Catalogue description GLOUCESTERSHIRE COMMUNITY COUNCIL

MINUTES AND COMMITTEE PAPERS

Community Council

Executive Committee

Finance and General Purposes Committee

Education Committee

Health Committee

Physically Handicapped Committee

Old People's Welfare Committee

Drama Committee

Music Committee

Assistance for the Arts Committee

Recreative Physical Training Committee

War Emergency Committee

Citizens Advice Bureaux Committee

Village Halls Committee

Community Centres and Associations Committee

Local History Committee

South Gloucestershire Area Committee

Rural Industries Committee

Competition Committee

ANNUAL REPORTS AND PRINTED HISTORIES

UNEMPLOYMENT IN THE 1930s

Forest of Dean

Rest of Gloucestershire

Associated Councils

CORRESPONDENCE AND PAPERS

Executive Committee

Staffing

Old People's Welfare

The Arts

Wartime Organization

Citizens Advice Bureaux

Village Halls

Community Centres

Local History

South Gloucestershire Committee

Volunteer Bureaux

Broadcasting and media

Other contacts and initiatives

Miscellaneous pamphlets received

SPECIAL PROJECTS

Post-War Survey of Village Amenities

Awards and Competitions

Review of charities

ASSOCIATED ORGANIZATIONS

Council for the Preservation of Rural England (Gloucestershire Branch)

Council for the Gloucestershire Countryside

Gloucestershire Parish Councils Association

Gloucestershire Small Industries Committee (CoSIRA)

Churches Welfare Group

Gloucestershire Playing Fields Association

National Council of Voluntary Organisations

Age Concern, Gloucestershire

South Forest Rural Development Area

Rural Community Councils

Gloucester Diocese

Rural Development Commission

Action with Communities in Rural England

Gloucester Rural Housing Association

County of Gloucester Community Foundation

Gloucester Public Rights of Way Liaison Group

Community Technical Aid West

Gloucestershire Community Council

All the records listed below are closed to public access for 50 years from the date of the last entry, except for the staff files (D3168/4/2/1-5), which are closed for 100 years.

Documents given and deposited by Gloucestershire Community Council, 28 October (Acc 3168) 1975, 3 May 1977 20 August 1980, and 16 December 1983, 13 August 1990, 6 February 1995, 28 March 1995, 10 August 1998, 5 February 1999, 4 January 2000, 25 January 2000.

Certain records were selected from a large quantity of non current files by Record Office Staff during the mid 1980's

3516, 4069, 4749

6222, 7159

7190, 8002, 8160, 8441, 8471

The Gloucestershire Rural Community Council was founded in 1923 at the instigation of Miss Grace Hadow and Mrs (later Lady) Stafford Cripps, and moved into its present premises in College Green in 1925. These were first leased and finally purchased in 1966. From its early days the Council engaged in a wide range of work, appointing in its first few years Committees on Education, Health, Juvenile Welfare, Rural Industries, Music, Drama, Rural Preservation, Village Halls and Community Centres, and the basic range of its interests remained little changed in the 1970s. A South Gloucestershire Committee was appointed to consider the special problems of overspill urbanization in the Bristol area in 1955, and continued until the Avon Community Council was established in 1974. A Local History Committee was first established in 1936, and after a break during the Second World War, was refounded in 1947. Responsibility for rural industries was handed over to the Council for Small Industries in Rural Areas (CoSIRA) in 1969.

The original aim of the Rural Community Council was to promote the effective co-operation of voluntary and statutory efforts in the Education and Social Service fields. Co-operation with the County Council has always been especially close, and there have been links between the two bodies both among their members and their staff. Sir Francis Adams Hyett was the first President of the Council (1923-25), and he was succeeded by Mr Roland Austin, (1925-26), Mr W T Nicholls (1927), Sir Russell J Kerr (1928-40), Major-General Sir Fabian Ware (1940-48), Rear-Admiral Sir Richard Bevan (1948-56), and Lt-Col J Godman (1956-78). An Executive Committee was first appointed in 1932 under the chairmanship of Mr Bruce Swanwick (1932-47), and he was succeeded by Major Peter Birchall (1947-58), Major Kenneth Shennan (1958-62), Admiral Sir William Davies (1962-73), and Colonel Sir Geoffrey Shakerley, (1973-82).

The first permanent staff were appointed in 1925, when Mr Maddox Yorke became General Secretary. He was succeeded in 1929 by Mr Graham Castle, who died in office in 1945. Major Kenneth Shennan was his successor, and in 1946 was joined by Major Brown as the first paid Assistant Secretary. In 1949, Mr John Tilstone was appointed as General Secretary, and shortly afterwards Mrs Gillespie became his deputy. She became the Old People's Welfare organiser in 1957, and Mr Gwynne was seconded from the County Council as Assistant Secretary. In 1964 he too was replaced by Miss Powley, and she in turn was succeeded by Miss Fenella Walker in 1966. When Mr Tilstone died in 1967, Miss Walker was appointed to the General Secretary-ship, which she retained until 1974. Mr H G Beard, who became Assistant Secretary in 1967, was made the first Director of the Council in 1974.

In addition to its routine work, the Community Council has from time to time carried out special surveys and reviews. The most important of these were the post-war survey of village amenities, carried out by Mr E W Hibbert in 1947-48; and the review of Charities conducted in 1966-77 by Mr L W Duirs. The records of the former survey are included in this collection (D3168/5/1-12); those of the latter have been deposited separately (D3469).

This collection also includes records of several bodies closely associated with the Community Council. Several of these, such as the Gloucestershire Playing Fields Association (founded 1926), the Council for the Preservation of Rural England (C.P.R.E, formed in the 1930's), or the Gloucestershire Parish Councils Association (formed in 1938), have occupied offices in Community House for many years.

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