The Crichel Down Affair
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-2230.1955.tb00322.x |
| Author | J. A. G. Griffith |
| Date | 01 November 1955 |
| Published date | 01 November 1955 |
THE CRICHEL
DOWN
AFFAIR
THIS horse has not lacked 0ogging. The excuses for a further
article are that most of the accounts have been primarily com-
mentaries on a text assumed to be known and that the animal has
acquired the wings and myths of a Pegasus.
I
have tried in the
first Part to summarise the facts and to separate them from
comment. This was not easy, especially as
I
felt obliged, after
considering other alternatives, to restrict myself to the material
published in the reports of the Inquiry and the Committee, and
to
Hansard.2 The second Part contains same of the reactions,
principally expressed in Parliament, to these facts, and the third
Part a few personal reflections.
I
There were principally four administrative groups concerned in
the affair. The first group consisted of the Ministry of Agriculture
and Fisheries including the Minister (Sir Thomas Dugdale), the
Parliamentary Secretaries (Mr. Nugent and Lord Carrington), an
Under-Secretary (Mr. Wilcox) and an Assistant Secretary (Mr.
Payne). The second group consisted of the Agricultural Land
Commission including the Chairman (Sir Frederick Burrows), two
members (Mr. Bourke and Mr. Watson-Jones), the Chief Technical
Officer and Land Agent (Mr. Edwards), the Secretary
(Mr.
Smith)
and officers of the Lands Service being the Provincial Chief Officer
(Mr. Hole), the Provincial Land Commissioners (Col. Norton-Fagge,
succeeded by Mr. Lofthouse, succeeded by
Mr.
Middleton) and a
subordinate officer (Mr. Brown). The third group consisted of the
Crown Lands Commission, including the Permanent Commissioner
(Mr. Eastwood), and a firm of estate agents acting as Crown
Receivers (Sanctuary and Son, of which Mr. Thomson was a
partner). Finally the Dorset Agricultural Executive Committee
had as its County Agricultural Officer, Mr. Ferris.
About
1937,
the
725
acres
of
Crichel Down were compulsorily
acquired for
212,106
by the Air Ministry as a bombing range. In
1949,
the Air Ministry having ceased to use the land, it was decided
to transfer
it
to the Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries which
assumed control in fact (though the requisite order under the
Agriculture Act,
1947,
was never made) in January,
1950.
1
Public Inquiry ordered by the Minister
of
Agriculture
to
be held by Sir Andrew
Clark into the disposal
of
land at Crichel Down (Cmd.
9176).
Report
of
a Com-
mittee appointed by the Prime Minister
to
consider whether certain civil
servants should be transferred to other duties (Cmd.
9220).
9
The debate
was
held
on
July
20,
1954
(530
H.C.Deb.
5s.
~01s.
1182-1303).
VOL.
18
56
557
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