How the election of 1818 changed the public attitude towards elections

The end of the second decade of the nineteenth century saw two General Elections two years apart and history has repeated itself in the same period in the twenty-first century. The current election laws are very different to those in the nineteenth century but the problems the politicians faced were not dissimilar.

The Tories had been in power for six years when the first election after the end of Napoleonic wars took place in 1818. The end of the wars had bought peace, but there was no work for the returning soldiers and the Corn Law restricted imports of wheat and pushed up the price of bread. Poverty and deprivation was causing social unrest, which the Government quashed with draconian legislation. Up to this time the members of parliament were traditionally the major landowners in the constituency area and were usually returned unopposed, but at this election more seats were being contested. People realised they had the power to change things. They did not have to suffer austerity in silence. This was the first time the public (or the small percentage of the population that were eligible to vote) realised they could make a difference. Candidates suddenly found they had to fight for their seats. They did so by inviting voters to election meetings where there was always plenty of food and drink on offer. They would arrange to convey voters to the polls, and they would use all the influence they could muster to entice people to vote for them. It was not a secret vote and afterwards the electoral list and how individuals voted was published. Therefore tenants of the candidate dare not vote against their landlord for fear of losing their farms or their patronage. Supporters were supplied with ribbons, banners and street decoration. Bands accompanied the candidates to their meetings. The candidates found that fighting for their parliamentary seats was becoming expensive.

Middlesex

In today’s 2019 election Boris Johnson is hoping to retain his Middlesex constituency seat of Uxbridge and South Ruislip. This is just one of 32 constituencies in Middlesex. In 1818 there were 14 constituencies in Middlesex which stretched across the whole of the north bank of the Thames from the City of London to the Buckingham/Berkshire/Hertfordshire borders. Middlesex had twelve borough constituencies and two county members of Parliament who represented the rest of Middlesex.

In 1818 George Byng, a member of the Whig (Liberal) party, who after 28 years in the House of Commons once again accepted the nomination of the freeholders to stand as a representative for Middlesex.[1] It was a popular nomination and he had many cheering supporters when the nomination was made. His fellow candidate, William Mellish, a Tory and a governor of the Bank of England, was less enthusiastically nominated. In fact another candidate was considered to replace Mr Mellish. The formal proceedings took place on Friday 26 June 1818 and the freeholders of the county crowded into Brentford, Middlesex, to cast their vote. The road from London to Brentford was thronged with the carriages of the candidates’ supporters. The two seats in Parliament for Middlesex were uncontested, but freeholders wanted to show support for their preferred man, and the candidates put on a show. Mellish left London at 9am in a travelling coach with postillions in scarlet livery. His supporters wore light blue ribbons. Mr Byng’s supporters wore orange and purple ribbons. When both the candidates were present the two sheriffs went through the procedure of the hustings. The King’s Writ requiring two representatives to be elected for Middlesex was read and Mr Byng formerly proposed and seconded. Then Mr Mellish was proposed and seconded. The sheriffs asked if there were any other candidates and Mr Clarke, who had been proposed at an earlier meeting withdrew his candidacy. Both candidates were therefore declared duly elected and were chaired through the streets of Brentford as was the tradition. 

1820 election

The 1820 general election took place between the 6 March and the 14 April 1820 and more seats were being contested. Discontent was growing nationally. A plot to kill leading cabinet members and the Prime Minister was uncovered in February, and the plotters executed. In Scotland a general strike and a movement for more autonomy and independence was growing, but was suppressed when the army were sent to arrest the ringleaders some of whom were later hung and others transported to the colonies. In the 1820 Middlesex election another Whig candidate entered the contest. All three candidates had to work harder at wooing the 10,662 members of the electorate. There were accusations of a coalition between the two Whig candidates which they refuted. However they were both elected and the Tory candidate eliminated.

From this time onwards the populace became aware of the unfairness of the electoral system. Pressure was on MPs to change the system which resulted in the Reform Act of 1832. This Act abolished ‘rotten boroughs’ where a MP was elected for a non-existent borough, and doubled the number of men eligible to vote, although this was still only 18% of the male population of the United Kingdom.

At today’s election there will be more representation, and most of the adult population are eligible to vote. A vote is a privilege that many of fought hard for over the centuries. Let us hope that everyone will make use of this privilege.

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[1] Morning Advertiser - Saturday 20 June 1818

The Village that Street View forgot

Longford Village today

Middlesex as a county has lost its identity under the urbanisation of London. Most Middlesex towns are referred to simply as a London Borough of something. A few places to the north and west, and within the M25 unofficial boundary of Greater London, still proudly proclaim Middlesex as their county, but soon even more of its territory will be removed from our sight, our memory and our history.

The village of Longford will disappear with the expansion of Heathrow airport. To those that live there it will be a sad bitter time. To those that have yet to visit the village it will be a disappointment to find that you are unable to use Google’s Street View app to navigate through its streets. Street View cameras have only ventured to the outskirts of the village and omitted to capture any images of the historic core. Why is this? Street View has not offered an explanation to me. Was it a deliberate omission requested by the Government to stop any record of the village being preserved prior to its demolition, or just a casual mistake?

The village of Longford, within the London Green Belt and a Conservation Area, is a peaceful (ignoring the sound of screaming jets overhead) rural setting which has hardly altered over time. It has nine Grade II listed buildings, and five others of special architectural interest. The village, from Saxon times and earlier, has been a farming community. The prime horticultural land grew fruit and vegetables for London’s Covent Garden market. It straddles the Great Bath Road from where, for centuries, its four inns provided travellers with hospitality. Six miles from Windsor Castle the village was the usual stopping place for the Royals to change their horses on the way to and from London and Windsor.

Longford Village 1920

The villagers were witnesses to many events, rejoicing at some and turning a blind eye to others. Highwaymen prayed on the coach travellers who had to cross the notorious Hounslow Heath to get to Longford, but if any villagers were aware of the culprits they kept it to themselves. With four rivers (two artificial) and acres of orchards and market gardens it was a thriving rural community up to the second world war when an airfield was built nearby to aid the war effort. This airport became the country’s main civil airport at Heathrow and from then on Longford was blighted. It has been threatened with extinction since the fifties, but the cohesive supportive community are proud of its history and have fought to prevent its destruction.

Google’s Street View boasts that it now has full coverage of the road networks for the whole of the United Kingdom, so why is Longford missing? Street View is not just a tool for navigation, but is becoming a social history resource. Google has an ongoing programme of re-surveying and, whilst the current image is presented to the user first, a clock symbol in the top-left of the screen can be clicked to see older images. This is a great asset to family or local history researchers, or just the curious, who want to track the transition of locations through time.

Sadly, because the village of Longford has not been visited by the Street View cameras, when the third runway is built no one will be able to see images of the village that once stood there, and with the loss of images will also go the story of centuries of village life. To preserve Longford’s history I am writing a book on the life of the village through time. Even if the physical village disappears I hope the lives, loves, tragedies and triumphs of its people will live on in print.

The Colne River, Longford, today

The Giraffe That Could Not Stand Up

The Giraffe That Could Not Stand Up

George III’s son, the Prince Regent, was a man of excess. He loved elaborate architecture, glamorous women, and excessive amounts of good food and drink. He also liked exotic animals. He begun accumulating rare animals many of whom were presents from Heads of State who were trying to ingratiate themselves with the British monarchy. The King housed these animals in a menagerie in Windsor Great Park built next to the crenellated mock-gothic mansion in Windsor Great Park called Sandpit Gate Lodge.

Sandpit Gate Lodge 2011. Privately owned since 1995.

By the time the Prince Regent became King George IV in 1820 this menagerie had grown and there were, among other creatures, gnus, black buck, kangaroos, and a variety of exotic birds, but his most prized possession was still to come.  On 11 August 1827 an eighteen-month old Namibian giraffe arrived in London a gift from Mehmit Ali, Pasha of Egypt. The giraffe was eighteen months old and although not fully grown was already ten feet tall. She was the first giraffe in Britain and arrived with two cows to provide it with milk and two Egyptian attendants who did not speak a word of English. She was a great curiosity because many believed that giraffes were just a myth and didn’t actually exist. The British people suddenly became fascinated with anything to do with giraffes. Magazines promoted fashions and furnishings that matched the design and colour of the giraffe’s skin. Household objects and ceramics celebrated this animal and newspapers throughout the country carried regular reports on the giraffe.

The animals at Sandpit Gate Lodge were kept in specially constructed enclosures each with thatched-roofed sheds, but a special building was constructed for the giraffe with stable-type double doors twelve foot high. She was an amiable creature who was happy to be petted and stroked. She was painted for George IV by Jacues-Laurent Agasse in 1827, with a degree of artistic licence.[1]

The painting shows the giraffe standing with its two cows and two Egyptian attendants, but this is an idealised image of the giraffe. In real life it had difficulty standing up. The poor creature had been captured in Sudan as a calf and endured a year-long journey over land and sea before it arrived in London. During the first part of the journey it was too weak to walk for long periods so it had been strapped to a camel with it legs tied together. The tightness of the binding and the long journey resulted in the knees becoming deformed, and varies remedies were tried to restore it to health.

King George IV was delighted with his gift, and had great sympathy with his crippled giraffe. He too, because of gout and obesity, had a weakness of the knees. The King was 64 in August 1827 and spent nearly all his time at the Royal Lodge in Windsor Great Park from where he took daily carriage rides around Windsor Great Park which included stopping at Sandpit Gate Lodge to spend time with the animals and check on the health of his prized giraffe.

Melville, King George IV taking his favourite exercise, near the Sandpit Gate, Windsor Park. 1830 (Royal Collection)

Although the giraffe grew over a foot in height whilst at Windsor it never reached a normal height for a giraffe. The King and the giraffe were in synchronised decline and by July 1828 both were unable to stand on their own and were growing weaker. At the menagerie a hoist and sling were constructed to allow the giraffe to stand upright and newspapers throughout the land printed daily bulletins on the giraffe’s condition. [2]  Both the giraffe and the unpopular King were ridiculed in song and pictures.

A caricature by William Heath, 1829 showing George IV and his mistress Lady Conyngham trying to lift the giraffe by pulley.

George IV and the nation were very upset when the giraffe finally died on 11 October 1829. It was taken to the Zoological Gardens in Regent’s Park for dissection.  A taxidermist, Mr John Gould, was asked to make a replica of the giraffe using a wooden form covered with the animal’s skin. The skeleton of the animal was exhibited alongside the stuffed model at the Zoological Society’s Museum until it closed in August 1855. Their current whereabouts are unknown.

George IV outlived the giraffe by only eight months. When William IV inherited the throne the menagerie was disbanded and the animals and birds moved to the new London Zoo at Regents Park, together with the residue of the Royal Menagerie still held at the Tower of London. The London Zoological Society received its Royal Charter in 1829 from George IV, and it has had a Royal Patron ever since.

I came across this story whilst researching my family history. My great, great, great, great grandfather, William Kell, was an usher to George IV and lived at Sandpit Gate Lodge at the time of the menagerie. His exact role in the royal household is unknown, but his proximity to the menagerie and the fact that Edward Cross (shown with the giraffe and the Egyptians in the picture above) was the executor of his Will indicates that he performed a duty connected with the giraffe and animals.

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[1]  Nubian Giraffe (1827), Jacques-Laurent Agasse Photograph: Royal Collection Trust / © Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II 2015 www.royalcollection.org.uk

[2] Lancaster Gazette – Saturday 12 July 1828; Edinburgh Evening Courant - Monday 19 May 1828; Clonmel Herald - Wednesday 04 November 1829

Harmondsworth Hall - Heritage waiting to be destroyed.

Harmondsworth Hall 

When writing about history the biggest part of the project is research. Research is not just looking at documents in archives and reading academic books, but being out there walking the streets; talking to people.

I went on a research trip this week. I am researching the lost community of Heathrow, Middlesex, as well as the soon to be lost Middlesex villages of Longford, Harmondsworth and Sipson. The adventure began at the Hillingdon archives in Uxbridge Library. Pre-ordered documents were waiting for me and in four hours I had photographed them all. Reading and interpreting the handwriting will take diligence, but I hope I will absorb some of the concerns and thoughts of the originator of the document whilst doing so. It will be a labour of love that I will take my time over.

After leaving the library and having a quick meal I drove on to Harmondsworth where I had booked a room in a B and B called Harmondsworth Hall in the centre of the village of Harmondsworth. This grand-sounding building was built in the early 1700s, but still has elements of an older building that was on this site. It once had four acres of beautiful gardens on which were held church garden parties, tea dances, and barbeques (such a novelty in 1957 that they asked a member of the U.S.A.F. in nearby West Drayton to do the cooking). In 1910 this house was the first to have electricity. It had a 7hp Hornsly Ackroid Oil engine and accumulators (batteries) which provided electric light for the house, but it still got its water from a well underneath the scullery and had no mains drainage. The village itself had only just got gas piped in to provide street-lighting.

The ownership of Harmondsworth Hall passed through many families and in 1957 belonged to Mr S.D. Brown and his family. Mr Brown worked in Paris but frequently flew home to the nearby London Airport at weekends. He used the excuse that there was a shortage of housing for airport workers to apply for planning permission to build five detached houses in the  4 acres garden. The Middlesex County Council rejected the plan so the application went to an Inquiry. Today there is a whole new street of twentieth-century homes close to the Hall which only retains a modest amount of outdoor space around its walls.

The house itself still has its original marble black and white chequered hall floor, wood panelling, and huge fireplaces. Externally the large sash windows are interspersed with window spaces bricked up to avoid paying a heavy tax bill during the eighteenth century when tax was levied on the number of windows in a building. It is beautifully kept, both inside and out, the rooms are comfortable and majestic, and the whole place has an air of grand antiquity. It was a pleasure and privilege to have had the experience of visiting this historic building and sad to know that it is threatened with demolition.

If the London Airport Expansion plans go ahead eleven listed buildings in Longford, and twelve in Harmondsworth will be obliterated, along with many other homes. Only Harmondsworth medieval Great Barn and its Norman church will survive the destruction, but who will want to visit them when they will be metres from the airport’s perimeter fence?

Progress cannot be stopped, and humankind must grow to survive, but there is still a need to have reminders of the past in our midst. Without visible history to excite our curiosity we cannot measure progress and judge the effect of our actions on the future.

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