Nettlebed

Nettlebed And South Oxfordshire Government History 1873 – 1974 A Royal Sanitary Commission of 1869 suggested a system of local government incorporating rural areas. This led to an Act of 1872 which, amongst various recommendations, created ‘Rural Sanitary Districts’. These authorities had to appoint a ‘sanitary inspector’ and a ‘medical officer of health’. The existing Henley Board of Guardians created a new authority under the name ‘The Henley Rural Sanitary Authority’. In 1873 it appointed George Shadrach Daniel Mattick as Sanitary Inspector; he was 37 and had worked as a builder and a ‘Scripture Reader’ in the very poorest parts of Southwark in South London and Reading. It was the beginning of modern local government in Oxfordshire. On his arrival he immediately reported on his visits to the surrounding villages. About Nettlebed he wrote: - “The village presents about as bad a collection of sanitary conditions as it is possible to conceive existing in a situation in many respects naturally very healthy....

Old Camp Road, Nettlebed, Oxfordshire  A Tribute To Our Local Men Who Served In The Oxfordshire And Buckinghamshire Light Infantry RegimentThe regimental badge of the Ox & Bucks Light Infantry Walking through the beautiful woods on Nettlebed Commons today it is difficult to visualise how this countryside looked some seventy years ago. In 1943-44 the whole of southern England was involved in the military preparations for the Second Front and the invasion of continental Europe which took place in June 1944. For months the residents of Nettlebed had seen camps being rapidly constructed to accommodate the troops of many allied nations preparing for the assault on the beaches of Normandy. Some quarter of a million men and women arrived with tanks, trucks and ambulances which were kept hidden under the dense canopy of the beech woods. Camp sites were built between Nettlebed and Peppard which included dormitory blocks, officers’ messes, kitchens, mess halls, engineering workshops, a medical centre and cinemas to entertain the troops....

On the 70th Anniversary of the ending of World War Two we remember those who served and those who gave their lives in the defence of our nation. The men from Nettlebed who died are recorded on the village war memorial at St Bartholomew’s Church lych-gate and their names are read at Nettlebed’s Royal British Legion Annual Remembrance Service every November. Where the service records of particular individuals are known it is important that these are recorded on the Nettlebed website’s history page. We would be pleased to add the wartime careers of others if the details could be sent to the editor@nettlebed.org **************************** Captain John (Jack) Egerton Broome DSC RN 23.02.1901 – 19.04.1985 A destroyer captain who defended convoys with vital supplies for Britain and Russia during the long Battle of the Atlantic and later commanded an aircraft carrier in the Pacific. Jack Broome served in the Royal Navy in both World Wars. He entered the Royal Naval College at Osborne. Isle of Wight,...

Nettlebed minted its own coinage in the 17th century. The turmoil of the English Civil War 1642-1651 caused a shortage of small coinage such as farthings and halfpennies (pr. ha’pennies) which had stopped being minted by the Government.  This was a problem for local tradesmen, particularly alehouse keepers. To counter the shortage “token money” was produced in many towns and villages such as Henley and Nettlebed and for twenty-four years 1648-1672 the currency of these privately issued tokens, defined as “money of necessity”, was not challenged by the authorities. Tokens were issued in Henley and other larger villages by many traders between 1669 and 1672 who were required to pay a local tax based on the number of smelting “hearths” they operated. The taxation records show that two tokens were issued in Nettlebed, with its busy coaching inns and thirsty brick and pottery workers. David Gasquon at The Bull paid tax on ten hearths in 1665 and Timothy Holding at The White...