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 Stocken Farm under date 1931 for details.

1931. Village fete held at Stocken Farm. click Stocken Farm under date 1931 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 the RAF established its Fleet Air Arm which in 1937 was placed under Admiralty control.

1924. James Ramsey MacDonald 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.

1922. The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (U.S.S.R), was a federal socialist state in northern Eurasia that existed from 30^th Dec.1922 to 26^th Dec.1991.

1922. From the head teacher's logbook. click 1922 Lacey Green School for report.

1921. From the head teacher's logbook. click 1921 Lacey Green School for report.

1920. The Cenotaph and the Tomb of the Unknown Warrier. On 11^th November 1920, the cenotaph was unveiled, to be a memorial to all those who died in active service in times of conflict,  Erected in Whitehall, London, made of Portland stone, it was designed by Edwin Lutyens.    Very little decoration, bar that of laurel wreaths, carved by Francis Derwent Wood.   The inscription across one side “THE GLORIOUS DEAD”.    It is flanked by three flags – The White Ensign, the Union Flag and the Blue Ensign.

The funeral service of an unidentified soldier, exhumed from a grave in France, known as the “Unknown Warrior”, was to be held in Westminster Abbey, where he would be laid to rest. A large procession accompanied the coffin, draped in the Union Jack Flag.   It halted at the Cenotaph in Whitehall where it was met by the King.

At this point the King unveiled the Cenotaph, before the procession continued to Westminster Abbey for the funeral service.

There was a huge public response to the newly unveiled memorial.   Whitehall was closed to traffic for several days.   Members of the public began to file past and lay flowers at its base.    Within a week it was ten feet deep in flowers (3 metres) and an estimated 1.25 million people had visited it.

1920. Lacey Green School. click 1920 Harry Floyd's schooldays for article.

1920. From the head teacher's logbook. click 1920 Lacey Green School for report.

1919. Influenza Epidemic. Taken from Wikipeadia. The pandemic started in 1918 and lasted until 1920.   It was almost certainly brought back by the WW1 soldiers to their respective countries across the world.   The conditions in the trenches had been appalling, the food and hygiene sparse, and the clothes so infested with lice, that illness was inevitable. It is estimated that about 500 million people, or one-thirds of the world’s population became infected with the virus.   It was estimated that at least the number of deaths was 50 million worldwide. Mortality was high in people younger than 5 years old, 20-40 year old, and 65 years and older.   The high mortality in healthy people, including in the 20-40 year age group was a unique feature of this pandemic. With no vaccine to protect against influenza and no antibiotics to treat secondary bacterial infections that can be associated with influenza, control efforts worldwide were limited to non-pharmaceutical interventions such as isolation, quarantine, good personal hygiene, use of disinfectants and limitations of public gatherings, which were applied unevenly.

1919 Inflation. Following WW1 and the Flu’ Pandemic, inflation escalated so that the pound purchased only one third of the basket it had in 1914.   Wages were laggard, and the poor and retired were especially hard hit.

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

1919 report by Head Teacher Lacey Green School. click 1919 Men Serving WW1

1919. From the head teacher's logbook. click 1919 Lacey Green School for report and photos

1918. April 1st. the Royal Air Force is established by merging the Royal Flying Corps & the Royal Naval Air Service.

1918. WW1 Ended on November 11^th.  The armistice was signed at 5-15am, at Le Francport, near Compiegne.   It ended fighting on land, sea and air, between the allies and their last remaining opponent, Germany. Previous amnesties had been agreed with Bulgaria, the Ottoman Empire and the Austro-Hungarian Empire.

At the armistice is was agreed that it would come into effect at 11 am to allow time for the news to reach the combatants.

WW1 had been declared July 28th, 1914, in the Balkans. It ended 11th November 1918. 17,000,000 Died. 20,000,000 Wounded

1918. From the head teacher's logbook. click 1918 Lacey Green School for report and photo.

1917. From the head teacher's logbook. click 1917 Lacey Green School for report.

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

1916. The Last Liberal Prime Minister. 1916-1922 . David Lloyd George dominated British political scene in the second half of WW1.   He was a major player at the Paris Peace Conference in 1919.   That same year the war for Irish Independence broke out, continuing until 1921 when he negotiated independence for the Irish Free State. He was one of the 20^th century’s most famous radicals.   He was the first and only Welshman to become Prime Minister.

1916. During WW1 British “Summer Time” was invented to give energy and to help the war effort, by making more working daylight hours. The clocks were advanced 1 hour from May 21^st until October 1^st

1916. November Report in Bucks Free Press - "Private Horace Rixon of the 2nd Ox & Bucks Light Infantry has returned from France, suffering from severe shellshock & now lies in Birkenhead Hospital. He was engaged in tunnelling when a shell exploded, burying him and 9 comrades, 25 feet deep. Eleven hours elapsed before all were unearthed, when it was found that 8 were dead & another had broken limbs. Horace was nearly suffocated and severely shaken". Horace later joined the Suffolk Regiment and went back to war in Italy. click Horace & Ivy Rixon for more about Horace.

1916. Horses Taken by the Army. It was a long, slow journey taking loads of hay and straw, by horse and cart to London    Dangerous at the best of times.

William Saunders from Stocken Farm did this regularly.  He also traded in horses there.  During WW1, with a full load pulled by his best horses, he was particularly distressed when he was stopped at the top of the hill at Holtspur, between Wycombe and Beaconsfield, and his horses taken by army.   And to make matters worse he was left up the A40 (not the big road it became by 2020) with a loaded wagon and nothing to pull it with. For more about William Saunders, click William Saunders & Bethia Janes

1914. WW1 started 28th July 1914 and ended 11th November 1918 click WW1 for more

1914. Lacey Green. During WWI the Royal Engineers were billeted in the village. The horses were stabled at Stocken Farm and exercises done in ‘Home Field’.

They also took the smaller schoolroom. Mabel Janes reported that Stocken Farm dining room was an army hospital and the grain store their blacksmith’s shop. click Stocken Farm for more.

1914 June 12th. Notice. Loosley Row School will be closed for the period of the war. The scholars will go to Lacey Green School. Childrens’ names and entries in summary are to be retained on the registers of that school. Notice sent to all parents that owing to an increase of scholars from Loosley Row, all children under five will be excluded from school during the period of the war, by order of the County Council.

1913. Burglars moved in at Lacey Green. click 1913 Smithson and Sikes for the full story.

1913.  Saunderton Station was gutted by arson started by the Militant Suffragettes. After it had cooled down, the interior was inspected. The contents of the parcels office were completely destroyed.    All that remained of the safe, including gold, silver and copper coins was a mass of melted metal.    Only the handlebars of the porter’s bicycle were left and the sweet machines and their contents had melted into heaps of burnt sugar and chocolate. click Saunderton Station for more.

1913. From the head teacher's logbook. Click 1913 Lacey Green School for report and photo.

1912. RMS Titanic, a British luxury passenger liner, sank in the North Atlantic, on her maiden voyage to New York, in the early hours of 15^th April 1912, after hitting an iceberg. Of the 2,240 passengers and crew 1,535 died.    705 survivors.

1912. In June 1912 a massive volcano in Alaska and others in Central America and the Carabbean, including “Pelee” in Martinique had a terrible effect on the weather for some years. This was felt as far as Europe, which was then soon to enter WW1.

1912. From the head teacher's logbook. click 1912 Lacey Green School for report and photo.

1911 22nd June. Celebrations to Commemorate the Coronation of King George V. click Stocken Farm under date 1910 with John Forrest.for all the details

1910. A request was published in Hallmark by Dennis Claydon for more information concerning the annual "Cows Head Feast" held at Loosley Row. His father who was born in 1904, remembered it as a young boy, and not later so that may have been the last time it was held. Dennis's request follows: -

"Cows Head Feast". Years ago, a yearly event was held in The Foundry Meadow at Loosley Row called the "Cows Head Feast", believed to be at the same time as Wycombe Fair, but not certain about this. A man by the name of Jim Flint was believed to be responsible for the boiling of these heads in a large boiler.

A man from Naphill called Blind Charlie (his name was Charlie Styles) walked from the village with his dog. He entertained with his violin and sang.

Three men marched around with old muzzle loaded guns - Kilburn Gomme, 'Saturday' Fred Lacey and another man whose name cannot be remembered. click Kilburn & Julia Gomme and Fred & Annie Lacey for more about Kilburn and 'Saturday' Fred Lacey.

Regret to say very little details can be given, as it took place so long ago and Father was only a young boy when this event was held.

1910. Mabel Janes describes Lacey Green in 1910. click 1910 A Walk Around Lacey Green for this report.

1910. From the head teacher's logbook. click 1910 Lacey Green School for report and photo

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

1910. John and Eveline Forrest of Grymsdyke, Lacey Green. click John & Eveline Forrest for their story.

1909.

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.