Cutteslowe Walls
Councillor R W M Gibbs had now emerged as the leading figure in the Corporation concerned with the dispute. He was 58 years old and an author and private tutor.He had been elected to the City Council for the South Ward in 1934 as a representative of the Ratepayers' Association. He had become prominent in local politics shortly before this as a critic of the slum clearance programme and as one of the organizers of an 'intelligence service' designed to discover which properties the Corporation proposed to designate as slums. His views were moving to the left. His connection with the Ratepayers Association was terminated and in 1935 he was re-elected to the Council as an Independent. In 1938 he was re-elected as a representative of the Labour Party and he subsequently became the chairman of the Labour Group. Among the people of Cutteslowe he became known as 'Bulldog' Gibbs in recognition of his efforts on their behalf.
Gibbs decided that the best course of action now was for the Corporation to promote a special Parliamentary Bill giving it power to remove the walls. A large meeting held at Cutteslowe in December 1936 gave its support unanimously to Gibbs and a petition also supporting him was signed by more than 800 people. But when his suggestion was debated by the City Council some members argued that it would be unlikely to succeed and others thought that it would prove very expensive. Gibbs himself estimated that it would cost between five and six thousand pounds. At the end of the debate his motion was defeated but the Council did not abandon the idea of a Parliamentary Bill. It asked its Parliamentary Committee to examine the proposal and to advise what should be done.
The Parliamentary Committee sought advice from Mr Tyldesley Jones, K.C. and while waiting for his opinion held discussions with the Company to see if a compromise could be arranged with regard to a footpath from the estate.
Tyldesley Jones' opinion was received at the end of April 1937. He felt it was impossible to predict the fate of such a Bill but he thought the chances were against it succeeding particularly in view of the Minister's decision to reject the compulsory purchase order. Tyldesley Jones then became ill and the Parliamentary Committee decided to seek advice elsewhere. It instructed the Corporation's solicitors to seek advice elsewhere and expressed a preference for Sir Stafford Cripps.
Sir Stafford Cripps wrote in his opinion in July 1937 that the walls were a breach of the covenants in the conveyance. The Company, he thought, could not be compelled to dedicate its roads as public highways and he was doubtful whether the courts would accept that the Cutteslowe people had a right of way over the Company's roads. He also concluded that the walls were a breach of the City's By-law 10 and thought that , even if this by-law were held to be invalid , it would be effective in this case. He recommended that an action should be brought in the Chancery Division of the High Court after a proper demand had been made for the walls to be pulled down. He indicated that the Corporation should ask for a mandatory injunction directing the Company to demolidsh the walls and for appropriate declerations to decide all the points of dispute.
The Parliamentary Committee had a conference with Sir Stafford Cripps and decided to place before the City Council recommendations following his advice. This recommendation also invoked Section 26 of the Public Health Act of 1875.
The City Council adopted the Parliamentary Committee's report unanimously and the Tow Clerk wrote to the Company on the same day telling that the Corporation had been advised that the walls constitued a breach of the city's by-laws, of the Public Health Act, 1875 and of various covenants in the conveyance. The Company must remove the walls within 21 days or the Corporation would commence legal proceedings.
No attempt was made by the Company to comply with these instructions and at the end of 21 days in October 1937 the walls were still there. However, no attempt was made at this time by the Corporation to start legal proceedings.
In November 1937 a conference was held with Mr Wilfred hunt and Sir Stafford Cripps at which attention was drawn to the Private Street Works Act of 1872. A resolution adopting this Act was passed by the Council on 7th February 1938 and it became effective on March 31st.
The Council decided to take the matter out of the hands of the Parliamentary Committee and put it in the hands of the Highways, Sewers and Lighting Committee. On May 6th 1938 the Highways, Sewers and Lighting Committee recommended that all roads on the Urban Housing Estate be declared repairable by the public at large. This was adopted by the Council shortly afterwards and the problem was then returned once more to the Parliamentary Committee.
The Corporation got a legal opinion from Sir Stafford Cripps and Mr Hunt which advised them to pull down the walls and so to force the Company to take legal action if it wanted to try and restore the walls. They suggested that the declaration that the streets were repairable by the public at large should be made immediately after the demolition so that at the time of the decleration the walls would be down. The implication was that if the decleration was made while the walls were stills tanding it might be held not to apply to the part of the roads on which the walls stood.
Towards the end of May, notices were put up in the streets on the Urban Housing Estate declaring them to be repairable by the public at large and on 3rd June a consultation was held with Sir Stafford Cripps and Mr Hunt to decide what else should be done. It was decided that the Parliamentary Committee should meet, with the Mayor present, at 5pm on June 7th 1938 to take action on the advice it had received from its counsel. What it was to do was to be kept secret, although after the event the Council was to be asked to ratify whatever action the committtee had taken.
On 7th June the committee met as arranged and instructred the City Engineer to 'remove forthwith' the walls. It also instructed the Chief Constable to provide police assistance to enable the City Engineer to carry this out and to frustrate any attempt on the part of the Company to rebuild the walls but the Chief Constable protested against this instruction and the committee withdrew it.
The City Engineer went straight to Summertown accompanied by two municipal steam-rollers and workmen who had been kept standing by for duty. One of the steam-rollers attacked the wall in Wentworth Road and breached it at the first attempt. The workmen finished it off with sledge-hammers, loading the debris into waiting lorries.
The groupp then moved round to Carlton Road to repeat the operation but the second wall proved to be toughher and withstood the attempts of the steam-roller to flatten it.Holes were knocked into the wall and chains passed through the holes to the roller. The wall was then dragged down.
News of the operation spread rapidly and a large crowd gathered to watch. Councillor Gibbs came and was welcomed with a resounding ovation from the Cutteslowe tenants present. He joined the workmen in their task and declared:
At 10 am the following morning a resolution was passed declaring Wolseyy and Aldrich Roads to their respective junctions with Carlton and Wentworth Roads to be highways repairable by the public at large.
On the same day Corporation workmen were filling in the road where the walls had stood and repairing garden fences whan a lorry arrived with a fresh load of bricks and building materials. These were unloaded near the site of the walls and indicated the Company's intention to rebuild. A Corporation official informed the Town Hall and soon afterwards two municipal lorries arrived carrying sledge-hammers and shovels.
The Company's men began to reconstruct the walls but they had not laid many bricks before a signal was given to the Corporation's men who thereupon knocked it down again. Both parties then proceeded to the site of the second wall and repeated the performance.
The Company now applied to the courts for an injunction and its application came before Mr Justice Crossman on 17th June 1938. Each side agreed that until an action to settle the matter could be brought in the High Court moveable barriers should be put across the roads where the walls had stood. Accordingly, the Corporation put up large gates which were kept locked with the keys being held by the City Engineer. on 20th June the Council adopted a resolution accepting full responsibility for the Parliamentary Committee's action.