This post reports some respectable rebels from North Oxford in 1903; one of them resided at 18 Polstead Road. Kay Symons uncovered this story while working on the Polstead Road History Project.
The respectable rebels of North Oxford
Polstead Road seems an unlikely base for a member of a rebel movement, especially in Edwardian times, but so it was in 1903.
Passive resistance to the Education Act of 1902 led to some thirty Oxford residents being summoned for non-payment of the new “sectarian education rate”, including Mr Charles Clarke of 18 Polstead Road. He was part of the campaign credited with influencing the tactics of the suffragettes and Gandhi’s independence movement.
The Education Act, also known as the Balfour Act, dismantled 2500 elected school boards and created new Local Authorities, with the aim of raising the quality and improving the provision of secondary education. It was controversial because it brought church (“voluntary”) schools, including Roman Catholic schools, into the same system as board schools and included an element in the local rates to pay for them.
Non-conformists especially objected to this extra tax because they did not want to fund the teaching of religious ideas they did not agree with. Many Liberal Party members and the new Labour Party sided with them, and the controversy is cited as a cause of the landslide defeat of the Conservative Party in the 1906 General Election.
Nonconformist opposition was championed by John Clifford, the Baptist pastor of Westbourne Park Church in London, who became the recognised leader of the passive resistance to the Education Act 1902. Clifford formed the National Passive Resistance Committee, which hoped to convince more Nonconformists to resist the act and stop paying their rates until it was repealed.
By 1904, over 37,000 summonses for unpaid school taxes were issued, with thousands having their property seized and 80 protesters going to prison.
There were rowdy demonstrations in courtrooms and auction rooms around the country as sentences were passed and goods seized and sold, but in Oxford, according to the Oxford Chronicle and Reading Gazette, “a remarkable feature of the proceedings was the amicable feeling which seemed to prevail”.
On 25th September 1903, it tells the story of “a farther stage in the battle which an important section of the residents in the City of Oxford are waging against the Education Act”, when on two days in the preceding week, the goods of the “Resisters” to the education rate were seized by the warrant officer, Sergeant Trinder, of the Oxford City Police.
Everyone, they reported, recognised that the officer was merely performing his duty, and he, in turn, maintained a pleasant manner and tried good-naturedly to meet the desires of the householders, insofar as he could. To avoid any interference or demonstrations, the greatest secrecy was maintained, and even the objectors themselves were unaware exactly when their goods would be taken.
As a result, only in a few cases was the head of the household at home when Sgt Trinder arrived, but many had left messages for him, saying where some suitable portable articles might be found and taken. He took mostly furniture, clocks, ornaments, silver and plated goods. He took great care to prevent damage, each item being carefully ticketed and all breakable goods wrapped up and deposited in a rubber-tyred brougham.
The reporter was particularly entertained by what happened when the sergeant arrived at 18 Polstead Road, Charles Clarke’s home.
When the officer rang the bell a voice was heard through the letter-box asking “Who is it? “Good morning, Mr. Clarke,” replied Sergeant Trinder. “Who’s there?” was repeated, and the officer answered, “I want to see you, sir.” “Who are you? Come to the window,” said the voice, but in the meantime the officer had made his way to the back of the house, discovering, however, that all the doors were firmly secured.
He saw a bicycle leaning against the wall, but Mr Clarke’s son, who was in the garden, said it belonged to him, so the officer had to leave it and return to the front of the house, where finally Mr. Clarke did talk to him.
Ultimately, Mr Clarke let him in and gave all the assistance in his power. offering a pair of silver candlesticks, which were accepted. They were wrapped up by Mr. Clarke, and the scene closed quite harmoniously.
