The society’s third Zoom talk – and its first of the new year programme – was well-attended and was another enjoyable evening. 35 members were present, with a good number of additional guests.
The talk this time was on “Ellen Hinde and the Prebendal“, and was given by Simon Batten of Bloxham School, and prolific writer of books and articles. These include his latest book which covers the British Army’s preparations for the First World War. This won the Arthur Goodzeit Award for 2018 from the New York Military Affairs Symposium. Simon studied Modern History at Jesus College, Oxford and has taught History at Bloxham since 1985. He also coaches rugby and fives and is the school historian and archivist.
A full transcript of the talk is available as a PDF to download here.
For those of us who expected perhaps a focus on the development of the Prebendal from its early days to its current incarnation as a care home, the talk took a surprising and fascinating detour. Yes, we had the outline history, but the focus on the particular story of the redoubtable Ellen Hinde’s brush with the law became the focus of the evening.
The subtitle to the talk “A storm in a teacup” gave the hint. With it, Simon’s talk pulled together – inter alia – themes of food shortages in World War One and emergency legislation by the Government under pressure. It showed social norms being challenged when otherwise upstanding figures find themselves on the wrong side of peer approval. We learned of a court case which moved from Chadlington Magistrates to the Court of Appeal – a case which hinged more or less on the definition of “food”.
We are grateful to Simon Batten for a lively presentation of a singularly interesting time in the long history of the Prebendal.
The Prebendal Featured by WLHS
The following links cover some references to the Prebendal on our website:
