DESPITE the pandemic, local elections, which were cancelled last year, are set to go ahead in May, with Covid-safe campaigning allowed from last Monday [8 March].

Local issues may involve broadband, the loss of the pub or an unsightly solar farm. But what were they 50 or 100 years ago? Perhaps the need to send telegrams from the local post office, or persuading the railway company to open a local station. These are the sorts of issues that add substance to local history and often reveal unusual individuals and dramatic events that have long been forgotten.

One of the most impressive village halls anywhere is in Sherfield-on-Loddon, near Basingstoke. Originally a line of cottages built by the rector for local people, it is a tribute to his wife, Agnes Barker, an extraordinary woman who became the first chair of the parish council in 1894, 34 years before women even got the vote! It was she who in 1909 transformed four of the cottages into the village hall in memory of her husband.

Serving with her on the first parish council were a carrier, a butcher, a provisions merchant, a builder and a market gardener. Soon it started the business of dealing with such things as footpaths, gypsy camping, “a footbridge over the Loddon”, and the “nuisance of bird-catchers using the Green, especially on Sundays”. Mrs Barker chaired with authority, making it clear from the outset that even though she was the former rector’s wife she “deprecated any sectarian or ‘political’ cleavage”.

In another setting, in 1902, Basingstoke became the focus of a battle of words that was definitely sectarian, following the new Education Act that was seen as privileging C of E schools over Nonconformist Board schools. In the conflict that ensued there was the surprising sight of local landowner Newton Wallop, the 6th Earl of Portsmouth, publicly supporting the chapel-goers and lambasting the “iniquity” of the new law.

These are the sort of inflammatory events in local political history that unmask aspects of life that otherwise only feature in whispers and pub-chat. Above all, they – and other more profound questions – demonstrate that local politics is a fruitful area for local historians, some of whom see it as ‘no go area’.

Someone who has spent many years following this line is Southampton resident Roger Ottewill, who has published more than 20 articles on various aspects, including stories of parish councils and Lord Portsmouth’s outburst, as told in An Act of Iniquity (available from Basingstoke Archaeology and Historical Society, www.bahsoc.org.uk).

He came to the subject with practical experience, seeing many councils in action when he worked in local government finance. In 1973 he switched to a lecturing career, first at Sheffield Polytechnic/Hallam University and 28 years later in the Centre for Teaching and Learning at Southampton University. In 2015 he completed a PhD in modern church history at Birmingham University and has continued his studies on many fronts, including work with the Victoria County History group in Basingstoke.

He recently published Candidates and Contests on Hampshire county council elections 1889-1974 (available from: 01962 867490 or publications@hantsfieldclub.org.uk)

and has made several studies of local parish councils. These demonstrate that, despite fears that the end of the vestry would “disturb the established order in rural communities”, the hopes of more local democracy were realized in some places, such as Basing, but in others it was difficult even to raise a contest!

Roger has also studied electioneering by religious groups, on such issues as maintaining a “quiet Sunday” in Bournemouth without trams. And campaigns on such issues as temperance, support for the disadvantaged and others by Congregationalists in concert with Liberals in Edwardian Southampton. Looking back in this way raises basic questions about the relationship between faith and politics that are still relevant.

Although there are some other historians who have studied local politics – like Sarah Bussy and her work on the Labour landslide in Winchester in 1946 – Roger has almost single-handedly opened a rich vein of Hampshire heritage with so much more to be explored.

In practical terms, it is harder than you might think to find out what exactly happened in politics in the past, as – believe it or not – there are no ‘official records’ of local democratic elections!

Results of general elections and limited records of elections for county and non-county boroughs are available from the Elections Centre, formerly an adjunct of the University of Plymouth (http://www.electionscentre.co.uk/), directed by Professors Colin Rallings and Michael Thrasher. But the best sources for local government elections are the columns of archived local newspapers like the Chronicle.

Runs of these, mostly on microfilm, are kept in record offices and local libraries. The online British Newspaper Archive can be accessed by subscription, or in normal times in libraires and record offices. In succession to the Colindale archive, newspapers can also be read at The British Library, though hard copies delivered from Boston Spa require pre-ordering.

Roger commented: “One of the difficulties of using newspapers is that there’s not always a complete run and it’s rather hit and miss. The Hants and Berks Gazette, for example, is only available on BNA for 1892-1901 and the Hampshire Chronicle for 1772-1909, though elsewhere longer runs are available. You may be lucky and find the minutes of parish councils, but many of these no longer survive.

“Politics tends to be a ‘boo-word’, but you can’t avoid it, even locally, as there has been disagreement on almost any subject and you need a mechanism to resolve issues. Even at a local level, politics effects everybody’s lives in one way or another – the decisions that local authorities make in infrastructure, or ongoing things, such as waste disposal, social services, education etc.

“Often there is a tension between local and national politics, as in the present pandemic when people argue about central measures or using local authorities, who know their ‘patch’.”

Amongst the topics being researched by Roger are Basingstoke’s first female burgesses in 1869, when a few women gained the vote in municipal elections, and William Humby (1857-1939), secretary of the Southampton Cabmen’s Association and Liberal councillor for Northam.

barryshurlock@gmail.com