) 111*

Central Ward
Barrett, Louis (vet) 90
Craig, John James (draper) 198*
Danby, John Jakman (hairdresser) 165*
Hammond, Joseph Samuel (builder) 132
Heasman, Henry Robert (schoolmaster) 127
Hewitt, Frederick Adolphus (manufacturer's agent) 68
Michell, Henry Bateman (engineer) 130
Muskett, William (confectioner) 53
Smith, Joseph (gentleman) 212*
Stone, Denny (draper) 222*

South ward
Attack, Edward Arthur (engineer) 187
Blackstock, James (ironmonger) 233*
Corbell, George William (accountant) 230*
Grey, Arthur Wilmott (dealer in musical instruments)124
Hill, Alfred James (merchant's assistant buyer) 181
Hunnable, William (builder) 224*
Porter, Arthur (solicitor) 240*

Collier Row ward
Elms, Robert (postman) 90*
Poel, William (farmer) 64*
Taylor, Henry (bricklayer) 46

Harold Wood ward
Harrison, William Henry (stockbroker) 2
Poole, William (baker) 65*
White, Daniel (gentleman) 36*

[Pete Whitehead]

Judging by the result in HArold Wood (which I take to be the area we now know as Harold Hill), stockbrokers were even less popular in 1900 than they are today - or perhaps people thought that William Henry Harrison was the same man who defeated us at the Battle of the Thames

[finsobruce]

Old Tippecanoe himself (not) . I've been knee deep in the British newspaper archive looking for explanations and as far as I can figure the other two were the "official" (possibly Conservative?) nominees and he was an Independent. The Returning officer had ruled a lot of nominations out of order. Will be back with more when i can figure out what i've done with my folders in BNA.

[finsobruce]

Let's do the timewarp again....

The very helpful Simon Donoghue at the Local studies centre in Havering kept digging on our behalf and found the declaration for the first set of elections to Romford UDC on the 17th of December 1894 stuck into the minutes for the Local Board of Health. No wards, no party descriptions and no occupations , although the candidates home address details are there should anyone want to know. A lot of them lived in Eastern Road. The result was as follows:

Abrahams, John (237)
Attack, Edward Arthur (356)*
Bird, Thomas (270)*
Burgess, Charles (301)*
Craig, John James (293)*
Dowsing, James Everett (382)*
Hammond, Joseph Samuel (313)*
Heasman, Henry Robert (348)*
Jennings, Robert (316)*
Rawlings, Arthur (243)
Roynon, John (353)*
Smith, Joseph (281)*
Spells, Isaac (209)
Stone, Denny (309)*
Westgate, Frederick (274)*
Whitmore, Henry (265)

There had been a parliamentary by election in April, caused by the death of the sitting Tory James Theobald who had been fatally injured trying to board a moving train at Romford station on the 10th of March. The Essex Newsman reported that "his buttock was ripped open... and he was not likely to recover".  At the resulting inquest the coroner recommended that the platforms at the station be made much higher. The resulting contest was won by the Conservative Alfred Money Wigram who beat the Liberal Alderman John Henry Bethell by 7,573 votes to 6,890. Wigram was a brewer involved in Reid's brewery, later part of Watney, Combe , Reid. 

[finsobruce]

Nothing much seems to have appeared in the papers about the UDC elections until October , although there is a reference to a big attendance at a meeting of Essex County Council to discuss the new arrangements for the area, the decision as to boundaries having been made at the District and Parish councils committee on August the 4th. The Essex Newsman reported that a Parochial electors Association was formed at a meeting at the public hall on the 31st of October and that Messrs Spells, Little, Bevitt, Eggleston, Stone , Collier and Westgate were suggested as potential candidates. As you can see from the post above only three of these made it to the ballot paper and only Stone and Westgate were successful. The Conservative and Unionist party held a smoking concert at the Corn Exchange on the 24th but none of our candidates were listed as being in attendance.
Bird was chairman of the Romford local board of of Health. In September 1894 a Mr Alfred Wire wrote to the Essex Standard about the visit of Catherine De Medici to England in 1637. Mr Bird had apparently lent him a lantern slide for his illustrated talk.
Abrahams, Burgess, Dowsing, Hammond, Heasman Roynon, Smith, Stone, Westgate and Whitmore were all also members of the Board of Health at the time of their election. Roynon was also on the Board of Guardians and clearly a builder or property developer as he is listed as twice selling Romford property at auction in 1894. Several of the sales appear to have been to people who were later on members of the UDC with him including Mr Hunnable and Mr Westgate. He was also involved in the Romford Cricket and Football club where the MP Mr Wigram was chairman and of an intruiging organisation called the Liberty of Havering, Barking and Dagenham Association for the Prosecution of felons which seems to have been some equivalent of Neighbourhood Watch. "It was carried on more with a view to preventing thefts occuring than prosecuting" according to the chairman Mr Wilson at the annual meeting in 1895 which took place at the Golden Lion Romford - the same place where Roynon auctioned his property. Roynon and Bird had been Wigram's proposer and seconder at the parliamentary by election.
Stone (listed as a draper in the result for 1900) was reported in April 1896 as having had his name used in an attempt to pass a fraudulent cheque. He appears to have been a member of the local Temperance movement.
Westgate seems to have been an auctioneer (a calling also shared by Bethell the Liberal candidate at the by election) and I have found a pre 1894 reference to him being a local agent for passages to Canada which included free plots of land for potential emigrants.
Henry Whitmore may also have been a temperance man along with Stone as he is found opening an "English Fair" in 1895 to help pay off the outstanding debt on the local Primitive Methodist chapel. In January 1895 the last meeting of the Local Board of health deplored the defeat of Abrams who had been an elected member for twenty eight years and Whitmore "Who had the management of the sewage farm".
All I can find about Isaac Spells is that he died in November 1898

[finsobruce]

Wigram did not last long as the MP for Romford.

Having held his seat with a reduced majority in the general election of 1895, on the 15th of January 1897 it was announced that he was to resign his seat due to ill health. He wasn't hanging about either - the announcement said that he would sail for Ceylon the same day. The report also noted that the constituency was now "the largest in the kingdom" with the enormous total of 23,475 electors. The seat was held for the Conservatives by Mr Louis Sinclair who was clearly subject to some grumblings from his own side. The Chelmsford Chronicle made a point of reporting that investigations had found a naturalisation certificate for Mr Sinclair and pronounced him previously French. The Tory agent later threatened to sue the Liberal Mr Bethell for implying that Sinclair was German.

What effect, if any, this had on the local elections I don't know. The meeting of the UDC on the 1st of February noted that Burgess, Hammond and Stone would retire in rotation and that Burgess would not be seeking re-election. It was also noted that a 20 horse power engine was to be bought for the sewage farm. On Friday the 9th of April The Chelmsford Chronicle mournfully reported  that "There was an utter lack of interest in the contest. At mid-day only about 50 electors had polled".  The eventual turnout was 204 out of 530 voters or just under 38.5%.

The result was:

Bevitt, William (Tax collector)81
Daldy, G. F . (Coal Merchant) 124
Fletcher, Edward (Stationer)202*
Hale, James (Furniture Dealer) 124
Hammond, J.S. (Builder)206*
Little,John (Gentleman) 169
Porter, Arthur (Solicitor) 285*
Spry, John (Schoolmaster) 126
Stone, Denny (Draper) 227*


The Romford Ratepayers Association were noted as having supported Porter, Stone, Spry and Fletcher. Can't imagine why the tax collector didn't get in. Spry was the principal of the Romford Grammar School. Daldy's firm had been involved in a scandal at the local coal club when the church warden seems to have embezzled money meant to pay for coal to the poor. The £200+ deficiency was made good by various means including a donation from Daldy.

[john07]

Dec 6, 2014 20:06:49 GMT finsobruce said:

Thanks Colin. It went very well. I even did part of the journey on Route 66 (Leytonstone to Romford).

The results from 1900 - 1935 were in the form of the official declarations pasted into a folder. And this included any by - elections, the first one being for the South ward on the 6th of September 1901. The early ones were produced by Wilson and Whitlow "steam printers of Romford". 1936 and 1937 were handwritten, and 1938 I obtained from the annual handbook which was printed at the end of every year. Hornchurch had them too. I'll be going back to get the rest from the other handbooks.

The downside of this compared to Edmonton is that the parties (or non party labels) were not recorded, so I won't post anything up until I've done a bit of research in the newspaper archive to try and put labels to names.

As a start here is the result of the 1864 election for the Health board which was also in the folder. Whether the other ones were ever there or it was added later I've no idea. No party labels obviously but it did include occupations.

George Griggs (Corn Merchant) 201*
George Gilbey (Corn Merchant) 199*
Edward Pertwee (Chemist) 205*
Robert Bartlett (Tailor) 210*
William Lee (Farmer) 122
Samuel Fletcher (Auctioneer) 127
Charles Springham (Timber Merchant) 109
Isaac Black (shoemaker) 93

Candidates addresses were also listed. Mr Lee the farmer lived at "Pigtails"

Was that a swing to or from the Corn Merchants?

[finsobruce]

Ah, John I'm not sure but I will endeavour to find out.....

[Deleted]

This has reminded me that I have been meaning for several years to look into the results for pre-annexation Sutton Coldfield (unless someone here has done that already)

[finsobruce]

29th March 1901

Central Ward
John J Danby (Hairdresser) 164*
William Muskett (Wholesale confectioner) 82
William Bevitt (Commission agent and collector of taxes) 37
F A Hewitt (Manufacturer's Agent) 12

North Ward
John R Holliday (Engineer) 102*
John Wackett (Gentleman)92
Frank Mynott (Printer) 87

South Ward
William Hunnable (Builder) 223*
Albert J Hill (Merchant's Buyer) 153

The ever downbeat Chelmsford Chronicle notes only that "not much interest was shown" . Bevitt the tax collector tries, and fails again, his ruse of calling himself a Commission agent not helping his vote tally. For those of you wondering what sort of "gentleman" John Wackett was, it seems he was a market gardner and property owner. I've found a reference to his son also called John having his exemption from military service appealed by the military in 1916. Wackett Snr said his son was necessary for "supervision work" and one farm would have to be closed if he was called up. There are multiple references across the decades of court cases involving people stealing the Wackett's vegetables, including in 1932 "a peck of peas". Mynott had been summonsed in March 1904 as one of 31 local "passive resisters" who failed to pay their rates in protest at the Education Act. This almost certainly means he was a dissenter of some sort. In 1895 another case involved one of his apprentices stealing money from the till. This lead to a trap being laid and the local paper publishing the priceless headline "Policeman in a cupboard at Romford". 

There must have been councillors elected unopposed in the other wards but I can't currently find any reference to them. Must try harder. 

Interestingly the "disaffection" which was rumbling on in the Romford Conservative Association was as The Essex Newsman put it in April "come to a head" with the Annual dinner at the Wanstead Slip Conservative club, where the agent , a man called Carlton Roberts declared that the MP Louis Sinclair (who had not been invited) was not his MP and he might stand himself the next time if he couldn't find anyone better to do it.

[finsobruce]

6th September 1901

South Ward (by election)
Heasman, Henry Robert (108)
Muskett, William (170)*

The by election was caused by the "retirement" of Arthur Porter CC and once again according to the Essex Newsman "Not much interest was shown". Heasman was headmaster of St Edwards Boys School in Romford. On his retirement in 1905 he said he had tried to educate boys "in truth and honesty and fearing God". His funeral notice in 1914 made it clear he had been a prominent freemason.

[finsobruce]

8th April 1902

Central ward
Craig, John James 220*
Hammond, Edwin 199

Collier Row ward
Poel, William 99*
Taylor, Henry 83

Harold Wood ward
Hammond, Joseph Samuel 72
White, Daniel 74*

North ward
Bassett, John - unopposed

South ward
Corbell, George William 171
Roughton, George 187*

The only comment made by the local paper here is that Corbell was defeated by an "anti tram" candidate. An appearance of the notable local political family, the Poels. The Local History centre had reproductions of  some of their election posters from this time - "Vote Poel top of the Poll" and so on...

[finsobruce]

7th April 1903

Central ward
Hammond, Edwin (244)*
Smith, Joseph (242)
Stone , Denny (198)

Collier Row ward
Elms, Robert - unopposed

Harold Wood ward
Poole, William - unopposed

North ward
Dowsing, James Everett - unopposed
Ketcher, Edward - unopposed

South ward
Barnes, George 157
Barnes, George Prebble 21
Blackstock, James 47
Muskett, William 220*
Suckling, John 40
Tetchner, John 78
Winmill, Ernest 159*
Woodcock, Harold Charles 106

Smith and Stone in central ward lived two doors away from each other. Much surprise was expressed at Stone's defeat. Woodcock is the first person I can definitely identify as a Liberal since he is recorded as being re-elected as secretary and treasurer of the Romford Liberal Association this year. Oh, and I've just come across Mr Bevitt the tax collector mentioned at the annual meeting of the Liberal Unionist association. 

[finsobruce]

1st April 1904

Central ward
Danby, J J - unopposed

North ward
Holliday, J H (156)*
Tetchner, John (147)
Westerman, F T (86)
Wilson, C A (62)

South ward
Hunnable, William (318 or 348 )* - archived newspaper a bit blurred
Norris, R C (135)

This result wasn't in the file at Romford so I've had to get it from the Essex Newsman. Mr Tetchner has moved from South ward to North ward and considerably increased his vote. Still didn't get in though. The central council of the Romford Conservative Association heard from Louis Sinclair MP and the agent Carlton Roberts that they had made up their differences, Sinclair deploring the "misunderstanding" that had arisen. All sounds a bit forced, and Roberts would not be Sinclair's agent again. In other slightly alarming news from the same page, "The Crucifixion" was rendered at the local parish church. The Liberal party held a "Progressive whist drive" on the evening of the 1st. 

At the council meeting on the 22nd of April Cllr Craig was elected Chairman and Cllr Fletcher vice chairman, after Cllr Hunnable withdrew from the contest for vice chair.