Past Talks

The Roaring 20s

Date: 15^th April 2019
Speaker: Martin Greenwood

On Monday 15th April fellow BLHS
member, Martin Greenwood, talked
us through the Roaring 20s.
He started out by explaining that
it was a period of great change. In
the aftermath of World War One a
large section of the population was
gone, leaving the older generation
to continue running things while the
youth developed into a much more
influential part of society.
This disparity between the
political class and the majority of
the population led to a number of
large scale changes, such as the
culmination of the women’s suffrage
movement. This had been building
up for years, but the liberation of
women during the war acted as a
catalyst to the movement which led
to women over 30 gaining the right
to vote in 1918. But the movement
continued throughout the next
decade until women in their 20s
were also given the vote in 1928. This
Ramsay MacDonald, first Labour PM - 1924 & 29
made 1929 the first election where
women were fully able to vote, and
consequently it became known as
the “Flapper Election”.
The decade also saw other political
changes. The General Strike of 1926
failed in its attempt to force the
government to act to prevent wage
reduction and worsening conditions
for 1.2 million locked-out coal
miners, but it did lead to the Labour
Party winning more seats in the
1929 election than any other party.
Without a Commons majority the
party was reliant on Liberal support
to form a minority government.
Ramsay MacDonald became Prime
Minister for the second time, and
went on to appoint Britain’s first
female cabinet minister, Margaret
Bondfield, as Minister of Labour.
Many of the social and technical
developments of the decade were
reflected locally.
The workhouse was still operating
until 1929, the same year as when the
Committee & Contacts
Police Station got its first telephone.
Street lamps were changed from
oil to electricity during the decade.
In 1923 Bicester was declared a
“distressed area for employment”.
The new Methodist Church in
Sheep Street was opened in 1927.
The Crown Cinema, opened in
Sheep Street in the 1920s, originally
showing silent films with musical
accompaniment on piano.
The Corn Exchange was a
common place for meetings and
events, including the annual Hunt
Ball. Dances and socials were the
most popular pastime among the
young population. In many places
dancehalls were opened specially,
but the craze began to die out by the
end of the decade.
Radio consumption increased
over the same period, from 0% of
houses in 1920 to over 40% of houses
by 1930. This may reflect the decline
in public dances.- Matthew Hathaway

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