Conscientious Objectors and The Peace Movement; Rectory Farm
Between the two world wars there was a considerable pacifist movement in Britain.
One such was the No More War Movement and Peace Pledge Union in GB, 1929-1940.
Cyril Frederick Wright was a member of this movement and together with a number of other people, including John Chapman, set up a specific group called: Kingston Community in Charney Bassett and Barn House Community in Wye Valley.
The Group looked for a farm to purchase to set up a peaceful and neighbourly community and after a search purchased Rectory Farm in Charney Bassett in 1940.
The Imperial War Museum has an audio record of an interview with Cyril Frederick Wright. There are eight reels and reel 5 has the most about Charney Bassett.
Extracts of a transcript of the oral history (with apologies for any errors):
Reel 5 starting at 9:10
The year is 1940
… another one [Farm for Sale] which I heard about I think by seeing and advertisement in a window in an estate agent, and this was at Charney Bassett, a little village about 6 miles from Wantage in the Vale of the White Horse. And that was going with, we could have had 60 acres for £1900 or 20 acres I think for £1250 was the offer … + 3 acres and a house, a very large house right in the centre of the village it was the second largest in the village an old house dating back to the time of the civil war 1643, a very interesting old place and we rather decided on that one if we could get it.
The farmer would not budge on price and John Chapman and I and two others went to see him one evening … at any rate we just accepted it and I think it was quite a bargain really. And so we accepted.
John Chapman, Bill Hammond, Nora and Myself and the two Children, Raymond Andrews and May Cudberg [?] who was the daughter of the solicitor who was helping us. 6 Adults and two children. And we felt that we could accommodate them in the building and the land carefully cultivated ought to yield enough to keep us going and make a profit.
Reel 5 from 24:00
John Chapman for instance who was …. In a sense from the outset we regarded him as a sort of leader as someone had to direct conversations and someone to turn to for what to do next and he assumed that he would be in charge generally.
We decided that we would cultivate the 20 acres which was quite a bit of land to cultivate and at that time we only had ourselves and spades and so on so [we] acquired a rotor-till and then an iron horse and bought a horse and few implements.
So to start with most came from the 3 acres around the house with the orchard of 100 apple trees and two large areas that had been used for keeping stock …. Mostly used for potatoes. Opened a stall in Wantage.
There again John Chapman had the car you see. He was the supplier of most of the capital and a certain amount of equipment. And he had a large trailer that we used to take produce into market in Wantage and sold out very very quickly.
Brussel sprouts and cabbages.
1941 sold some in London and some wholesale in Oxford and Abingdon.
The first year was very successful financially. But that of course was not the whole story.
Reel 6.
We bought a circus horse over at Wantage and it was not very amenable.
Exchanged it for another pony.
A field half a mile up the road.
Collect people from the station 2.5miles away
John Chapman’s job was looking after the cow.
Bill Hammond was a carpenter and made an attic in to a bedroom. (He left the community and died of cancer)
Musical evenings and then involved the village people, we had very good relations with people in village and they quite welcomed us.
A poster on our gate about war weapons and we had a very long serious meeting and we found that this had always been a place for posters in the village
We also sold some of their produce to the market.
Lay preacher Mr Batts, about 84, he came along with his wife.
We linked up with the air raid warning.
We were lucky really as we might have faced quite a lot of hostility and it was an experiment in neighbourliness.
Notes on postcards re tribunal:
Rectory Farm, in the heart of our small village, was bought and used by the ‘Kingston Community in Charney Basset[t] and Barn House Community in Wye Valley’. A descendant of a subsequent owner has found and passed on some correspondence sent to John Chapman – a member of that community and mentioned in the interviews as the ‘leader’ and also probably the supplier of much of the money. One postcard was written to him at Rectory Farm ahead of his tribunal and wishing him well another is written to him at his tribunal addressed to ‘ John Chapman, appearing before C O [Conscientious Objector] Tribunal, 10:45 am Sat, Masonic Hall, Greyfriars Road, Reading, Berks’. The post mark is dated 18 May 1944 (I think) which would make the tribunal Sat 20 May 1944.
From The National Archives
Records of British conscientious objectors are varied and incomplete. Few records of conscientious objectors survive, especially after 1921. Those which do survive are generally samples.
The Military Service Act of 1916 introduced compulsory conscription to Great Britain for the first time in modern history. Before this act, the armed forces were generally made up of volunteers.
While conscientious objection was not specifically defined in the act of 1916, the government recognised those whose ‘objection genuinely rests on religious or moral convictions’.
Only a small number of conscientious objectors were exempted from service absolutely. Most were obliged to serve in non-combatant roles or faced courts martial.
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