Social Snapshots 1900-1968 inc

1968 Poetry Competion. Report and poem of Dennis Claydon, winner click 1968 The Bard of Lacey Green for details

1967 Police Constable Smith reports on his working conditions. It was during The Cold War. click 1967 The Last Village Bobby for his detailed report.

1962. Coldest winter for 200 years. click Weather for more.

1960. End of National Service in peacetime. Started in 1949. click National Service for more details

1960. Stocken Farm Update. click 1948-1960 Stocken Farm with Dick & Hilda West for farming Stocken Farm with photos in Lacey Green during these years

1858. Coombs. The site of Coombs had been sold, but click Coombs for its long history going back to the 1600s

1956. Living at Parslows Hillock. Click 1956 Life at 4 Hillock Cottages for a visitor's view.

1956. click Rita Probert as she describes Loosley Row in 1956.

1953. The Coronation of Queen Elizabeth II. click 1953 Queen Elizabeth's Coronation Celebrations for the celebrations in Lacey Green and Loosley Row.

1952. Visiting Lacey Green in the 1950s. click 1953 Barbara Harmon (Autobiography) for the full story.

1952. King George VI died on 6th February 1952. Princess Elizabeth, on tour in Kenya, returned to Britain as Queen Elizabeth II.

1949. Start of National Service in peacetime.. click National Service for more details.

1948. Stocken Farm Update. click 1934-1948 Stocken Farm with landlord Ernest Smith and tenants Dick & Hilda West, for farming Stocken Farm with photos then.

1947. A terrible winter. click 1947 A Bitter Winter for information.

1945. VE Day. (Victory in Europe). Celebrated on 8th May 1945. The ceasefire had been declared on 7th May.

1945. Atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima by USA. 6th August 1945. Encyclodaedia Britannica states this bomb had 15,000 tons of TNT

1945. Atomic Bomb dropped on Nagasaki by USA. 9th August 1945. Encyclopaedia Britannica states this bomb had 21,000 tons of TNT.

1945 Japan surrendered August 10th 1945 with terms dectated in the Potsdam Declaration.

1945. VJ Day. (Victory over Japan Day). Celebrated on 15 August 1945. The documents were signed 2nd September 1945.

1944. Lacey Green Airfield constructed. clich 1944 Stocken Farm Airfield for the story and photos

1939. Rationing started in 1939. It was extended several times. The figures recorded here were in 1945. click 1945 Standard rationing WW2 for details.

1939. Pan-Am launched its first passenger flight from New York to Marseilles on June 28th.1939. A regular service was established after WW2.

.1936. Death of King George V. George V was King from 1910 to 20^th January 1936. His son, Edward succeeded as King Emperor Edward VIII. Edward caused a constitutional crisis when he proposed to marry Wallis Simpson, an American socialite, who was divorced from her first husband and was pursuing the divorce of her second. Edward abdicated on 11^th December 1936.   His coronation never took place.   He was King for 326 days. George VI became King on 11^th December 1936.   George was Edward’s brother.

1936.Television broadcasting was officially launched from Alexandra Palace in London on November 2nd 1936

1935 Reflcting Roadstuds Established. In 1933 on a dark foggy night, with the usual guiding tramlines up for repair, Percy Shaw saw two lights.  They were the eyes of a cat sitting on a fence, reflected by his car headlights. It gave him an inspired idea. By 1934 he invented and patented the reflective road stud or “cat’s eye". In 1935 Percy Shaw set up a company “Reflecting Roadstuds Ltd” to manufacture his invention.  He was the Managing Director. Percy Shaw was awarded the OBE.

1935. 30 mph imposed. In 1934 there were about one-tenth of cars on the road as in year 2015, but 4 times as many deaths. In 1935 the Road traffic act introduced a 30 mph speed limit, imposed in built up areas.

1935 King George V Jubilee. "What has Britain to celebrate? asked the press. The nation had barely avoided economic collapse. Cap in hand, the Government had gone to foreign bankers for massive loans. Two million were unemployed.

1934 Stocken Farm Update. click 1911-1934 William Saunders - farmer for details of farming in Lacey Green in these years.

1934. Cottage life before the Water Main was connected. click 1934 Four Cottages, Toilets & Tanks for the details.

1934. Mains water available now, but people did not always connect. click 1934 Water Mains Laid in Villages for details.

1934. When Fleet Street sentenced Lacey Green to Death. click 1934 Lacey Green Water in the News for details

1934. Village fete held at Stocken Farm. click 1934 Gala Fete Day for details.

1930. The U.S. Stock Market Crash of October 1929, led directly to the Great Depression in Europe    When stocks plummeted on the New York Stock Exchange the world noticed immediately.    Although financial leaders in the UK vastly underestimated the extent of the crisis that ensued, it soon became clear that the world’s economies were more interconnected than ever.   The effects of the disruption to the global system of financing, trade and production and the subsequent meltdown of the American economy were soon felt throughout Europe

In 1930 and 1931 in particular, workers went on strike, the unemployed demonstrated and otherwise took direct action to draw public attention to their plight.  The U.K. protests often focused on the so called “means test”, which the government had instituted in 1931 to limit the amount of unemployment payments made to individuals and families.   For working people the Means Test seemed an intrusive and insensitive way to deal with the chronic and relentless deprivation caused by the economic crisis. The strikes were met forcibly with police breaking up protests, arresting demonstrators and charging them with crimes relating to the violation of public order.

1930. The Motor Traffic Act of 1903 was repealed

1929. Two Long Lives Recorded. click Peter and Ann Floyd for reports and pictures.

1929. From the head teacher's logbook click 1929 Lacey Green School for report and photos

1928. From the head teacher's logbook click 1928 Lacey Green School for report and photo

1927. From the head teacher's logbook click 1927 Lacey Green School for report and photo

1926. From the head teacher's logbook click 1926 Lacey Green School for report and photo

1925. From the head teacher's logbook click 1925 Lacey Green School for report

1925. Subsidence. A small part of the land belonging to the Methodist Chapel was let to Mr. Edwin Rixon for 15 shillings (75p) per year. In 1925 it was the scene of a strange occurrence.   Edwin and sons, local chair bodgers, had erected a workshop on the site. Click Edwin & Clara Rixon for more about Edwin. It followed the drought of 1921. On arrival at work one morning they found a subsidence had occurred during the night and their chopping block had disappeared into a shaft some eight to ten feet in diameter and several feet deep. Upon inspection at the bottom of the shaft, a tunnel extended in a westerly direction for a considerable distance.  At some time in the past chalk had been “mined” for agricultural purposes, as was the custom, and then the shaft refilled.  In the dry summer of 1976, there was a subsidence in the same place but now only to a depth of twelve inches. From “The Story of Methodism” by Dennis Claydon.

1924. The British Empire Exhibition was staged from 23^rd April 1924 to 31^st October 1925, at Wembley Park, on the site of the pleasure gardens created by Sir Edward Watkin in the 1900’s.   It was intended to herald a great imperial revival.   In fact it was to prove an escapist delight from post war gloom and retrenchment.

1924. James Ramsey MaxDonald FRS was the first U.K. Labour Prime Minister, leading minority Labour Party governments for 9 months in 1924, then from 1929 to 1931.   Widowed in 1911, his daughter Ishbel, acted as the hostess at no.10, for him. MacDonald was one of the three founder members of the Labour Party in 1900 and was leader of the party from 1922.

1924. From the head teacher's logbook. click 1924 Lacey Green School for report

1923. From the head teacher's logbook. click 1923 Lacey Green School for report

1922. Nov 14^th. The first National Radio Broadcasting Service by the BBC was launched from Marconi House in The Strand, London.

1919. The first non-stop flight across the Atlantic had been accomplished by Alcock and Brown in June 1919.

1917. The House of Windsor. following WW1, King George V changed the name of the Royal House from “Saxe-Coburg and Gotha” to “Windsor”.

1910. Stocken Farm Update. click 1827-1910 Stocken Farm with Charles Brown and John Forrest for details of these years.

1903. Motor car traffic act. 20 mph speed limit imposed. In 1930 the Motor car traffic act was repealed

In 1934 there were about one-tenth of cars on the road as in year 2015, but 4 times as many deaths. In 1935 a 30 mph speed limit was imposed in built up areas.