Their Story: The narratives followed by the Vale and Downland Museum

One of the things I really like about the museum is that although it is local history it is covering national themes.  There is nothing besides thatching and wheel making and tannery to cover the period between Alfred and the Victorians, which is an obvious hole, but in terms of historical narrative that is fairly much how Wantage sees itself.  Its famous sons were King Alfred and Lord Wantage who founded the Red Cross, helped to launch tramway and canal in the town and generally had a view to improve the place.  He sited his Victoria Cross Gallery on the site of notorious pub the Red Lion. The other local reformer was Reverend Butler who founded the convent and was influential in establishing religious communities elsewhere and who also founded the town’s King Alfred Academy.  Also celebrated is the Williams F1 team with its headquarters down the road in Grove.   Lord Wantage clearly saw himself as  a second Alfred a “King” over his locality and this is why it is his face which is carved in stone depicted as King Alfred in the market place.  He sought to be a reformer for the town bringing to it improvements in transportation and employment and creating on his own estate a model village which was meant to model farming and social improvement for the employees,  both he and  Reverend Butler found it to be an ignorant poverty stricken and benighted place in need of education, transportation and general upgrading.  

This focus does give a somewhat paternalistic viewpoint for the museum although viewpoints of others in history are covered through recorded first person accounts but much is centred on the Ardington Estate.  Its interesting that the workers’ viewpoint is mainly from the skilled class with the influx of Irish workers being blamed for most of the social evils in the town. This is somewhat surprising and not much given in way of evidence, since the period of the 19^th Century was turbulent for many reasons and I would have expected some more consideration of displacements and poverty caused by enclosure where common land or strip land which was farmed by individuals was redrawn to maximise income and left many with no income at all.  Fortunately for the reforming Lord Wantage, this occurred prior to his taking over the estate so he could not be blamed for it.  Threshing machines were produced down the road in Challow, so some Luddism in protest might have been expected and the poverty and disease of the time and general availability of alcohol would all seem to have added to the mix. Sixteen people died of Cholera in the town in a short period of time. I doubt that Irish workers could directly be blamed for that. 

So I would like to investigate the gaps in the narrative, the untold stories that come to mind are:

Elizabethan Wantage.   Architecture and tanning as a primary industry are covered, but there isn’t much that is human story – how people lived, what they believed, how they celebrated etc.

Women’s contribution to the town.  Behind every man there is a great woman . . . maybe or maybe not in Wantage!

The history of the Red Cross in Wantage beyond its benefactor – what difference did this pioneer group make to the town and what contribution is it making today?

The development of non conformist churches in the town – I’m keen to know how marginalised or central to the town they were.  Were they a response to Tractarianism?

The development of the Catholic Church and it relationship to the Church of England – its interesting to me that there is a Catholic Church here when the Oxford Movement was such an influence on the Town’s churchmanship – it remains true to this day that Wantage is very high church.

Irish migrant workers and their family life in and around the town during the development of Railway and Canal

Why people  left and went to Canada in 1831 – much promoted by Reverend Butler – were the Cholera deaths influential in this decision?