Waiting to buy wood at Home Farm, Broadlands, during the coal strike, 1921
A close relationship with tenantry and the locality is well documented in the archive. The correspondence of the third Viscount Palmerston, for example, covers agricultural improvement, new accommodation for estate labourers, and local amenities. Wilfrid Ashley (later Lord Mount Temple), who held the estate in 1921, was a Conservative MP, with right-wing views. Closely associated with the Anti-Socialist Union of Great Britain (which aimed to expose ‘the fallacies of Socialism, defending the Constitution and promoting and supporting measures of true social reform’), the sale of wood at reduced prices in 1921 strengthened local bonds in line with political principles.
