About three years ago I started to take an interest in the history of an
English rural district council - 1894-1974. At the time it seemed that
no-one had researched the history of any RDC. Is this still the case?
I'm now about to publish a short book covering the history of Henley RDC
(1894-1932) in Oxfordshire. I had intended at first to make it a 'biography'
of the council from its formation in 1894 to its demise in 1974 but the task
proved too much and I decided to end my book in 1932. This was the year of a
substantial reorganisation of local government arising from the Local
Government Act, 1929. Parliament aimed to make RDCs larger in the hope that
they would be more effective.
My short book is intended as a popular work of local history (can the
history of local government be made 'popular'?). No footnotes or exhaustive
list of sources.
If you'd like a copy of the flyer let me have your postal address off-list.
Brian Read
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