LETCLIFFE TANK 03
It's 1920, the tank sits on its plinth at Letcliffe looking out over the new war memorial being built just below it and a town that was in fairly good heart. The troops had come home, Spanish Flu had burnt itself out and the mills had been busy for 18 months supplying the world wide re-stocking boom after the war. The national feeling was of gratitude towards the soldiers who had died and also to a lesser extent, the returning soldiers. I say to a certain extent because the evidence I got from returned soldiers in the LTP was that they didn't get quite as warm a welcome as they expected on their return. Despite all the talk about creating a 'Land Fit for Heroes' the Tommy Atkins syndrome kicked in and they received no special privileges, indeed, as they went back to their old jobs and displaced their replacements there was some bad feeling. In Europe the great effort to set up the wonderfully well kept war cemeteries we know today was just starting to tidy up the jumble of graves where bodies had been buried in haste. Edwin Lutyens, the famous architect was commissioned to oversee the design of the Cenotaph in London and a standard for the new cemeteries.
On the political front, the government was acutely aware of what they saw as a tide of revolution sweeping across Europe in the aftermath of the war and adopted a softer line towards the general public mood. They passed the Addison Housing Act which was a very efficient incentive to local authorities to borrow money and build social housing. However, things were changing in society. The first concrete moves were made to give women the vote, mainly as recognition of the role played by women working in the war industries. Many women reported that their lives had been changed completely by their war-time experience. The young men who had gone out to war and suffered the terrible conditions on the Western Front came back changed. They had seen the world, formed their own opinions and were no longer the acquiescent pre-war wage slaves. They saw improvement in their conditions as a right, not a privilege. This didn't only apply to the 'lower classes'. Many young men from the higher echelons of society came back with a new understanding of those below them. People like Harold Macmillan and Oswald Mosely returned with strong and often opposing opinions about the future shape of society.
Behind all this loomed the massive war debt, in effect, Britain was bankrupt. The first signs that all was not well in Barlick came in July 1920 when the cotton trade cracked and, with hindsight, descended into what was to become terminal decline. On the national stage, the government realised that the threat of revolution had passed and moved into austerity mode. The Addison Act was repealed, there was much talk of 'sound money' and debt repayment. The pressure of changing global conditions, austerity and falling trade bore in on us and resulted in what we now see as the great inter-war depression which was not to be lifted until WW2 forced the government to borrow money and re-invigorate the economy in order to fight the Germans yet again.
All this had an effect on Barlickers. As economic conditions got worse, social benefits were cut and unemployment brought many families into dire poverty. This was definitely not the 'Land Fit for Heroes' and people started to question why we had gone to war, how had it benefited us? The efforts made by the manufacturers to find more economic ways of competing in the world market were seen by the workers as leading to harder work, less pay and no security so industrial unrest grew. By the start of the 1930s the Letcliffe Tank (and others like it all over the country) had suffered years of neglect and indifference and were rusting hulks. They were generally seen as a reminder of the mistakes of 1914-1918 and when it was proposed that it should be scrapped this was agreed. In October 1932 the Craven Herald published a picture of it being cut up. This was happening all over the country and there were reports of workmen being injured by explosions when cutting fuel tanks. The destruction was so complete that today only one of the original tanks given to towns survives at Ashford in Kent, mainly due to having an electricity sub station installed in it in 1929. It is now a registered war memorial.
So, we lost our tank and in a way it saddens me. I know that we live in a different age but it would have been good to have looked after it, kept it painted and at very little cost retained a reminder of what happened in what was then called 'The Great War'. Looking back with the benefit of hindsight the war was the catalyst that dragged Britain out of the 19th century. Everything had to be re-examined and improved and at times this looked like a direct confrontation between Labour and Capital. Remember the panic caused by the General Strike in 1926 and the use of troops to maintain order during the Depression. The bottom line is that it was the birth pangs of our modern society in which there was more equality and better security for those at the bottom of the pile. The tragedy at the moment is that we see the mistakes of the inter-war years being repeated by the present Coalition government.
If the tank had survived it could have served as a reminder of the mistakes that were made and the consequences. The Great War was a conflict we stumbled into because of inept politicians. Post war mistakes like the repressive conditions of the Treaty of Versailles led to unrest on the continent and eventually to the rise of fascism and the Second World War. There are worrying parallels between the inter-war years and our current position. In the late 1930s it took deficit financed spending on armaments to pull us out of depression. I hope our leaders are reading their history and taking note of the lessons it can give us. I'm not forecasting another global conflict but it would be nice to see some signs that someone in power had a clear view of what is needed now. At the moment I'm afraid I am pessimistic.
So there you are, more to the Letcliffe Tank than meets the eye. I wonder if I'll be coming back to it in another ten years?
The tank being cut up for scrap in October 1932.
